Lee Clark regularly watches Newcastle since being sacked as Bury manager in October and like every fan knows: ‘The club has a world-class manager and he must be given the tools to kick on and work at the level he wants to take the club.’
He thinks Rafa Benitez has done a ‘tremendous’ job but if he is not supported in trying to realise the ambitions that both he and the Newcastle fans have, then Mike Ashley will end up driving him out of the club.
Lee Clark talking to The Star:
“If Huddersfield stay up, it will be an incredible achievement, and David Wagner will be one of the managers of the season, but the biggest problem for them will be that he is a man very much in demand.
“Dean Hoyle, who is a top guy and a magnificent owner has been fighting off bigger clubs for 18 months and it is only going to get harder.
“Like David Wagner, Rafa Benitez has been tremendous.
“Of course, fourth bottom isn’t what he’d have wanted back in August, while staying up is a cause for celebration in Huddersfield’s case.
“Knowing their [Huddersfield’s] owner and his ambitions, he’ll see that as the start of a journey but for Rafa…it’s imperative Newcastle break into the top ten and start challenging for Europe.
“The club has a world class manager and he must be given the tools to kick on and work at the level he wants to take the club.
“Rafa wants Newcastle back to where they were under Kevin Keegan and Bobby Robson and with his own background, he believes, quite rightly, that’s where he should be working.
“Newcastle will survive this year and I’m backing Huddersfield to do so as well, but then the two clubs have another battle on their hands holding on to their managers, and that’s one I want them to win too.”