by It took Lee Clark some time to agree to a move from his beloved Newcastle United to Sunderland, as well as several bottles of champagne and a prolonged charm offensive from manager Peter Reid.
But after two successful years at the Stadium of Light, it took the midfielder “less than a minute” to become one of the most divisive figures in the club’s history.
This is the story of a player who briefly overcame the divide between Tyne and Wear in the derby in an era when toxicity between the two North East clubs was at an all-time high. Who managed to ruin everything in a moment of madness during a drunken afternoon in London.
As a Geordie who had “lived the dream” playing for Kevin Keegan, rising from the youth team to play a key role in the Newcastle team promoted to the Premier League in 1993, which nearly missed out on the title in just three years . Later, Clark was as black and white as they come.
He had been in the stands when Keegan transformed the club as a player between 1982 and 1984 and shed tears of the devastation of his childhood when he left. To then play for his hero at St James’ Park, Clark did something every Geordie would have loved.
“It was living the dream, it really was playing for Newcastle,” said Clark, who will return from his holiday in time to see his two former clubs renew one of the bitterest rivalries in British football in the third round of the FA Cup this weekend.
“Every day was special for me. Not only playing for my club, but also being part of an era that is still considered one of the club’s most successful. It was a brilliant time.
“But as a local boy who has been through the system, it is difficult when you see the coach bringing in players from all over the world, hired to replace you. That’s what it feels like anyway. They’re coming in, but they don’t care about the club as much as you do, that sort of thing.
“But that’s football, you understand it as you get older. I also became a coach, so I know Kevin was trying to make the team better.”
When Keegan arrived in February 1992, a managerial appointment that shocked the football world, he identified a group of local lads who would form the core of the team for an extraordinary four-year period. Clark was one of them, along with the two Steves, Howey and Watson.
“Kevin fell in love with me immediately,” Clark recalls. “He respected my work ethic. We were similar personalities, we both wore our hearts on our sleeves. We had a very close bond. He loved him.
“Also because I was in the stands as a fan and saw what he had done for the club as a player as well. I was there for practically every game in 1982, the promotion season. I cried with all my heart when he left in his helicopter after his last game, I thought the club was finished. So when he came back, completely out of the blue as a coach, it was a big moment. “For him to drag the club by the neck as a player and then do it again as a manager, he is a very special man in the history of Newcastle United.”
However, all good things come to an end. While Newcastle were trying to win the Premier League, they spent a lot of money. Clark had become little more than a player on the team by the time Manchester United snatched the title from him in 1996.
“It was really my decision to leave,” Clark explained. “I didn’t play regularly and I had to make a decision.
“I spoke to seven or eight different clubs and the last one was Peter Reid and Sunderland. I really just went out of courtesy. I liked Peter. He was a very charismatic guy, very similar to Kevin in many ways. I didn’t think he was going to sign for Sunderland when I met him.
“I think it made me angry, at first I resisted, but three bottles of champagne later I changed my mind.
“He told me that he had been a Liverpool fan and that he had played for Everton all those years. He was persuasive, let’s put it that way. He was actually still a young lad, with a young family and being able to stay in the North East was a big part for me.
“I know a lot has been said about how it ended, but I really enjoyed my two years at Sunderland. I also loved playing for Reidy, he didn’t disappoint. They were two brilliant years.
“There were many positive aspects. I like to think I was quite popular and played good football. In my first season we lost in the play-off final against Charlton. I broke my leg at the beginning of the second, but I came back and we achieved promotion with more than 100 points.
“My concentration was fine when I was there. They knew I was a big Newcastle fan and there was no point in trying to hide it. I knew I had to start working and performing for them, and I did.
“When I played for Sunderland, I was a Sunderland player and I did the best I could. I like to think I did well enough to earn their respect over the course of those two years…”
If you did, you lost everything overnight. When Newcastle played Manchester United in the FA Cup final in 1999, Clark went to London as a fan. He had consumed drink, but when someone put a T-shirt over his head and wore it, referring to Sunderland by his derogatory nickname “Sad Mackem B ——-”, there was no turning back. Even in an era before camera phones, many people managed to take a photo.
“The problem was that when Sunderland got promoted to the Premier League I knew I would have to play Newcastle,” Clark admits.
“That changes things, it creates a dilemma. The thought of playing for Sunderland against Newcastle made me think I couldn’t do it and be as focused as I should be. I didn’t think that was fair to anyone.
“I spoke to Reidy about it to explain things to him, but, as is typical of him, he told me not to worry and that he would be a Sunderland player next season. Then came the unfortunate incident that made it absolutely impossible for me to stay.”
So was it all part of a deliberate ploy to get him a move? “No, I know people have said that and yes, he had told Reidy that he was concerned about the conflict of interest a few weeks earlier, but the t-shirt was not planned.
“I didn’t do it to force a movement. I was very stupid looking back but, like I said, I always tried to go to the big Newcastle games and I went with some friends to the FA Cup final.
“People think I was walking around London that day with my shirt on. I wasn’t. I got out of a taxi near Baker Street, where the Newcastle fans were based. The shirt crosses my mind…it was only on for a few seconds, honestly. In those days there weren’t even camera phones, but some people took some pictures. My mates were like, ‘That might be a bit of a problem for you, Lee…’ Yes, you think so!
Clark knew what was coming and when the photographs were sold to a national newspaper, the storm broke.
“I had to go see Bob Murray, the president, since Peter was on vacation,” Clark continued. “But it was quite obvious that he could no longer represent the club. We accept it, it’s over.
“Reidy was furious, there were more than a few expletives. It would disappoint him greatly. He knew it at that moment. That hurt me, but when I became a manager I looked back on that incident with even more shame.
“He saw me as a key player. It’s hard enough being a coach without players doing to you what I did to you. And we also lost the cup final, so it wasn’t a great day.
“Sunderland fans were furious, as expected. I don’t think they’ve ever forgiven me.
“Preseason was a little uncomfortable to say the least. I think I did it for about a week. Reidy called a meeting and the guys knew he made a mistake, which is probably an understatement, but they were fine. By then, Peter was…fine about it. “I joined Fulham a few weeks later.”
Clark was not the first nor the last player to play for both clubs, but he was the only one who left a villain behind. The fact that Newcastle fans still find all of this amusing pretty much sums up the relationship between the two clubs.
