An exclusive interview with Lee Clark.
This interview took place over zoom on Wednesday 23rd September.
We began by talking about Lee supporting the Toon from the terraces.
Before moving on to his memories of playing for the club he loves.
(ED: This epic interview covers a lot of ground and has been split into three parts. This is the first of the three, with the other two to follow in the coming days. Our thanks from The Mag to The Armchair Fan for this top quality interview with Lee Clark)
Having supported the club all your life, what memories do you have of watching Newcastle United from the terraces when you were growing up?
I first went in 1980 when Bill McGarry was the manager. I went with my older brother and his mate in the Gallowgate End. We weren’t a particularly good team in those days and the football club was kind of mirroring the city which was in decline before we got the big news in the 82/83 season that we’d signed Kevin Keegan. All of a sudden, the club and city had lift-off!
We went from averaging just over seventeen thousand the previous dismal season to massive queues and turnstiles all closed with an official crowd of over thirty-five thousand inside St James’ Park and many thousands locked out for his debut. I was in the paddock, behind the home dugout, when he said those famous words that the Gallowgate End sucked the ball into the back of the net.
The football club and that city go hand in hand, they help each other. When there’s success at the club, it goes into the city and there’s a vibe around the place with businesses, restaurants, pubs and shops all thriving. We had two unbelievable seasons with Kevin, just missing out on promotion the first season and then gaining promotion the next. It broke my heart the night he left in a helicopter, I thought that was the end of the world!
After that we also lost Arthur Cox and I don’t think anyone knew how important he was at that time as everyone was still fixated on Kevin but losing Arthur was a big blow that probably wasn’t felt as much until later down the line. Big Jack (Charlton) came in, a local guy so probably his dream job, and changed the way we played a little bit, to say the least! We now had Peter (Beardsley) being pushed out on the wing with Chris Waddle on the other but without the freedom he’d previously enjoyed because we played with two big strikers and were a lot more direct. Obviously, Peter and Chris were still the stars and playing to a high level but then the inevitable happened. When you’ve got good players it’s hard to keep them hidden and bigger clubs at the time came calling. We lost them to Tottenham and Liverpool.
Beardsley leaving was devastating for me as he had become a real hero of mine after watching him from the stands in the eighties as well as the success he’d had in the World Cup. When I was about thirteen or fourteen, the club was trying to sign me on schoolboy terms, both Man Utd and Tottenham were interested as well. In hindsight, Newcastle didn’t need to do anything special because it was always my dream to play for the Toon even though I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do it. I didn’t understand how you went from being a fan on the terraces to actually play for the club.
When Peter had played in the 1986 World Cup, I was coming up to my 14th birthday which was when I could officially sign for a club. Willie McFaul got Peter to come and say a few words to me when I was around the training ground which was unbelievable because he really was a hero of mine. He even gave me a couple of pairs of boots that were specially made for him by Puma for the World Cup. If I ever needed a lift from Benwell to catch the bus back home, he would give me a lift. That was dreamland for me, someone you worship showing a bit of interest and making sure you felt good about the club. Like I said, that never needed to be happening, it was just a bonus. Gazza was coming on the scene and he became a close friend of mine and he looked after me too. He was a sensational footballer, it was all a bit surreal.
© 1989 The Mag. All rights reserved.
I remember Joe Harvey as well who was the chief scout at the time trying to convince me to sign for the club. He came to watch me in an under-thirteen game against a Dutch team who were touring. We’d won about 9-0 and I’d scored six so he gave the thumbs up for the club to sign me. I went from just being a fan who adored the club to then being on the inside before my career took off in a crazy way. A couple of months later I became captain of England schoolboys so I wasn’t just getting local attention, I was getting it nationally. We’d played two big games at Wembley against Italy and Brazil in front of eighty thousand fans. Sir Bobby Robson was England manager at the time and he went to those games, I scored a hat-trick against Italy and he compared me to the late, great Duncan Edwards, what a comparison that was! He actually came to visit me at home trying to convince me to go to a national football school but there was no way I was leaving home.
How did you feel before making your debut and what did Jim Smith say to you before the match?
I’d been involved with the first team since that pre-season and had made my debut in a friendly away at St Johnstone, so I’d got a little taste of it then and there were nice things said about me in the media after the match so that was special.
We’d gone down to Bristol City and I was on the bench but came on when someone got injured. The following week I made my full debut at St James’ Park against West Bromwich Albion. That really was a pinch myself moment, I was just thinking ‘what have I just done?!’ I’d achieved what thousands of lads had dreamed of (I say lads because girls and women’s football hadn’t really taken off at that time). The team was in a little bit of disarray because they’d lost the play-off Semi-Final to Sunderland the previous year so there was a lot of pressure on Jim and he wasn’t really getting the results. I came in and then a couple of weeks later Steve Watson made his debut and became the youngest ever Newcastle player at the time. We also had Steve Howey too, so we had a local batch breaking into the first team, there were a lot of senior players too like Micky Quinn, Roy Aitken, Kevin Dillon, Ray Ranson and John Burridge so there was a mix of really young players and really experienced ones. The senior pros were really good with us, putting an arm round us when he needed it but also a kick up the backside too.
Issue 9 – September 1989
The manager was old school, he was tough. I’ll always be indebted to Jim for giving me that opportunity, God rest his soul. After Jim left, a man who played a huge part in the success that was going to come for the club was Ossie Ardiles as he brought a lot of youngsters into the group and we ended up with a really young team. The team was maybe a little bit naive, we ended up in a lot of high scoring games because we just loved to attack and maybe weren’t that good at the defensive side. Whilst people were worried about the results and knew something had to change, the fans never really turned on Ossie because they believed in what he was trying to do behind the scenes with those young players. They loved the style, if we could have improved defensively then we would have got better results, but we were losing too many games. Ossie was a fantastic man, an absolutely superb guy. He was perfect for us young players, the encouragement he gave us. I still speak to him regularly even now. To have a world cup winner as your manager was crazy.
After that, Sir John Hall came in with the Magpie Group and this became very important for myself because I was earning a lot of recognition from my days as captain of England schoolboys and scoring a hat-trick against Italy. I knew that other clubs were taking notice and also that we were struggling financially. We had Stan Seymour and Gordon McKeag on the board but they didn’t have the finances, with the way the club was, to compete anymore. Liverpool came in for me and the club accepted their offer. They were basically trying to say to me that if I didn’t accept to move it would be harming the club financially.
The Magpie Group heard the news and came to see me, they told me to sit tight and not make the move because we were about to be taken over by a man from the North East who wanted to build the club around the fantastic academy and young, local players. That was music to my ears as I never wanted to leave. Sir John’s first act was basically to relieve Ossie of his duties and make the outrageous appointment of Kevin Keegan, so it came full circle for me as I was now going to be playing for the man who had saved the club and the city when he was a player himself. He’d come back and done it again in the nineties as the manager. He got the belief back in the football club, he got the belief back in the city. The stadium was packed every week with the football he had us playing. Recruitment then was different, there weren’t any transfer windows. You could buy throughout the season, up until the last Thursday in March, where it shut for the end of the season. He was continually buying top players who made us better in each position. He very rarely got it wrong, if at all. That made us, especially the local lads, keep improving. We’re obviously watching and learning from the players that were coming in, the experience they had and what they’d done.
What did you make of Kevin Keegan when you first met him?
Oh, you’re in awe of him! Just in awe of him, you listen to him.
It was tough for me as well though, I was upset because I had a really strong relationship with Ossie. Kevin was just unbelievable, even better than what you thought you knew when you watched him and seen him playing football. When he came in, he was just so dynamic, so enthusiastic, so knowledgeable. As I said, you were in awe of him so you listened to everything he said and he just became more than a manager, he became a father figure to us. He wanted to know about what was going on, if ever you were there with your family, whether it be your brothers, your sisters, your mum, your dad, your partner. He wanted to know, he wanted to speak about them. He brought a feel-good factor to the football club. The dressing room he created, the personnel, the people he brought in, everyone was a brilliant character and everyone contributed to the group. We just went from strength to strength and then we got promoted.
There were rumours, which then became true, that Peter Beardsley was coming back after we got promoted. I’d gone from watching him, to him being my hero and then playing alongside him, training with him every day and becoming a really close friend of his. It was just surreal really. Some of the games that you look back on, some of the results, some of the times we had together were just amazing. Whenever we meet up, all the lads, it’s like we haven’t been away. We’ve got WhatsApp groups with each other, we had a really strong relationship, both on and off the field. We’d socialise together, whether that just be the lads, or whether it be with the partners and the kids. Sometimes in huge groups, sometimes in fours and fives, but everyone was always invited. We didn’t need any space from our teammates. We just loved being in each other’s company, we had great craic with each other. We were back and forth at each other in a fun way, and used to just have brilliant laughs every time we were together. When it was time for the match then you have to be serious. There were lots of times when the group fell out with each other on the pitch, and in the dressing room, but that never affected the team spirit, or the camaraderie. We laughed about it further down the line. It was an amazing time. Dream-come-true material for me.
Issue 39 – August 1992
Newcastle United avoided relegation on the last day of the 91/92 season. Did the players genuinely believe that we’d take the league by storm the season after and then go on to finish third in the Premier League?
Coming back from that Leicester game where we’d secured our place in Division one, now the Championship, no way were we sitting on that journey saying we’re going to win this league next season but the man who made it all possible believed that.
Kevin’s recruitment drive that summer was just phenomenal. He brought in experienced, quality players such as Paul Bracewell, Barry Venison, John Beresford, Rob Lee, Scott Sellars, Andy Cole come in later and with myself and Steve Watson already there, Robbie Elliott, David Kelly already there, Mickey Quinn already there, Pav, God rest his soul. Tommy Wright as well. So there was a nucleus of some good players there, but the way Kevin just added to it was absolutely unbelievable. Steve Howey was still there. and in between Ossie leaving and Kevin coming in, the transition of him from a striker to a centre-half was a masterstroke, he became an England international. You start the next season and win eleven from eleven and you start believing that there’s something good around the corner. We had a good team, we had good players and everything just fell into place.
We also had a great backroom team. Terry McDermott was brilliant for Kevin. Derek Fazackerley was a superb coach, delivering the sessions that Kevin and Terry wanted. Derek Wright, Physio, and Paul Ferris were also part of that group. Ray Thompson came in a little later as the kit man, we had Arthur Cox too who didn’t really have a title but in today’s game would be director of football, he was more like a mentor for Kevin. To answer the question though, if anyone coming back from Leicester thought we were going to win the league then they’d probably had too many cans of McEwans lager on the coach home! (laughs).
Does missing out on the Premier League title keep you up at night?
Yeah, it’ll always be tough. There’s so few players who’ve been lucky enough to do it, because when you look back on the Premier League, it’s been dominated over different periods by certain clubs, and then you have the rare exceptions of Blackburn and Leicester who’ve won it. You have the spell with Man United, you have the spell with Chelsea, you have the spell with Man City, you have the spell with Arsenal and you have Liverpool a couple of times now as well. There’s not a lot of players who’ve been lucky enough to win what everyone considers the toughest league in the world.
Newcastle United being so close, yet ending up so far, will always stick with us. Stick with myself and stick with us as a group because we were more than good enough to win it. There’s various thought processes and ideas on why we didn’t win it. My personal one is that we probably didn’t have enough people who had been in that scenario before when it came to the nitty-gritty, Fergie nicknamed it squeaky backside time and we maybe didn’t have enough players who had experienced that and Man United, as we know, had plenty as they were the team that was regularly winning it at the time.
I don’t think we really realised that we would still be remembered and held in such high esteem thirty years later and still respected even though we didn’t win the league like we should have. Teams that don’t win the league aren’t usually the ones remembered. It’s phenomenal every time we go out together and are seen by fans around the stadium or having a drink in town. We were just trying to be the best team we could be with the best manager in the business, it was a sensational time.