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Lee Clark Exclusive Fulham Q&A: Tigana behind early success

Last week TribalFootball asked supporters of Fulham and Huddersfield to ask questions for our brilliant fortnightly columnist, Lee Clark.

Today we focus on Lee's informative and interesting answers from fans of Fulham, where Clark was a huge part of taking the club from the Championship into Europe during his six seasons at Craven Cottage.



  • "Why did you join Fulham when you did?"

The reason I joined was that I saw the ambition of the club from the outside. I was seeing this club that had risen from finishing 91st out of 92 clubs four or five years earlier, who had now come through the leagues and were in the Championship and I'd seen the players they were signing were still in the prime.

And I just thought that this club had tremendous ambition from everyone involved in the club but also the owner and leadership they wanted to get there and they weren't just talking about it they were doing things to do it, the infrastructure was being improved year by year to eventually when I was towards the end a fantastic training facility and the squad every year was getting better and better. So I was proved right and I had a tremendous time there. My love of the club and the people is unrivalled, it's fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there.



  • "Why do you think Fulham had the success they did during your time at the club?"

We had success because of a few things. Firstly a tremendous manager who was ahead of the game at the time, Jean Tigana, who had us all supremely fit. We had a core group of senior British players, but he added that with some foreign signings and some British players of his own. We complemented really well with each and had unbelievable work ethic and tremendous fitness program, the staff were meticulous with the work that we done.

As we progressed into the Premier League we were then getting established and being from the west of London we could attract some of the top players, we had van der Sar who was unbelievable signing for us at the time and came in and proved to be brilliant, and then players who went on to bigger and better things.

The club was growing every year and we finished ninth in the Premier League which at the time was Fulham's highest ever top flight finish. We got to the semi final of the FA Cup, competed in the Europa League, and all things at the time showed the club were getting stronger and stronger. And the fans traveled with us on that journey and they were brilliant, the time we had together was fantastic.



  • "What is your proudest achievement from your time at Fulham?"

I know they've surpassed it now, but probably captaining them to their highest ever top flight finish. Taking the club into Europe. Taking the team and captaining the team to the win at Old Trafford. There's many highlights.



  • "Who was the most talented player you played alongside at Fulham?"

Louis Saha for his period of time was sensational for us. He was the perfect player for the system we played. Steed Malbranque was a magnificent technician. John Collins had a glorious left foot and was terrific on the ball. There's many, many that stand out. Van Der Sar as I've already mentioned, and of course Chris Coleman before we had to retire. Steven Finnan who went on to Liverpool.



  • "Assuming both Huddersfield and Fulham are doomed to go down, which club will make the managerial changes first and will both be able to bounce back at the first go?"

I think Huddersfield have done their managerial change. Their new manager will be there to try and bring them back up. I think Fulham it all depends on, if they were to go down, how they go down. If they go down fighting and there looks like there is something to work with, they could stick with Claudio Ranieri.

But if they go down in terms of how they performed against Manchester United and I watched it and I thought there was a real lack of fight and desire in the group. If that's going to be remainder of the season I would say there is a good chance Fulham would make a change in the summer. But that's all going to be dependent on how they finish the season.



  • "Which 3 words would you use to describe your qualities as a manager?"

Hardworking, disciplined and fearless.



  • "When a manager realises the players he has are unable to play the way he wants/ believes is right, do they consult with the playing group?"

Yes I've tried to do that in the past. I've tried where the staff, the manager and the players set out over the course, certainly over preseason, of what their roles and responsibilities are, and what they believe they should be doing. So it puts ownership back on the players.

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Lee Clark
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Lee Clark

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