Frank Clark
Encyclopedia
Frank Clark is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 former footballer
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 and manager. He is the current chairman of Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest F.C.
Nottingham Forest Football Club is an English Association Football club based in West Bridgford, Nottingham, that plays in the Football League Championship...

.

Playing career

He was born in Consett
Consett
Consett is a town in the northwest of County Durham, England, about southwest of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is home to 27,394 .Consett sits high on the edge of the Pennines. In 1841, it was a village community of only 145, but it was about to become a boom town: below the ground was coking coal and...

, County Durham
County Durham
County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...

. He started at Crook Town, playing as a full-back
Defender (football)
Within the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to prevent the opposition from attacking....

. Whilst with Crook he won three England Youth International caps and played once for England Amateurs. He was also a member of Crook's 1962 FA Amateur Cup winning side. He started his professional career at Newcastle United
Newcastle United F.C.
Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End and Newcastle West End, and has played at its current home ground, St James' Park, since the merger...

, and played a total of 464 games for them between 1962 and 1975. He then joined Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest F.C.
Nottingham Forest Football Club is an English Association Football club based in West Bridgford, Nottingham, that plays in the Football League Championship...

, where he was part of Forest's 1978 Championship
Football League First Division
The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....

-winning squad, and he played for them in the 1979 European Cup Final
1979 European Cup Final
The 1979 European Cup Final was a football match held at the Olympiastadion, Munich, on 30 May 1979, that saw Nottingham Forest of England defeat Malmö FF of Sweden 1–0.-Background:...

, where they beat Malmo FF
Malmö FF
Malmö Fotbollförening, also known simply as Malmö FF, are a Swedish professional football club based in Malmö. The club is affiliated with Skånes Fotbollförbund and play their home games at Swedbank Stadion. The club colours, reflected in their crest and kit, are sky blue and white...

.

Managerial career

After his playing career he was Assistant Manager of Sunderland from 1979 to 1982 and then became manager of Leyton Orient
Leyton Orient F.C.
Leyton Orient F.C. are an English professional football club in East London. They currently play in Football League One and are known to their fans as the O's.Leyton Orient have spent one season in the top flight of English football, in 1962–63...

, later becoming Managing Director of the Brisbane Road club. In 1993 he was appointed as Nottingham Forest manager, as a replacement for the retiring Brian Clough
Brian Clough
Brian Howard Clough, OBE was an English footballer and football manager. He is most notable for his success with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. His achievement of winning back-to-back European Cups with Nottingham Forest, a traditionally moderate provincial English club, is considered to be...

.

Forest had just been relegated to Division One when Clark took over, but he took them back to the Premiership after achieving automatic promotion in second place. The club made an impressive top flight comeback by finishing third in the league and qualifying for the UEFA Cup
UEFA Cup
The UEFA Europa League is an annual association football cup competition organised by UEFA since 1971 for eligible European football clubs. It is the second most prestigious European club football contest after the UEFA Champions League...

.

He was also Premier League Manager of the Month for September 1994, as Forest's fine start to the season saw them in the heat of a title challenge and hopes were high that Clark could take them to the rare distinction of top division title glory a season after promotion - just as his predecessor had done 17 years earlier. The same accolade followed for Clark in October 1995, as Forest ended the month in fifth place and enjoying a good run in the UEFA Cup.

Forest were the only English team to play Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an football after Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

 during 1995-96, as they reached the UEFA Cup quarter finals where they were eliminated by eventual winners Bayern Munich
FC Bayern Munich
FC Bayern Munich , is a German sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional football team, which is the most successful football club in Germany, having won 22 national titles and 15 cups....

. Forest finished ninth in the league.

In December 1996, with Forest struggling in the league, Clark expressed his concern with the boardroom crisis at the club, with rival parties attempting to buy the club. His earlier success with the club had led to him being linked to the England
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...

 job.

Clark made some shrewd signings as Forest manager, including Stan Collymore
Stan Collymore
Stanley Victor "Stan" Collymore is an English football pundit and former footballer, who played from 1990 until 2001. He held the British transfer record when he moved from Nottingham Forest to Liverpool for £8.5 million in 1995 and was capped three times at senior level by the England...

 and Lars Bohinen
Lars Bohinen
Lars Roar Bohinen is a Norwegian former footballer.-Club level:His first professional club was Vålerenga, and he played for Viking, Young Boys Bern, Nottingham Forest, Blackburn Rovers, Derby County...

. Collymore was sold to Liverpool
Liverpool F.C.
Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...

 in 1995 for a then British transfer fee record of £8.5M.

Following his departure from Forest, Clark took over at Manchester City
Manchester City F.C.
Manchester City Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Manchester. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's , they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894...

, who were struggling in Division One after being relegated the previous season. Under his management, the club's form initially improved, and they secured a mid-table finish. City's following season started decently, with the side continuing to occupy mid-table for the first few months of the campaign; unfortunately the club hit a horrific run of form near the end of the year, and by February 1998 they had crashed to the bottom of the table. This resulted in Clark's dismissal on 17 February 1998 (he infamously learned of this on the radio while driving to a training session), and it ultimately proved to be his last job in club management.

Nottingham Forest chairman

Clark took over from Nigel Doughty
Nigel Doughty
Nigel Doughty, born in 1957 in Newark, Nottinghamshire, is co-chairman and co-founder of Doughty Hanson & Co, a European private equity firm based in London and with offices throughout Europe....

 as chairman of Nottingham Forest football club on 12 October 2011

External links

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