Erik Lamela won’t be looking forward to Gareth Bale’s arrival from Real Madrid as it may see him ousted him out of the matchday squad, but spare a thought for Jack Clarke.
The 19-year-old has become a forgotten man at Tottenham and is yet to make his debut more than a year after signing from Leeds United, so he doesn’t stand a chance of getting playing time when the Welsh international returns.
Where is Clarke?
Currently in our reserves after failing to impress in pre-season. Clarke amassed 200 minutes from a possible 360 from friendlies but didn’t do enough to convince Jose Mourinho to keep him in the first-team.
Clarke made his non-competitive Tottenham debut in our 3-0 win over Ipswich Town (August 22), replacing Heung-min Son at half-time. He made his second appearance in our 4-1 win over Reading (August 28), replacing Dele Alli after the hour mark. The 19-year-old’s third outing came in our 1-0 win over Birmingham City (August 29), playing 70 minutes before being replaced by Son. His fourth appearance was in our 2-1 defeat to Watford (September 5), coming off the bench at half-time.
Since the season started, Clarke played 45 minutes in our U23s’ 1-1 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion (September 12) before being substituted at half-time. He was left out of the matchday squad of our senior team’s 1-0 defeat to Everton (September 13) and 2-1 win over Lokomotiv Plovdiv (September 17 but didn’t feature in our reserves’ 3-0 win over West Ham United (September 18).
Will he play for our first-team?
Unlikely. He’s clearly not at the level required to make our squad and didn’t impress any visiting scouts last season. Clarke made 3/28 appearances on loan at Leeds United (July 3, 2019 – January 1, 2020) and 7/19 appearances for Queens Park Rangers (January 16, 2020 – July 31, 2020), so he might have to drop down to the Championship to get first-team football.
Crystal Palace, Everton and West Ham United were linked with Clarke last summer, but Birmingham City and Nottingham Forest are the calibre of clubs eyeing his signature this summer. Here’s hoping he can get more opportunities than he did at Leeds and QPR.