I expected him to be sacked during the last close season. His team had/has become a 'nearly team'. After the hullabaloo this season about the long unbeaten record, the Terriers have looked more like French poodles. Modern, young and ambitious club owners will just not tolerate second best especially after they have invested a lot of their money.
'Huddersfield regard Leeds as one of their main rivals and he may have been 'sacked' in order to save face for both parties.' This is almost word for word what I just said to a mate.
I am not sure Clarke is that good a manager, however this is still a mad decision since they apparently connect it with the desire to win promotion this season. A new manager is expected to come in, and win promotion, with no possibility to bring in his own players? That really worked well for our Chrissie last season, didn't it?
I was already happy last night, as I felt that beating MK Fraud had taken them out of the equation. They can hardly expect to catch us now. So that left four including us to scrap it out. With this news I'm inclined to make it three. And one of those three is Massive.
That is the thing about football. We always concentrate on our own team and club, and worry about its deficiencies. We ignore the fact that all the others have deficiencies too. In this case they appear to be in the boardroom.
Spoke to a Huddesfield fan last April. He fort that Clark had to go up that season. Surprised he got this long. Huddesfield need to go up and they don't look like atmo.
"Modern, young and ambitious club owners will just not tolerate second best especially after they have invested a lot of their money."
I see. And what happens if you have about eight owners in one league who meet that description? They can't all win. Seven of them come second best. Or fifth best. Ask Abramovic. Money alone does not guarantee success. When will everyone take that on board?
"Modern, young and ambitious club owners will just not tolerate second best especially after they have invested a lot of their money."
I see. And what happens if you have about eight owners in one league who meet that description? They can't all win. Seven of them come second best. Or fifth best. Ask Abramovic. Money alone does not guarantee success. When will everyone take that on board?
Im not proposing that the 'modern day attitudes of young etc. club owners' are either right or wrong, merely stating what I perceive to be the case .
It still seems strange to me, it's still possible they could get automatic, they could get up via the playoffs. It's not as if Huddersfield are the Man City of the division, vastly richer than everyone else, and expected to win with ease. Most neutral watchers would say that us and the 2 Sheffield clubs were bigger than them, even if Clark has had a reasonably generous transfer budget.
The likes of Rhodes and Pilkington were Clark signings, the latter made a good profit and the former will as well when he goes.
I'm actually not that surprised by this. He's been on the edge for a while now as every year Town invest quite strongly in players, particularly on wages from what I've heard and they still fall just short, which can be more frustrating than just falling away. Having the likes of (at various times) Pilkington, Rhodes, Joey Gudjohnsen, Smithies, Novak amongst others has meant that they should be strong contenders every season but they always just fail. Pilkington now plies his trade mid-table in the Prem, Rhodes scores for fun, and after a while the question gets asked of why the team isn't performing if they have the resources. In the end it's always the manager who gets the blame. I think Clarke's biggest problem was being unable to form a strong defensive unit. Think how many times they've come back late on, or come away with a draw in a match they should have won. Even in their huge unbeaten streak there are too many draws, and then team seem to trip up in the Play offs. I'll be interested to hear more about these concerns behind the scenes the board hhad but I was expecting him to be gone at the end of the season anyway, maybe even if they did win the Play offs
Agree with this.. The board were expecting to be where we are at this stage in the season considering the amount they have spent on transfers and wages
Have to say the thought of McCarthy going to Leeds worries me as he'll get them up. The longer that filth stay out of the Prem the better.
Really surprised the Huddersfield board have sacked Clarke though. Didn't see that coming at all. See he's now odds on fav for the Leeds job now. Wonder if Ken Bates has been sniffing around his agent?
Its not my club have no idea if its right or wrong so this is all about opinion
He has had last season and this to get then in a postion to go up automaticaly , Last night he failed to do that the result puts them way out of reaching us and too big a gap between Sheff U
Play offs lottery for the 2nd time even with a 25 goal a season hitman is not acceptable, he has been supported to the hilt and only survived so far IMO because they were unbeaten for a million games
I would be fuming if we went on a run like that but were so far behind the top 2 that with only 16 or so games to it would take a biblical explosion for CAFC and Sheff U to fall down
So imo
Its a good time to get fresh inpetus and a new face to give you the chance of succeding in the playoff lottery
think this is a similar situation to when you know your about to get dumped so you end it first...
That doesn't make much sense to me. If he'd moved to somewhere like Leicester, for example, I think Huddersfield could attract a better manager than now - they'd have been able to show they're a board that supports the manager both timewise and budgetwise, and that it's therefore gives opportunity to good young managers. Now they have that argument far less.
However, I'm one who doesn't think it was that daft a move - Clark has had a good enough budget for some time and hasn't achieved the desired promotion. If the board could see that repeating itself, they've acted bravely and decisively. Ok, the new man won't have a transfer window but we've seen before that a new man can bring something fresh to a club - a different team spirit, different way of playing etc. Could work, could not.
If they do go for Grayson I think that's a very good appointment. I rate Grayson as a manager, not sure I'd say the same for Lee Clark.
Seems harsh to me, they are still very much in the promotion hunt. Must have a decent chance of getting the Leeds job if Warnock doesn't get it. Curbs looks like getting the Wolves job.
It bonkers. Look at the blokes record. He loses a six pointer and he is shown the door! Scandalous. There was a few of us last season asking questions about SCP.....he turned it round. I simply cannot believe the decision today-when I heard he was gone I thought he had resigned to go to Leeds or Wolves, but no sacked. Football is madness.
shocked and surprised, i really like Lee Clarke (Ex NUFC fan) and was hoping they would be second, hope they do not make playoffs. I think he will be well respcted and liked by his players and they will not take kindly to this.
The more I think about this, the less surprising it is. Since we broke their 437 match unbeaten run (or whatever it was) , 'Udders have looked vulnerable. Four wins in their last ten matches is mid-table mediocrity, not promotion form - and with such a (relatively) expensive squad, you can understand why the Huddersfield board has decided someone else could do a better job. Especially as they apparently told him last summer that this season was automatic promotion or bust.
Comments
I was already happy last night, as I felt that beating MK Fraud had taken them out of the equation. They can hardly expect to catch us now. So that left four including us to scrap it out. With this news I'm inclined to make it three. And one of those three is Massive.
That is the thing about football. We always concentrate on our own team and club, and worry about its deficiencies. We ignore the fact that all the others have deficiencies too. In this case they appear to be in the boardroom.
I see. And what happens if you have about eight owners in one league who meet that description? They can't all win. Seven of them come second best. Or fifth best. Ask Abramovic. Money alone does not guarantee success. When will everyone take that on board?
The likes of Rhodes and Pilkington were Clark signings, the latter made a good profit and the former will as well when he goes.
Really surprised the Huddersfield board have sacked Clarke though. Didn't see that coming at all. See he's now odds on fav for the Leeds job now. Wonder if Ken Bates has been sniffing around his agent?
He has had last season and this to get then in a postion to go up automaticaly , Last night he failed to do that the result puts them way out of reaching us and too big a gap between Sheff U
Play offs lottery for the 2nd time even with a 25 goal a season hitman is not acceptable, he has been supported to the hilt and only survived so far IMO because they were unbeaten for a million games
I would be fuming if we went on a run like that but were so far behind the top 2 that with only 16 or so games to it would take a biblical explosion for CAFC and Sheff U to fall down
So imo
Its a good time to get fresh inpetus and a new face to give you the chance of succeding in the playoff lottery
However, I'm one who doesn't think it was that daft a move - Clark has had a good enough budget for some time and hasn't achieved the desired promotion. If the board could see that repeating itself, they've acted bravely and decisively. Ok, the new man won't have a transfer window but we've seen before that a new man can bring something fresh to a club - a different team spirit, different way of playing etc. Could work, could not.
If they do go for Grayson I think that's a very good appointment. I rate Grayson as a manager, not sure I'd say the same for Lee Clark.
It's not like they just been thrashed at home by Wycombe.
Or lost to Stevenage.
Good news for us though.
Yeah I've called him one myself ;0)
Really want:
1.Charlton
2.Sheff Utd
Pl-offs. Udders
Lee who ....?