Wayne Clarke

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Wayne Clarke
Personnel
Surname Wayne Clarke
birthday February 28, 1961
place of birth Willenhall ,  England
size 183 cm
position striker
Juniors
Years station
1976-1988 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1978-1984 Wolverhampton Wanderers 148 (30)
1984-1987 Birmingham City 92 (38)
1987-1989 Everton FC 57 (18)
1989-1990 Leicester City 11 0(1)
1990-1992 Manchester City 21 0(2)
1990 →  Shrewsbury Town  (loan) 7 0(6)
1991 →  Stoke City  (loan) 9 0(3)
1991 → Wolverhampton Wanderers (loan) 1 0(0)
1992-1993 Walsall FC 4 0(1)
1993-1995 Shrewsbury Town 59 (22)
1995-1996 Telford United
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1976 England pupil 8 0(6)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1995-1996 Telford United
1 Only league games are given.

Wayne Clarke (born February 28, 1961 in Willenhall ) is a retired English football player . The striker began his career with Wolverhampton Wanderers as the last of five brothers playing professional football and celebrated his greatest success at Everton by winning the English championship in 1987 .

Athletic career

Wolverhampton Wanderers (1978-1984)

After four older brothers had already made their way into professional football and Wayne witnessed brother Allan Clarke 's winning goal for Leeds United in the FA Cup final against Arsenal at Wembley at the age of eleven, the youngest offspring also went for the similar Paths. At the age of 15, Wayne Clarke joined the youth department of Wolverhampton Wanderers in June 1976 and was considered a great talent as a selection player for the English national school team. He quickly worked his way up to the reserve team and received his first professional contract with the Wolves in March 1978.

Although he was still behind players like Mel Eves , John Richards and Billy Rafferty in the striker ranking , coach Sammy Chung enabled him to make his debut in the starting XI after two league appearances from Rafferty against Ipswich Town in September 1978. Although the game was lost to the reigning FA Cup winners 3-1, Clarke kept his place and scored the first championship goal against the Queens Park Rangers . When the Wolves signed another striker with Andy Gray for the new 1979/80 season , Clarke's prospects seemed to deteriorate, but with 16 league appearances he remained in the extended circle of the team. In the 1-0 final victory in the League Cup in 1980 against Nottingham Forest , however, he was not used despite a squad nomination. Also in the following season 1980/81, when with returning Norman Bell came up more competition, he stayed with the club and developed regardless of it more and more to the regular player. The sporting breakthrough finally came in the 1982/83 season, after the club had relegated to the second division the year before .

In the Second Division , Clarke scored in twelve league games, was the second best scorer behind Eves and helped his club to return to the English elite class by winning the runner-up. There, however, the Wolves could not hold on again and were relegated directly to the second division. Clarke then decided to change and hired in August 1984 for a transfer fee of 80,000 pounds in local rivals Birmingham City , which had also been among the first division relegated from the previous season.

Birmingham City & Everton FC (1984-1989)

It quickly became clear that moving to Birmingham was the right decision, because while Wolverhampton was bottom of the Second Division in the third division, the "Blues" managed to return immediately to the First Division and with 17 league goals in the 1984 season / In 85, "top scorer" Clarke played a key role. In the 1985/86 season he often had to struggle with minor injuries and bans. He only scored five goals and in the end had to accompany a first division relegation for the third time in his still young career. He initially remained loyal to his club and developed back into the usual goalscorer before the Birmingham City, which was fighting for relegation and financial pressure, complied with a transfer request from Everton . Together with Stuart Storer , who mostly stormed in the reserve team , Clarke finally switched to the "Toffees" and ensured that in March 1987 around 300,000 pounds were washed into the blues' clammy coffers. In this context, the club management of ex-club Wolverhampton Wanderers raised allegations in the direction of Birmingham Citys that the value of Storer was assessed as too high and thus that of Clarke as too low and consequently the existing resale clause of Wolves was reduced in value.

In Everton, Clarke, who ostensibly had been signed as a short-term replacement for Graeme Sharp , met his former teammate Andy Gray and scored five goals in ten league games - including the 1-0 winner at Arsenal and all three goals to 3-0 versus Newcastle United . In the end, he won the English championship with his new club and in the subsequent Charity Shield game he scored the goal to beat Coventry City 1-0 . It was the start of the most profitable first division year in Wayne Clarke's career when he scored ten league goals in the 1987/88 season. The sustainable was then not and the season 1988/89 ultimately marked Clarke's end in Everton. In 20 championship games he was only twelve times in the starting lineup and in July 1989 he moved in exchange for Mike Newell to the second division Leicester City .

Final career stations (1989–1996)

Clarke's stay in Leicester was short-lived and after less than six months and twelve competitive appearances, he returned to the Premier League at Manchester City in January 1990 for 500,000 pounds , where he met coach Howard Kendall , who had already made him Everton " had piloted ". But even there he did not manage to get a regular place, especially since Kendall - as before at Everton - left the club shortly after his commitment. Instead, the "Citizens" loaned him to third division clubs twice in the 1990/91 season. The first station from October 1990 at Shrewsbury Town was particularly successful with six goals from seven league games; the second outing from March 1991 for Stoke City ended up with nine championship matches and three goals. This was followed by a brief return to Wolverhampton in September 1991, where he was quickly traded as a possible strike partner for Steve Bull . But after just 20 minutes in the first and only game for the Wolves, he sustained a rib injury that even affected a lung, and which led to his being called back to Manchester early. His active career in the top divisions was obviously coming to an end and so he moved to fourth division FC Walsall in the summer of 1992 on a free transfer .

Wayne Clarke was after his brothers Derek , Allan and Kelvin the fourth of his family to play professional football for the "Saddlers" and with 21 league goals in the 1992/93 season, the new goalscorer led the club into the play-off games. These were then already lost in the semifinals against Crewe Alexandra with 1: 5 and 2: 3 and for the following season 1993/94 Clarke moved to local rivals, league rivals and the ex-loan station Shrewsbury Town. With the "Shrews" trained by the former Wolverhampton goalkeeper Fred Davies , the newcomer won the fourth division championship in his first year and made up for his missed promotion of the previous year. With eleven goals, Clarke was the second best striker behind Dean Spink and, as in Walsall, a regular penalty taker. In the last professional season 1994/95, Clarke had to contend with a number of minor injuries from November 1994. Although he scored another twelve competitive goals, but in the summer of 1995, his expiring contract was not extended.

Immediately thereafter, he took over the role of player-coach at Telford United in the Football Conference and held this until his resignation in November 1996.

Title / Awards

literature

  • Tony Matthews: Wolverhampton Wanderers - The Complete Record . Breedon Books, Derby 2008, ISBN 978-1-85983-632-3 , pp. 106-107 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Wayne enjoying his brave new world" (The Independent)
  2. ↑ "Ultimate Saddlers AZ 4" ( Memento from February 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (Walsall FC)
  3. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1995-96 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0-09-180854-9 , pp. 47 .
  4. ^ "Football: King marks Telford's change" (The Independent)
personal data
SURNAME Clarke, Wayne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH February 28, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Willenhall