I had the great pleasure of talking to Town manager Lee Clark today about his career to date, the Summer transfer window and aspirations for the future.

Back at Newcastle and Norwich you had different, though slightly similar roles. Can you tell me a bit more about what you learnt from each of these roles independently?

The role at Newcastle, reserve team manager, was quite a difficult role to hold in the club. From day to day you don’t know how many players you’re going to have available, or how to prepare your sessions. You have to learn to adapt and be versatile, because some days you might only be working with five or six players at a time, but when you do get a squad together, you have a mix of young and old players. Young players to test and see if they are good enough to make the step up; but what you also have is more senior players who probably don’t want to be in the reserves, so you have to get their mentality right and ensure they show the right attitude. You’re always thinking on your feet in the job because things can change quite quickly, for example if something was to happen in the first-team squad, they could just come and take one of your players just like that. Then the step-up to Norwich as assistant manager, I became a little bit more involved with regards the decisions that had to be made. Obviously I enjoyed both roles a great deal and learnt a lot throughout my time there.

Obviously after this, the Town job opened up and you ended up making the final step-up. How much did you know about the club (infrastructure, fan base, history etc) before you joined?
I knew about the impressive stadium here, but not so much about the facilities around the place. I knew that it was a very well supported club, mainly from experience playing against Town. But that was pretty much it, so when I had the chance to sit down with Dean and Nigel and have them talk me through what they wanted for the club, I saw it was a fantastic opportunity because their ambitions matched mine.

Had you received any other managerial offers before Town, or seen any vacancies that took your fancy?
There were two or three clubs that had been in touch with me and my agent to see if I was interested but they were jobs that weren’t really suitable at the time, whereas the Town job offer ticked all the boxes – it was an easy decision.

Once you joined the club, you brought in a team of staff almost immediately. Did you have these in mind from the beginning?
Yeah. After speaking to the board, I told them who I wanted to bring in to support me and I received a lot of backing with them allowing me to appoint my team. I kept everyone abreast with developments when I knew Town were interested and I quickly got everyone on board.

With regards to the backroom staff, what kind of influence do they have on transfer proceedings? With this being your first managerial role, you won’t have a great deal of experience of the transfer market; however someone like Terry McDermott has ‘been there and done that’.
Everyone behind the scenes has an input on those matters, with regards to players we were bringing in and looking at. We would talk about it on a regular basis, and spend a lot of time watching games, and everyone has an input into what we are doing. At the end of the day, the final decision rests with me, but we do meet regularly to talk about every aspect of the club, including the buying and selling of players.

Talking about the players you have already brought into the club, did you have some of these in mind from when you joined the club, or throughout last season?
Some of the players we have brought in this summer, I’ve had my eye on for quite a while, not just whilst I’ve been at Town. Then throughout the time I’ve been at the club, we have been watching them more and more, and it’s worked out well. We had five players through the door before pre-season started, and we’re really happy with that. And if any more spring up between now and the start of the season, we’ll have a go at getting them.

It’s been mentioned before, even by yourself, that the scouting system at the club isn’t what it could be. Have steps been taken to improve this area?
Yes we are expanding the scouting network. We have hired six new scouts around the country to supplement the ones we already have. We also have the Prozone system in place which helps with scouting. So yeah, this is something that we are really working hard on – not just retaining the scouts we already have, but adding to these, and we are happy with the way things are going.

You just mentioned the Prozone system, could you say a bit more about how the system works and what it can offer the club?
Basically we have ten cameras around the stadium which pick up everything that players are doing on a Saturday afternoon, and by the Monday morning when we come in to train, we have every bit of data on-hand. This includes technical, tactical and fitness data, such as how fast and how far players have run, how many touches of the ball they have had, how many passes they have made. It will also show us trends within the play, such as where the best link-up play was made on the pitch and between which players.

Just going back to this Summer’s transfer activity, you’ve brought in quite a few players already, but do you see the use of the loan system at some point in the season?
The loan system is very important to help you get the right players in, where we can go to the top Premiership sides and get their youngsters on loan. These are players that have been rated very highly by their clubs and ear-marked for the future, but might not be ready for first-team football right now. Take Martin Kelly for example, he has a bright future ahead of him at Liverpool, but is just not ready to make that step-up yet.

Well he is certainly one player that everyone would like to see back at Town. Could you reveal a bit more on where we stand with him and Liverpool?

Where we are now is basically where we’ve been for the past few months. We would take him back straight away if he became available, but we are waiting for Liverpool to establish their squad and see whether they have a need to keep him for this season. So if they say he is available for loan, we would have him back instantly.

Is it true that we have a first refusal option on Kelly? There seem to be mixed messages flying around about this, and also some news stories stating other teams’ interest in him.
No we don’t have any kind of agreement like that with Liverpool, however we would like to think we have a good relationship with the club after giving him a chance last year.

Martin Kelly - still on Town's radar?

Last week we saw a couple of strikers leave the club, namely Keigan Parker and Phil Jevons. Does this open up the possibility for another striker to be joining the squad?

Who knows! I had to trim the squad anyway, mainly to keep players happy but also for the financial side of things, but if the right player comes available for me to improve my squad and he fits what I’m looking for in terms of players, then it’s always a possibility.

Just another point about those outgoings; Phil Jevons’ transfer is only a season-long loan – does this indicate that he still has a future at the club at all?

Phil knows my thoughts, and I’ve been very honest with the lads who aren’t part of my plans, that they can find new homes. The only thing is, a lot of clubs can’t afford to be buying players at the moment, so season-long loans are becoming more likely.

One ‘phantom’ player in the Town squad last season was a certain Jonathan Tehoue. Will we ever see him in a Town shirt?
The transfer of Jonathan back in January was too much red-tape and we couldn’t get through it. It’s been a long, long time since he has played football and without any training, so it would take us two, maybe three months to get Jonathan anywhere near the fitness levels that we require for first-team football. We saw this as too big of a gamble to take.

If money had been no object in this transfer window, which player would you have brought in ahead of any other?
I’d go for Steven Gerrard. He’s a match-winner, and has won games for Liverpool single-handedly on some occasions, and he’s a fantastic player – in any position!

Part 2>>

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