Huddersfield Town beat Charlton Athletic to no-nonsense defender for £0 – It proved to be a masterstroke | OneFootball

Huddersfield Town brought in Peter Clarke on a free transfer from Charlton Athletic, and it turned into a masterstroke of a deal.

Having been voted as Southend United’s Player of the Season in 2009, Southport-born centre-back Peter Clarke departed the Shrimpers on a free transfer, and a fight for his services began.

Clarke had moved to Roots Hall in August 2006 in order to play Championship football so, after refusing a new contract on a couple of occasions at Southend, the expectation was that, with Southend having finished eighth in League One, he would try and opt for a move back to the second-tier.

However, he decided to remain in League One and instead joined Huddersfield Town, signing a three-year deal, rejecting a contract offer from Charlton Athletic.

Whilst with the Terriers, Clarke would establish himself as a fulcrum of their defence and once again re-establish himself as one of the very best centre-backs in League One, and perhaps the whole of the Football League.

Peter Clarke enjoyed big Huddersfield Town impact

Always highly-rated when coming through at Everton, and then performing well at Brentford, Clarke was someone who had already enjoyed some highs in his career.

However, with Town, he etched himself into the folklore of the club and became more than just a cult-hero among supporters over the course of the next five seasons.

Clarke made 224 appearances for the club and won back-to-back Player of the Season awards in the two seasons after joining them, as well as getting into the PFA Fans’ Player of the Year team for League One in 2011.

Fairly remarkably, those two seasons in which he was nominated as the club’s best player also coincided with the emergence of Jordan Rhodes, who was their top scorer in each campaign, with 23 goals across all competitions followed up by a further 22 in the following campaign.

Despite his performances, it was to be Clarke that received the most plaudits as Huddersfield finished sixth and lost in the play-off semi-finals then finished third before losing in the play-off final.

In the 2011/12 season, Clarke was again instrumental for the Terriers as Rhodes hit 36 league goals, 40 across all competitions, and they finally got themselves promoted as play-off winners.

He stayed on for a couple more seasons in the Championship, too, helping Town begin to establish themselves as stalwarts of the second-tier for much of the next decade or so.

Peter Clarke's career after leaving Huddersfield Town

After leaving Huddersfield, Clarke had another season in the Championship with Blackpool, but couldn’t help the crisis club from finishing rock-bottom.

He remained in Lancashire during the following season as he joined Bury before another local move saw him spend three seasons with Oldham Athletic. The rest of his career saw underwhelming stints back at Oldham and Bury, as well as with Fleetwood Town and Walsall.

He again showed his defensive aptitude and class, though, at Prenton Park with Tranmere Rovers, before finishing things off in non-league at Warrington Town and then Prescot Cables.

Despite the final decade or so of his career appearing like a journeyman few years, Clarke still showed his high level of quality with two Player of the Season awards at Oldham Athletic and one with Bury, as well as getting into the EFL League Two Team of the Season and PFA Team of the Year for League Two with Tranmere in 2022.

For a player to have had such an impact that he is remembered fondly as a player by as many as six clubs is fairly astonishing, but that was the quality Clarke had.

For Huddersfield to have been able to pounce and pick him up on a free transfer was an outstanding piece of business, and certainly backed up their effort and desire to bring Clarke in from Charlton.