It took Lee Clark a while to agree to a move from his beloved Newcastle United to Sunderland, as well as a few bottles of champagne and a sustained 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 bridged the Tyne-Wear derby divide in an era when toxicity between the two North East clubs was at its highest. One who managed to ruin it all in a moment of madness during a drunken afternoon in London.
A Geordie who had “lived the dream” playing for Kevin Keegan, rising from the youth team and playing a key role in the Newcastle side, he was promoted to the Premier League in 1993, narrowly missing out on the title just three years later Clark was about as black and white as it gets.
He had been on the terraces when Keegan transformed the club as a player between 1982 and 1984 and shed tears of his boyhood devastation as he left. Then to play for his hero at St James’ Park, Clark did something any Geordie would have loved.
“It was living a dream, it was really playing for Newcastle,” said Clark, who returns from holiday in time to watch his two former clubs renew one of the bitterest rivalries in British football this weekend in the third round of the FA Cup.
“Every day was special for me. To not only play for my club, but to be part of an era that is still considered one of the club’s most successful. It was a wonderful time.
“But as a local boy who has come through the system, it is difficult when you see the manager bringing in players from all over the world who have signed to replace you. That’s how it feels anyway. They come in, but they don’t care about the club as much as you do, things like that.
“But that’s football, you understand that as you get older. I also became a manager, so I know Kevin was trying to improve the team.”
When Keegan arrived in February 1992, a managerial appointment that shocked the football world, he identified a group of local boys who would form the core of the squad for a remarkable four-year period. Clark was one, along with the two Steves, Howey and Watson.
“Kevin immediately looked at me,” Clark remembers. “He respected my work ethic. We were similar personalities, we both wear our hearts on our sleeves. We had a very close bond. I loved him.
“Also because I had sat in the stands as a fan and saw what he had done for the club as a player. In 1984, the promotion season, I was there for almost every match. I cried my heart out when he left in his helicopter after his last match, I thought the club was over. So when he came back as manager, completely out of the blue, it was a huge moment. The fact that he took the club by the scruff of his neck as a player and then did it again as a manager is a very special man in the history of Newcastle United.”
However, all good things come to an end. When Newcastle tried to win the Premier League, they spent a lot of money. Clark had become little more than a team player by the time Manchester United won the title in 1996.
“It was really my decision to leave,” Clark explained. “I wasn’t playing regularly and I had to make a decision.
“I spoke to seven or eight different clubs and the last ones were Peter Reid and Sunderland. I actually just did it out of politeness. I liked Peter. He was such a charismatic man, very similar to Kevin in many ways. I didn’t think I would sign for Sunderland when I met him.
“I think he pissed me off. I was reluctant at first, but three bottles of champagne later I changed my mind.
“He told me he was a Liverpool fan and had played for Everton all those years. He was convincing, let’s put it that way. I was actually a young boy, with a young family, and the opportunity to stay in the North East was a big part of that for me.
“I know a lot has been said about the way it ended, but I thoroughly enjoyed my two years at Sunderland. I also enjoyed playing for Reidy, he didn’t disappoint. They were two wonderful years.
“There were a lot of positives. I like to think I was quite popular, I played good football. We lost in the play-off final against Charlton in my first season. I broke my leg at the start of the second but came back and we won promotion by over 100 points.
“My focus was fine when I was there. They knew I was a big Newcastle fan, there was no point in hiding that. I knew I had to hit the ground running and perform for them, and I did.
“When I played for Sunderland I was a Sunderland player and I did my very best. I like to think that I did well enough to earn their respect over the course of those two years…’
If he did, he would lose it overnight. While Newcastle played Manchester United in the FA Cup final in 1999, Clark went to London as a fan. Drinks had been consumed, but when someone pulled a T-shirt over his head and he wore it, referring to Sunderland by their derogatory nickname “Sad Mackem B——-”, there was no going back. Even in an era before camera phones, many people managed to take a photo.
“The problem was that when Sunderland got promoted back to the Premier League I knew I had to play Newcastle,” admits Clark.
“That changes things, it creates a dilemma. The thought of playing against Newcastle for Sunderland, I just didn’t think I could do that 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, but typical of him he told me not to worry and that I 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 moving? “No, I know people have said that and yes, I had told Reidy a few weeks earlier that I was concerned about the conflict of interest, but the T-shirt wasn’t planned.
‘I didn’t do it to force a move. I was so stupid looking back, but like I said, I had always tried to go to the big games in Newcastle and go to the FA Cup final with some friends.
“People think I was walking around London that day wearing the T-shirt. It was not me. I got out of a taxi near Baker Street, where the Newcastle fans were located. The T-shirt is slapped over my head… it only lasted a few seconds, honestly. There weren’t even camera phones back then, but a few people had pictures of them. My friends said, ‘That might be a bit difficult for you, Lee…’ Yeah, you think!
Clark knew what was coming and when the photos were sold to a national newspaper, the firestorm started.
“I had to go to Bob Murray, the chairman, because Peter was on vacation,” Clark continued. “But it was quite clear that I could no longer represent the club. We accepted that, it was over.
“Reidy was furious, there were more than a few expletives. I would seriously let him down. I knew it at the time. 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 manager without players doing what I did to him. And we lost the bloody cup final too, so it wasn’t a great day.
“The Sunderland fans were furious, as you would expect. I don’t think they ever forgave me.
“The preseason was a bit awkward to say the least. I think it took me about a week. Reidy called a meeting and the guys knew I had made a mistake, which is probably a bit of an understatement, but they were fine. Peter was… okay with it at the time. A few weeks later I joined Fulham.”
Clark wasn’t the first or last player to play for both clubs, but he is the only one to leave a bad guy behind. The fact that Newcastle fans still find the whole thing hilarious pretty much sums up the relationship between the two clubs.