Clark, who had won the European Cup with Forest as a player, was Leyton Orient’s chief executive when he got the call to replace his former boss after the club had been relegated.
Star players Roy Keane and Nigel Clough left for Manchester United and Liverpool, but Clark brought in Stan Collymore and Jason Lee to add firepower, and Colin Cooper was added to strengthen their leaky defence.
Goalkeeper Mark Crossley remembers that Clark didn’t make any radical changes.
“There were loads of names being bandied around but not Frank’s,” he said.
“He only had £4m to spend and didn’t change the squad a lot. Everyone thought we would have a hangover from Cloughie leaving.
“But it was totally the opposite. We were superb that season, we kept the same formation, 4-4-2 never changed it. Frank just gave us license to go out and play.
“Forest was family and Frank kept everything the way it was. Some people come in and try to change things too quickly.
“He signed a top drawer striker in Stan Collymore from Southend that nobody would touch, and obviously, we all know how good he was,” said Crossley.
Despite only losing one of their last 21 games, Forest had to settle for second place, seven points behind champions Crystal Palace.
They clinched an immediate return to the top flight with a thrilling 3-2 win at Peterborough with two games to spare.
“We went 2-0 down after only about seven minutes. Then Collymore decided to put his boots on and rip up the Peterborough defence.
This story is from the May 09, 2021 edition of The Football League Paper.
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This story is from the May 09, 2021 edition of The Football League Paper.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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