Exclusive - Clark eyeing swift return to management after Huddersfield axe

Lee Clark has set his sights on a swift return to management after being sacked by Huddersfield.

Clark was axed by Terriers owner Dean Hoyle last week despite the club sitting fourth in League One and having lost only three out of their last 55 league games.

Speaking for the first time since losing his job, Clark told talkSPORT: “I’m going to be a manager again and ASAP basically. I’m ready to go. I’m 39 years old. I’ve got so much energy and so much enthusiasm.

“I’m going to wait until the right opportunity to comes around but while I’m waiting I’m going to be going out doing my management education and my coaching deduction.

"I’m going to go to clubs at home and abroad to watch different managers and different coaches to see how they work, how they learn and prepare and keep on continuing to learn. But hopefully it won't be too long because for the past week I’ve been a right pain in the neck for my wife."

Hoyle has revealed he lost faith in Clark’s ability to steer the club into the Championship but, while the 39-year-old bears no grudge towards his former employer, he is convinced he would have led the club to promotion.

“I have to disagree with that,” he said. “The backing I had off the owner was brilliant. We had a fantastic relationship and I don’t want that to change. But ultimately we were on course to deliver what he wanted.”

Simon Grayson has since been appointed as Clark’s successor and the former Newcastle star has tipped the Yorkshireman to steer the club into the Championship this term.

“Without a shadow of a doubt, Huddersfield will go up - 100 per cent,” he added. “Simon knows that, everybody knows that. They have got a fantastic group of players. The squad is brilliant, individually they are terrific.

“They will go up. Hopefully it is in the top two after they play Yeovil on May 5 and I’ll raise a glass of champagne to celebrate or if not May 26 in the play-off final at Wembley and I’ll do exactly the same then because I’ve got lots of friends there.

"The supporters were absolutely magnificent to me, the players are a magnificent group of players, as are the the staff, the owner, everybody at the club. I want them to do it.”