LEE CLARK PROFILE
Lee Robert Clark was born in Wallsend, Tyne & Wear on October 27th 1972.
He grew up playing football for the famous Wallsend Boys Club in his hometown before being signed by Newcastle United - the team he supported - as a trainee and then a professional by Willie McFaul.
A central midfielder, Lee made his professional debut for the Magpies as a substitute aged 17 during a 1-0 defeat at Bristol City in September 1990 but he had already hit the headlines with a superb hat-trick for England Schoolboys at Wembley in 1988. At the tender age of 18 Lee made his first foray into coaching, taking sessions at the local Walker Central Boys Club - where current Newcastle striker Shola Ameobi was a player.
From that point he never looked back, becoming a regular feature of the Newcastle first-team and a pivotal member of the United side that won promotion to the Premier League under Kevin Keegan's management in 1993. That same side then finished as runners-up in the top flight of English football for two consecutive seasons.
A transfer to Sunderland followed in 1997, where he was a member of the side that lost a dramatic Division One Play-Off Final to Charlton on penalties a year later. However, Clark played a key midfield role as the team won the League in 1999 with a then record points haul.
Clark then moved to Fulham in 1999, where he won the Division One title for a third time in 2001. He soon became Club Captain at Craven Cottage, leading the team to an all-time high of 9th in the Premier League in 2004.
He allowed his contract to expire in 2005 and made his first foray into professional coaching by rejoining Newcastle United as a Player-Coach under manager Graham Souness. He played his last professional game on May 7th 2006, coming on as a substitute against Chelsea at St. James Park. Overall, he played a total of 529 professional games, scoring 66 goals and gaining 11 caps for the England Under-21 side.
Lee was soon promoted to the position of First Team and Reserve Team Coach by new Newcastle boss Glenn Roeder in June 2006 upon his completion of the UEFA A-License course and the departure of former incumbent Tommy Craig.
He held the post for just over a year before he rejoined Roeder at Norwich City as Assistant Manager in November 2007, where the duo kept the Canaries in the Championship with a number of astute loan signings.
He is currently days away from completing the much-coveted UEFA Pro License course with the Northern Irish FA, which involved him gaining international coaching experience in Toronto.
DEREK FAZACKERLEY
Derek William Fazackerley was born on November 5th 1951 in Penwortham, near Preston, Lancashire.
A rugged centre-back, Derek spent the large majority of his playing career with Blackburn Rovers - making a massive 674 appearances for the Club between 1969 and 1987. During his time at Ewood Park he worked under a string of renowned managers such as Howard Kendall, Jim Smith and Gordon Lee.
He ended his long spell with Blackburn with a move to Chester City in January 1987, joining in a joint Player-Assistant Manager role under Harry McNally. After 66 appearances for the Club, he moved to York City to undertake the same role for manager Bobby Saxton. He ended his playing career with a move to Bury in February 1989, where he made 14 appearances.
Derek's career in management began in May 1990, when he accepted the role of Player-Manager at Finnish side Kumu. However, he soon moved back to England to work as Reserve Team Coach at Newcastle United under Jim Smith.
Fazackerley continued to perform that role under Ossie Ardiles before being promoted to First Team Coach by new boss Kevin Keegan as Newcastle gained promotion to the Premier League and qualified for European football. One of the players at the Club was none other than Lee Clark.
He left Newcastle to join Ray Harford at Blackburn Rovers in 1997, where the team played Champions League football, before joining Keegan as Assistant Manager of the England national side alongside Les Reid for the Euro 2000 campaign.
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Derek during his time at Blackburn with David Batty, Alan Shearer & Jeff Kenna |
Following Keegan's departure from the England job, Derek worked under Colin Todd at Bolton Wanderers and at Barnsley as a coach before rejoining Kevin as First Team Coach at Manchester City. He continued in that role under managers Stuart Pearce and Sven-Goran Eriksson before leaving the Club in July after the appointment of Mark Hughes as manager.
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Derek taking England training, pictured with Wise, Beckham and Heskey |
Fazackerley is known in the game for having excellent organisational skills and great defensive coaching ability and has previously stated that his footballing principles are 'showing a determination to win, while at the same time trying to entertain'.
STEVE BLACK
Born in Benton, Newcastle, Steve Black is one of the most highly respected Performance Coaches in both business and sport.
At the age of 16 Steve was working as a doorman in his hometown but his first passions had always been football and boxing; in fact, he had played for the Newcastle Boys team as a youngster. He started to develop his Sports Management skills at an early age, soon becoming Centre Manager of the YMCA in North Shields.
His reputation preceded him and Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan appointed him as Fitness Coach upon his appointment at St. James Park, where he worked alongside the manager and Derek Fazackerley as the Magpies gained promotion to the Premier League and qualified for European Football. Black has since made particular mention of his work with then-Newcastle players Steve Watson, Alan Thompson and Lee Clark.
Black then switched sports to Rugby Union to become Fitness Coach of Newcastle Falcons and the side soon won both the League and Cup. A spell under current All-Blacks Coach Graham Henry followed with the Wales Rugby Union team and Steve was a member of the backroom staff as the national side went on a record-breaking 11-match unbeaten streak.
Steve was then appointed as Fitness Consultant of the British and Irish Lions side that toured Australia in 2001.
He then switched back to football, with a short spell under Paul Bracewell at Fulham preceding a longer spell working with Peter Reid at Sunderland as they gained promotion to the Premier League.
Black then rejoined Newcastle Falcons for a second spell and won the Wilkinson Sports Award for his outstanding contribution to Newcastle's Sporting Life in March 2007.
Since leaving the Falcons in December 2007, Steve has travelled the world in search of new and innovative conditioning techniques - spending some time with American Football outfit Chicago Bears.
Known as a conditioning coach, motivator and psychologist his techniques have been applied not only in the world of Sport but also in the business environment; Steve has previously worked with large firms such as Northern Rock and Siemens. He holds a degree in Sports Science and currently has his autobiography on sale - simply named 'Blackie'.
Steve is known as much for his one-on-one work as well as team assignments and his list of endorsements is long and impressive including world-class athletes such as Jonny Wilkinson, Rob Andrews, Jonathan Edwards and Kevin Keegan. The latter has described Steve as 'the best one to one coach in the world'.
