Ed Milliband, Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage (kind of) proved on Friday that the most dignified way to leave a post when you're not wanted is to resign. So the news that Lee Clark and Alan Thompson have decided to leave Bloomfield Road does beg the question 'did they walk or were they pushed?'. It seems strange after months of planning and preparation for a new start that the Blackpool manager should choose to fall on his sword.
There is no doubt that if the decision was made for him, it was the right one. Whilst everyone accepts that Clark was working in the worst circumstances, under a Chairman who has become the talk of the football world for all the wrong reasons and on the back foot from the start, there can be very few Seasiders fans who feel that he did a good job. Just 3 wins in 33 games will undoubtedly see Clark pick up the mantle as one of the worst ever Blackpool managers but that only tells some of the story.
Clark took over a side from Jose Riga which, whilst not tearing up trees, should have been good enough to compete in the Championship with a few tweaks and additions. Instead Clark somehow weakened the side with some of the most bizarre and dreadful signings that fans have seen. Who will remember (or can forget) the likes of Saer Sene, Niall Maher, Islam Feruz and Nyron Nosworthy along with Clark's insistence of persisting with the likes of Tony McMahon, Charles Dunne and David Perkins. The rot started as soon as he failed to play Joe Lewis and seemed to back the Chairman by not playing the youth players who'd not signed contracts. It was clear Clark would do anything to keep his job and that in the end lost him the support of the fans and arguably the dressing room.
When you look at the job that Gary Rowett did at Birmingham compared to Clark at Blackpool, it does show that you can change around the fortunes of a club with the right skills. Clark lacked ideas both tactically, professionally and in games. His style of football was horrendous, his post match interviews embarrassing and he was the Ed Milliband of Blackpool FC - everyone knew he would never succeed and the end result was inevitable.
There is a poison chalice waiting to greet someone at Bloomfield Road - the question is who will now take it?
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