‘Welcome to African football,’ one of his coaching staff said, a stench of sabotage in the air.
Lee Clark had just returned to his new home of Omdurman with two-thirds of his Al-Merrikh squad after a farcical third match in charge of the Sudanese club – a Champions League fixture against Tanzania’s Simba – when he received the news that the eight players left behind in Dar es Salaam after positive Covid results on the eve of kick-off had subsequently tested negative.
‘We’d had Covid tests on the Thursday because we were departing early on the Saturday morning. Everyone was tested negative and that meant all the players and entire staff were clear to travel,’ Clark explains.
Former Newcastle midfielder Lee Clark was announced as Al-Merrikh’s new boss this month
Clark speaks to his players during one of the three matches he has taken charge of so far
‘Tournament rules say that once you are in your opponents’ country you must be tested again and really that should be done by CAF, which is the equivalent of UEFA.
‘That didn’t happen, so we had to go to a local hospital which only had one lab. We waited five hours for every single player and staff member to be tested and then didn’t get the results back within the 24-hour period stipulated.
‘We did all our tactical and technical work, and then just before my final team meeting at 1.30pm ahead of a four o’clock kick-off, I was informed that eight players had tested positive, six of them from the starting XI.
‘We had to rip everything up and it was a case of fitting lots of round pegs in square holes: players who shouldn’t have been playing so early in their comebacks from injury, a winger at right-back, two midfielders in central defence.
‘The players who had tested positive had to stay in Tanzania to be retested when we flew home and unsurprisingly all tested negative. They were all back within a couple of days and returned to training as normal.
The 48-year-old is getting used to the heat in Sudan after making a surprise move to Africa
Al-Merrikh are the champions of Sudan and share Manchester United’s ‘Red Devils’ nickname
‘Negative three days before the game, negative the day after. Read into that what you will. Our legal department has sent a letter to CAF.’
Aside from that 3-0 defeat, Clark has enthusiastically embraced a return to the dugout in unfamiliar surroundings. Although he hasn’t seen much outside of hotels, he has won two out of two domestically and talks to Sportsmail from a week-long training camp ahead of this weekend’s visit of Egypt’s Al Ahly.
‘This will be a tough game, make no mistake. They’re the equivalent of a Real Madrid or a Bayern Munich in European terms. They’re the powerhouse as nine times winners of the competition but if I can pick my strongest team we can cause a bit of a shock.’
Clark had never been to Africa when he accepted the challenge of becoming head coach at Sudan’s Manchester United – they share the Red Devils nickname – having suffered some set-backs in a managerial career that began with a Football League record 43-match unbeaten run with Huddersfield in regular-season football but has since featured relegation fights, successful and unsuccessful, with Birmingham, Blackpool and Bury.
Clark made his name as a player at Newcastle (L) and impressed as Huddersfield manager (R)
‘I’ve always said I wanted to experience working abroad I didn’t put any stipulations on where that was,’ the former Newcastle, Sunderland and Fulham midfielder continues, having left his role as director of football at ambitious non-League side Newcastle Blue Star to take up the challenge.
‘Whenever people have contacted me about certain positions the answer has always been yes when it came to working in another country. My attitude has always been that I’d be prepared to listen to anything.
‘So when an agent I knew while I was in charge of Birmingham City contacted me, I saw it as an experience to put in the tool bag. No coaching course can emulate this kind of thing.’
During his Zoom interviews, Clark was sold on the 40,000 full houses for continental clashes – outside of current Covid restrictions – plus the intense city rivalry with Al-Hilal, who Al-Merrikh trail by three points with a game in hand: ‘There is unbelievable support for these two clubs. We are literally neighbours. They’re just across the road it’s a similar situation to that of Dundee and Dundee United.’
Clark has won both of his league games in charge since signing a one-year contract at the club
The ex-Birmingham boss shouts instructions from the touchline despite the language barrier
And so 48 hours after Ricardo Formosinho, a former assistant of Jose Mourinho at both Manchester United and Tottenham, was instilled across the Al-Ardha divide, Clark became the first Englishman to join the football ranks in Sudan, a country under Islamic law for 37 years until becoming a secular state in 2020.
There will be no post-match glass of wine after the two go head to head in this season’s yet-to-be-contested derbies as alcohol has only recently been made legal again for non-Muslims and Clark is respectful of the culture of a country ‘where people can’t do enough for you.’
Although he has a car, he has plumped for a driver as ‘it’s like the wacky races on the roads’ and another thing taking some getting used to has been temperatures touching 40 degrees daily. ‘It’s the first time in my coaching career I’ve worn a cap,’ he says.
The heat means training sessions are regularly held at 6am or in late afternoon, sometimes both on the same day but the 48-year-old is immersing himself in a country wanting to making a mark on the continent’s footballing map.
Clark, pictured putting pen to paper on his contract, is set to bring in his own assistant soon
The former Blackpool and Bury boss is settling into his new life and getting to know his squad
Last weekend, he was accommodated among the behind-closed-doors personnel at the Red Castle, which doubles as the national stadium, to see his midfielder Saifeldin Malik Bakhit score the opening goal in a 2-0 win over South Africa that put Sudan through to next year’s finals of the African Nations Cup, condemning Bafana Bafana to third place in the group and elimination.
There is a long-term plan to start an academy at Al-Merrikh and forge links with English clubs; a shorter-term one to bring in his own assistant manager. For now, he is grateful to strength and conditioning coach Islam Gamal for interpreting messages and instructions between him and his players.
This latest job offer coincided with the death of his mentor Glenn Roeder, who offered Clark his first steps as a coach at St James’ Park.
‘It was an unbelievably sad piece of news but what made me proud and smile a lot was all fantastic messages not just from Newcastle fans, there was so much positivity all over the country even from those who had met him for just a fleeting time,’ Clark says.
Clark stands alongside Glenn Roeder after being given a chance to coach Newcastle in 2006
‘As a captain and manager of Newcastle he became an adopted Geordie and he is someone who always put other people first. I spoke to him via text six weeks or so before his passing and he just wanted to know how I was and how the family was. That was typical Glenn.
‘I first knew him when I was a schoolboy and Willie McFaul would bring me in during the holidays to train with the first team. We always kept in touch and years later, he took me on the staff when he was manager and when he took the Norwich job he asked me to go as his assistant.
‘Moving from the Premier League to the Championship and to a completely different part of the country is not something I would’ve done for other people.’
In hindsight, it also appears to have triggered a new philosophy: ‘I love football and I don’t pigeonhole myself to work at any one level or in any one place.’
