Lee Clark: Birmingham City sack manager and his assistant Birmingham City have sacked manager Lee Clark and his assistant Steve Watson. Blues, 21st in the Championship, have placed first-team coach Richard Beale and chief scout Malcolm Crosby in temporary charge at St Andrew's. Clark, 41, had been with Blues since June 2012, and helped them avoid relegation on the final day last term. A club statement confirmed: "The search for a successor has already begun. The board will look to make an appointment in the very near future." BBC WM's Richard Wilford "Lee Clark's departure can hardly be viewed as a major surprise. They have won only one home game in the Championship since October 1st 2013 - that is 24 games and counting. It was their away form that saved them on the final day of last season, and it is also points on their travels that holds them a point above the drop-zone now. The only question now is who fancies taking on a tough job? Given the delicate ownership situation at St Andrew's it is a task that should not be considered lightly." Clark brought Terry McDermott and Derek Fazackerley with him to Blues as his backroom team, as had been the case at his previous club Huddersfield Town. They made light of the up-for-sale club's off-field problems to steer Blues to 12th in their first season, but City struggled last season. McDermott and Fazackerley left in February when Clark promoted his old Newcastle United team-mate Watson to be his number two. Lee Clark's management record Dec 2008-Feb 2012 Huddersfield Town. P 178 W 87 D 51 L 40 June 2012-Oct 2014 Birmingham City P 116 W 33 D 35 L 48 And Blues only stayed up on the final day of the season thanks to an injury-time Paul Caddis equaliser at Bolton. By way of coincidence, it was following Blues' 1-0 home defeat by Bolton on Saturday that the St Andrew's board, now led by Panos Pavlakis following the departure of Peter Pannu three weeks ago, chose to act. Not loose any sleep there will we
Some inspector came into our office. Town fan! The topic of next Newcastle manager came up. He said 'you know who I think would be a good choice, now shoot me down in flames if you will......Lee Clark!' I'm in an office full of Newcastle fans and you could hear a pin drop! He said that he was doing a good job at Birmingham and their poor league position was due to having little to work with! He had many restraints! That might be true but he was still hardly doing a good job was he?
