Tears were rolling down my face, that was a pride I cannot describe
Bobby Clark is one of the Kop kids who has tasted glory this week. Mail Sport joins his thrilled dad, Toon legend Lee, in the stands as he kicks every ball
LEE CLARK does not realise, but he is kicking, shuffling and twisting every time his son, Bobby, has the ball. He might not know it, but sit next to him at Anfield and you soon do.
There, on Wednesday night, we watched his boy’s first full 90 minutes as a professional footballer during Liverpool’s 3-0 win against Southampton in the FA Cup.
‘Go on, son, make something happen,’ he urges, wriggling as Bobby collects the ball on the left wing, cuts inside and finds a team-mate.
You’re willing him to dribble, aren’t you?
‘Yes, because I know he can,’ says Clark, the former Newcastle and Fulham midfielder. ‘It’s like Subbuteo. I just want to reach out and flick him towards goal!’
Clark need not worry, really, and he knows that. Bobby, 19, is magnificent, laying on the first goal and finishing the game with a pass completion of 91 per cent and four chances created.
Three days earlier, he came on during the second half of the Carabao Cup final against Chelsea and won the corner from which Virgil van Dijk headed the winning goal. His dad was sitting — and wriggling — among the Liverpool fans at Wembley. He cried at full time, charging down the steps to get as close to his son as possible.
‘It was faster than I ever moved as a player!’ he says. ‘The tears were rolling down my face, that was a pride I cannot really describe. How can I say it? It’s like a feeling inside that just wants to burst out of your body. It was probably my best day in football.’ A bit of relief, too? ‘What, because it didn’t go to penalties? Absolutely! They might have been carrying me out of Wembley if I’d had to watch him take a pen! He would have been one of the five, I think.’
Back to Wednesday. It is 7.20pm — 40 minutes before kick-off — and we’re having a beer and chatting to Liverpool supporters in the stadium concourse. More on the warmth of those interactions shortly. But first. ‘Come on, drink up,’ he says. Why? ‘Let’s go and see the warm-up, they’ll be coming out now.’
Clark — whose 16-year career included 539 games and 66 goals — skips up the steps, just not as quickly as he descended those at Wembley.
No matter how old you are and how many games you’ve been to, as a football fan, walking into a stadium on a matchday and seeing the green of the pitch for the first time will always be special, that sacred, unspoken connection between you and the grass. Imagine seeing your boy out there.
‘There he is,’ says Clark, pointing to a rondo in which Bobby is next to Van Dijk. He stops dead on the top step. ‘Wow, man. Goosebumps. He was at school only a couple of years ago.’ He’s unmistakably your boy? ‘Aye, but the good thing is he didn’t get my genes for the lack of pace! Before he came on against Luton recently, he was laughing. The fourth official had said to him, “If there was a competition for the kid who looks most like their dad, you’re winning it!”.’ Clark, 51, sings every word of
You’ll Never Walk Alone before kick-off. Then, the kicking and twisting starts. ‘Get in the box, Bobby, go on!’ ‘Break son, break, go!’ ‘Want it, want it, want it!’
In the 44th minute, he wants it, gets it and slips Lewis Koumas clear. The 18-year-old finishes for his first goal in senior football. His dad, former Wales and West Brom midfielder Jason, is sitting in the row behind us. Clark climbs over his seat, apologises to the 10 Liverpool fans he has to squeeze past — they don’t care — and throws his arms around Jason. Here, they are just two dads.
AT half-time, back in the concourse, text messages ping on Clark’s phone, each commenting on Bobby’s first-half performance and assist. On Monday, in London, he woke up to 175 such messages. The well-wishers are not confined to his inbox.
‘Your boy was mustard there, mate,’ offers one fan. ‘What did you do with him?’
‘Ask his mam!’ replies Clark. ‘I was away being a manager!’
He tells a story of his time in charge of Birmingham City, when Bobby was seven years old. ‘I came in from training and his mam said, “You won’t believe what has happened?”. She had been watching Bobby play for a local junior team. A guy came up to her afterwards and said, “Is that your boy, Bobby? I’d like to invite him into Birmingham City for a trial”.
She said, “Is this a wind-up? You do know who he is?”. He didn’t have a clue. She said, “His dad is the first-team manager!”.’ Bobby trained at Birmingham’s academy alongside the likes of Jude and Jobe Bellingham, but the family returned to the North East when he was nine.
Clark took managerial jobs at Blackpool, Kilmarnock and Bury and worked away from home, while Bobby signed for Newcastle. ‘I’d get calls from people I knew who had seen him play and they’d say, “Your Bobby is on fire”. I thought maybe they were just being kind. It wasn’t until I came back from Bury (in 2017) and started watching him more that I realised, “Wow, there is a player here”. He had everything — physically he’d grown, technically he was excellent and tactically he understood things. I knew he had a real chance.’ The second half kicks off and Bobby is moved from the left of a midfield three to left wing. Striker Jayden Danns, 18, comes off the bench to score twice, his first senior goals. Clark managed his dad — midfielder Neil Danns — at Bury. ‘Where is he?’ says Clark after the first goal, scanning the area
around us. He spots Danns in the next block of seats. Again, he is off, bustling through bodies before hugging his fellow parent.
Jurgen Klopp makes four changes in the second half but Bobby stays on. I can see his dad’s eyes drawn towards the fourth official’s board every time a substitute is prepared.
‘To be fair, I did that when I played too!’ he laughs. ‘I don’t want him to come off, that’s just being a dad.’
When the ball is elsewhere, are you watching the play or him?
‘Both! My eyes are all over the place!’
With the sons of Koumas and Danns having scored, the stage is set for Bobby to get his first goal. We think he’s about to do it when the ball runs his way on the edge of the area. His connection is sweet but a defender blocks and the effort spins wide. Clark falls back into his seat. He was up, ready to celebrate.
When you’re watching him play, would you prefer him to score a hat-trick in a 4-3 defeat or the team to win?
‘The team always comes first,’ he says. ‘That’s the professional in me. Then you dissect your own performance.’
Liverpool ease into the quarterfinal — where Manchester United await — and Bobby waves to his dad as he leaves the pitch.
‘Celebratory pint?’ he asks me. Absolutely.
WE walk into The Albert pub in the shadow of the Kop and Clark is hit with requests for selfies.
‘This is me now,’ he says to a group of five Liverpool fans waiting for a picture. ‘I’m not Lee Clark any more, I’m Bobby Clark’s dad!’
They are playing all the Liverpool songs and Clark sings along, ‘Allez, Allez, Allez…’. He gets hugs, handshakes and high-fives. ‘You must be so proud?’ they say. That one pint turns into two, and three. It would be rude to say no to this Scouse generosity.
‘It’s a strange sensation,’ he says. ‘I never thought I’d be singing Liverpool songs when I was playing for Newcastle during those 4-3 defeats!
‘I just love being back in with the fans. This week I was in the away end at Blackburn with Newcastle and now this. I’m buzzing off it.’
There are more texts and Clark shows me his phone. It is the player ratings from the local newspaper. Bobby has scored an eight. ‘Love that,’ he says. ‘Well deserved.’
He retires to bed a happy dad.
Before driving back to Newcastle, we meet Bobby over lunch in a village on the outskirts of Liverpool. He gets a kiss from his dad when he walks into the restaurant.
The boy is shattered, he says. His first full game as a senior player and his body is feeling it the next day. He enjoyed it, though. He is living his dream. But it might not always be like this.
‘I’m his dad, not a former player,’ says Clark. ‘We won’t sit here now and go over last night’s game. More importantly, I’m here for the tough times. That’s when I need to be there for him.’ What is the ultimate ambition? ‘The exciting part is that there is no ceiling,’ says Clark. ‘If he keeps up with that work ethic, that accountability, he’s got a chance domestically and internationally. He’s craving that winning feeling now. He wants the next trophy. That’s so important, all the top players have that desire.’
All Bobby wants for now is his sofa and his PlayStation. He is quiet and very polite. A nice, Geordie lad, you might say. ‘Mr Laidback’ his dad calls him.
‘He’s very quiet and very loyal. A good kid,’ says Clark. ‘Do we talk a lot? We do, but I do most of the talking! It’s hard to get too many words from him.’
One thing Bobby is not afraid to express to his dad is his love for his manager, Klopp.
‘He’s inspirational,’ agrees Clark. ‘You could not ask for a better manager. The way Bobby talks about him, he’s a father figure to them. It’s a brilliant club to be at with brilliant people.’
Bobby signed for Liverpool from Newcastle in 2021 for £1.5million. The decision was taken because he believed Anfield was the best place for his development. That judgment felt sound on Sunday when he collected his winners’ medal at Wembley.
‘I’ve never felt nerves like it during the final,’ says Clark. ‘I saw him warming up and then Pep Lijnders (assistant boss) gave him the wave. I was shouting to everyone around me, “He’s coming on!”. Then the goal goes in and I’m jumping around all over the place with the Liverpool fans. Sixteen years as a player and I never won a major trophy, he’s got his after five minutes!
‘But it’s been an unbelievable few days. I was walking around the city this morning and I passed the Liverpool club store. I got a weird feeling where I thought, “Wow. My boy is part of that”. I just stood there for a moment and was filled with this immense pride.’
Another kiss from dad and off we go. That feeling of pride won’t be letting up any time soon, you feel.