Lee Clark can have no complaints after Huddersfield dismissal

Lee Clark's dismissal came as a shock to most

If ever a managerial sacking could be used to illustrate the difference in mindset between an ordinary football fan and the seasoned football betting punter, it’s the departure of Lee Clark from Huddersfield yesterday.

On the face of it, the dismissal is a harsh one. Huddersfield have improved year or year since Clark was given the job four seasons ago, finishing in the play-offs for the past two campaigns and starting this one by completing an impressive 43-match unbeaten league run. The Terriers are currently fourth in the table with another top-six finish a near-certainty and they started this week’s defeat to Sheffield United just one point behind the second-placed Blades.

However, whereas there were many questions about the wisdom behind the timing of Mick McCarthy’s dismissal from Wolves earlier this week, there’s nothing knee-jerk about Clark being given the boot on the back of a 1-0 home defeat to Danny Wilson’s men. For quite a while now, punters have believed that something doesn’t quite add up with the hype that surrounds the Geordie.

The first rule when analysing clubs by their managers as a means for betting on football is that a manager should only be judged according to the resources at his disposal. Some ordinary folk understand this when they recognise a small club punching above their weight in a tough division but it’s a rule that applies equally to those at the top of the table and you shouldn’t always assume the size of a club’s budget by the historical connotations of the name.

Sometimes, even second place and automatic promotion behind a fallen giant in a league of 24 teams isn’t good enough when the right foundations are in place and the playing budget far exceeds what is available to everyone else. We can only speculate on what Clark was working with at the Galpharm but there’s compelling evidence to suggest his resources were far greater than what Gus Poyet worked with at Brighton last season, ditto Darren Ferguson at Peterborough, and it’s much the same story among the bigger names out-performing them this year.

Indeed, Clark was very spiky about the issue when I casually threw in an innocent question about the competitive balance in League One when I interviewed him the summer before last. In recent years, the clubs reported to have the biggest budgets have routinely occupied top six positions but my question wasn’t aimed at Huddersfield specifically, rather the disparity between top six and the rest. The unmistakable paranoia that filled Clark’s hostile response revealed rather more than I was anticipating from the session and suggested he was carrying a heavy load in more ways than one.

However, perhaps the most damning exhibit in the case against Clark is his own friendship with Huddersfield chairman Dean Hoyle. It’s well-known that the two men share a close bond and that their families regularly dine together, so it’s only fair to assume that Hoyle wouldn’t have sacked Clark unless something didn’t add up.

Nonetheless, the immediate response from the ordinary folk was one of general bewilderment when news of Clark’s dismissal broke yesterday afternoon – another case of a trigger-happy chairman and his unreasonable demands. What right have Huddersfield got to think they should be finishing above Charlton, Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday? They’ve all been in the Premier League, don’t you know.

As punters, of course, it’s our job to see through the smoke and mirrors of the conventional wisdom shaped by national media coverage and judge things in terms of rationality and probability, so it was no real surprise that my Twitter timeline was generally occupied by a frenzy of those crying injustice (ordinary folk and national media journalists) while the much calmer voices of reason were generally provided by most of my punting associates.

Even when removing the speculation that surrounds the finances, Clark has had a serious case to answer. It’s often said that a 20-goal-a-season striker is the difference between winning the league or coming up short, yet despite the fact that Jordan Rhodes has come of age so spectacularly this season, scoring 27 league goals with less than two-thirds of the campaign gone, it’s a sad fact that Huddersfield are once again bang on course to be the nearly men of League One.

For more betting news and views, please visit Bestofthebets.com. You can also follow Mike Holden on Twitter: @Miguel_BOTB

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• Tyler Strange

  Absolute tripe! Good man manager and will hopefully get a new job in the football league soon and prove you wrong!

• http://twitter.com/andrew_brook_ Andrew Brook

  Spot on. Don’t know any Huddersfield fans disagreeing with the decision.

• LordMuwhaha

  I agree with your comments. I don’t know much about Lee Clark, apart from what I
  read in the newspapers. However, he did worry me a couple of years ago
  when he said, following a 0-0 draw, “that was a good result”. No it
  wasn’t. And that’s the problem with HTAC – they always seem to draw in
  the 90th minute. Get more of those small margin wins…1- 0 is just
  fine.

• cadwern

  So because he had a bigger budget than other team and was freinds with the boss, he deserevd to be sacked because he didn’t win every match???? What smug crap pandering to  bitter gambling badicts..

• http://twitter.com/craigolive1 craig olive

  What manager leaves an injured player on the field the whole first half in midfield, when he got injured in first 10 minutes. What manager leaves a new signing on the bench the whole game when the game previously he got man of the match. Every game now I see huddersfield back four having the ball and just boot the ball up the field ‘hitting and hoping’, and Lee Clark never see’s this. Dean Hoyle was loosing patience with that style of football as a owner and ‘Fan’, too many draws from winning positions which wont get you up. Dean Hoyle deserves Town to go up all the money and effort he has put in. Niel Warnock for the job, get some heart and fire into the squad and at least 3 passes strung together.

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003309365463 Sam Ashfield

  Improved year or year?