Frank-ly, opening day will bring mixed emotions for Clark
HE is a man of distinction with a foot planted firmly in the hall of fame at two football clubs desperate to rise again towards previous dizzy heights.
Frank Clark will be sitting within St James Park come the opening day of a new Premier League season on August 6 to witness his two old clubs Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest lock horns in expectation.
Clark is bound for the Moncur Suite at St James’ Park as a speciallyinvited guest of his former Magpie skipper Bob Moncur while also doubling as a figurehead with Forest – living as he still does on the outskirts of Nottingham. am. m.
Where his loyalties ya alties lie will gnaw at his s very fabric because he e is proud of his record rd d with both clubs.
So he should be because Clark won the European Fairs Cup with United – the last major trophy y they captured back ck k in 1969 – and later at ter the European Cup p itself at Forest.
As grand a double as you are likely to find given both clubs have fallen spectacularly from those dizzy heights over many barren years.
Consider if you will the respective records this most reliable of fullbacks born on the south side of the Tyne at Highfield achieved in a playing career of distinction and longevity.
With Newcastle, Clark played a stunning 486 competitive games between 1962 and 1975 – lifting the Second Division championship (1965), Fairs Cup (1969), Anglo-Italian Cup (1973), Texaco Cup (1974) and Texaco Cup again (1975).
A free transfer saw Brian Clough sign g him for Forest, where Clark clocked l kd up 156 league and cup appearances appe (75-79) winning winnin Second Division n promotion (1977), 1 9 the AngloScottish S Cup (1977), the First Division championship (1978), League Cup (1978), League Cup C again (1979), and ann the European Cup p (1979). Quite, Quitt quite unbelievable ffo for a player supposedly finished when thrown out of Newcastle. Appropriately, Clarkie’s final game of a long career was at the very pinnacle – the European Cup final against Malmo.
Though he still had a year left on his Forest contract and Cloughie wanted him to stay, Clark was 36 and Sunderland’s newly-appointed manager Ken Knighton approached him to become his assistant – so it was back to the North East.
Yet the Newcastle-Nottingham thing was far from over for Clark after he hung up his boots.
He went on to manage Forest, become their chairman and finally an official ambassador. Not many complete the full set.
If he won gongs with Cloughie then he did it on his own too, being crowned the League Managers Association Manager of the Year for 1994-95 when Forest finished third top of the
First Division behind
Alan Shearer’s Blackburn Rovers and Manchester United – qualifying for the UEFA Cup where Clark reached the quarter-finals the following season.
Throw in the sideshow of having won the FA Amateur Cup with Crook Town at Wembley, become assistant manager of Sunderland and Manchester City manager and the depth of his experience is enormous.
However as Clark prepares to return ‘home’ to Newcastle with so many memories flooding his mind he remains steadfastly positive about his feeling towards both clubs.
He said: “I’m often asked which of my European medals means the most and everyone expects me to say my Forest one because it was the Champions League.
“However, I can honestly say with hand on my heart that I value my Fairs Cup one just as much. They have equal value in my mind.
“The Fairs Cup was a terrific achievement for a club which had never played in Europe and it still hasn’t been achieved by a Newcastle side so I am hardly going to undervalue it.”
Clark will return to his old stamping ground in a fortnight marvelling at the similarities between miracle workers Eddie Howe and Steve Cooper.
He added: “It’s uncanny really. Both clubs were dead in the water early last season – Newcastle failed to win in their first 14 matches while Forest took one point from their first eight games which made them both a knocking bet to go down.
“Seven defeats out of eight with no victory told its own story for Forest.
“However, like Newcastle they changed manager and just as Eddie Howe galvanised fans with a momentous run of results in 2022 so did Steve Cooper at Forest.
“He brought together supporters and players in a way which looked impossible.
“They won an incredible 27 of 45 games after Steve’s arrival to turn impending disaster into glorious fulfilment.” Promotion after a 23-year exile from football’s top table elite was achieved with a momentous victory over Huddersfield in the play-off final at Wembley with Clark sitting in the crowd.
Both clubs have raided the transfer market this summer as they attempt to build for a season of substance.
However, while United have so far brought in Nick Pope and Sven Botman along with signing Matt Targett permanently Forest have gone berserk reinforcing their Championship squad with eight signings.
They are Taiwo Awoniji (Union Berlin) at £18.45m, Neco Williams (Liverpool) £17m, Mousa Niakhate (Mainz 05) £9m, Guilian Biancone (Troyes) £9m, Omar Richards (Bayern Munich) £7.65, Lewis O’Brien (Huddersfield) £10m, Wayne Hennessey (Burnley) on a free and Dean Henderson (Manchester United) on loan.
Clark went on: “Despite all the deals Forest do not actually have the financial clout of Newcastle who will be pushing on for a top-half finish.
“For Forest a significant part of the rebuilding would be staying up which promoted sides often find difficult.”
I can honestly say with hand on my heart that I value my Fairs Cup one just as much as my European Cup medal