Frank Clark (footballer)

Frank Clark (born 9 September 1943) is an English former footballer and manager.

He was born in Consett, County Durham. He started at Crook Town, playing as a full-back. He started his professional career at Newcastle United, before joining Nottingham Forest, where he was part of Forest's 1978 Championship-winning squad and the following year's European Cup triumph. After retiring from playing Clark went on to become assistant manager under Ken Knighton at Sunderland and Leyton Orient. Upon Knighton's departure, he was promoted to manager at Leyton Orient] , before spells at Nottingham Forest and Manchester City.

Whilst at Leyton Orient, he won the Fourth Division playoffs in 1989. He was promoted to managing director and remained in charge for another four years until he joined Nottingham Forest in 1993.

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. Forest were the only English team to play European football after Christmas during 1995-96, as they reached the UEFA Cup quarter finals where they were eliminated by eventual winners Bayern Munich.

Clark resigned in December 1996 with Forest heading for relegation, but he was soon back in the game as manager of Manchester City. After a promising start results took a serious downturn, and he was sacked after 15 months with City on the brink of relegation to the league's third tier for the first time ever. To date, this was his last management job. He is the Regional Director of the League Managers Association.

External links

* [http://www.soccerbase.com/managers2.sd?managerid=438 Frank Clark managerial statistics] at soccerbase.com