Lee Clark's departure didn't leave that many questions unanswered. Just the fact he was working under Karl Oyston satisfied anyone who was curious to know why he went! Of course the timing was a bit strange having seen through one of Blackpool's worst ever runs of form, having waved off 17 players and having sorted out a pre-season and a long list of names that he wanted to bring to the club. However, the one question we may never get an answer to is which recent Blackpool hero was he trying to lure back?
In an Interview with The Guardian they say "Clark’s plans included trying to coax back a recent Blackpool hero to spearhead a promotion campaign in League One, added to the much-needed regeneration of antiquated training facilities." So who could that hero have been? Charlie Adam seems well out of our league, David Vaughan, Gary Taylor-Fletcher and Matt Gilks could all be looking for work this summer and the likes of Baptiste, Crainey and Evatt might have fancied a return. Unless the groundwork has already been done and the player will continue to negotiate with the new manager then we may never know.
In the interview, Clark says little which will surprise any Blackpool fan. He admits that he may have taken the job without considered thought ""Some might say I dived in and the end product, I suppose, points to that wrong decision. But sometimes in life you have to take a risk. Next time — and there will be a next time — I will make sure all conditions are right before taking the job."and he re-emphasises just what a shambles Blackpool is behind the scenes "A lot of little things that would normally make a club run smoothly made things very, very tough for us. We lost a kit man and he wasn’t replaced. There were issues with player registrations, travel, accommodation. It is just about getting things done in a proper manner. There always seemed to be something happening that could be prevented, something that would create a negative. As a football manager, they were things I didn’t expect to have to deal with. I wanted recruitment put in place early. What happened at the club was making things even harder — I was going the length and breadth of the UK trying to convince players because they saw negative stories.”
Clark stopped short of blaming the Chairman and empathised with the fans but will certainly put a nagging doubt in the mind of anyone who is thinking of taking the job. It may also remind the 'Blackpool hero' he was after is that things aren't the same as whenever it was they left the club.