“A player who likes to get on the ball and commit defenders, make things happen, be creative and hopefully score goals and get assists.”
If there was a quote to summarise Jack Clarke, that would probably be it. It’s fitting then that those words are from the man himself back in January 2022 after completing a loan move to the Stadium of Light from Tottenham Hotspur. Clarke was part of an ambitious January recruitment drive for Sunderland’s relatively new owner, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, and sporting director Kristjaan Speakman – a haul which also included Patrick Roberts, Danny Batth, Trai Hume, Jay Matete and Jermain Defoe – as they looked to finally escape their League One peril.
For Clarke, however, it was far from straightforward.
Brought in by Lee Johnson, the winger, 21 at the time, made his Sunderland debut in a 6-0 massacre at Bolton Wanderers which led to Johnson’s exit. In the most recent Netflix series of ‘Sunderland ‘til I Die,’ Clarke references his first weeks at the club – a club seemingly synonymous with the self-destruct button, and how he wondered if he had made the right decision.
“It’s always daunting joining a new club,” he said. “I’d signed under Lee Johnson then he got sacked two days after and I was thinking ‘what have I got myself in for, here?’
“I was just thinking it was going to be a nothing loan, like the loans I’d been on previously where I’d achieved nothing. I was doubting the decision. I wouldn’t say morale was s***, but things you’d associate with this club in the past were starting to come back up again.”
And Clarke’s self-doubt continued throughout the first month of his time on Wearside as he went six consecutive games without tasting victory, starting just two of those games.
Sunderland were toiling. Despite what, on paper, resembled a strong January transfer window, their aspirations of reaching the automatic promotion spots in League One were drifting by the game as Alex Neil, Johnson’s successor, failed to provide the kind of managerial bounce Louis-Dreyfus had hoped for.
Things would eventually start clicking into place for both Clarke and Sunderland, however. After Ross Stewart grabbed a 93rd minute equaliser to save Sunderland from yet another Stadium of Light humiliation against Burton Albion at the end of February, Clarke and his new team-mates would not lose another game for the rest of the season.
Clarke’s first individual impact came soon after in a 3-1 win over Fleetwood Town where he demonstrated what has now become a trademark finish from the winger throughout his time on Wearside. Clarke made 17 appearances during the second half of Sunderland’s League One campaign, contributing towards four goals as Sunderland had to settle for a play-off spot.
His biggest contribution would then come in the second leg of those play-off semi-finals against Sheffield Wednesday when assisting Roberts for the goal which took the club to Wembley and eventual promotion. Yet Clarke was not part of the starting XI at Wembley as Neil left the winger on the bench – a telling sign of just have far he has developed since then.
Although Sunderland would gain promotion, and Clarke undoubtedly played a part, there was still some reservation as to whether he would, and should, be brought back to the Stadium of Light that summer. Sure, he had the flair and he had the guile, and he had the looks and the coloured boots to accompany it, but was there too much flash? That subconscious perception of Clarke is one he has had to deal with a lot throughout the early part of his career following a number of unsuccessful loans, including one at Stoke City where he was unable to dispel the myth of being able to ‘do it on a cold night in Stoke.’
But as Sunderland celebrated the two-year anniversary of Clarke’s permanent move to the club this week, it’s very clear the decision to head back to Tottenham with a fee in the region of £1million to secure his services on a permanent basis was the right one, and one of Sunderland’s best pieces of business for a number of years.
Here, We Are Sunderland looks back on Jack Clarke’s two-year rise at Sunderland.
***
"Jack would be a positive of the recruitment model," said Sunderland coach, and former interim boss, Mike Dodds. "He came in on loan initially and took a while to settle but towards the back end of the League One season he was very good and then we got to the summer and Jack didn’t come in immediately, I think he joined us halfway through the trip to Portugal – it wasn’t like he came in straight away.
“But he’s gone from strength-to-strength.”
It’s difficult when a loan signing returns to a club in the following transfer window as it doesn’t always feel like an addition to the squad, given they played a part the previous year. That said, had Clarke not returned to Sunderland in the summer of 2022 there would have been a hole to plug on the left side of Sunderland’s attack.
Clarke arrived midway through pre-season due to the Championship’s early start at the end of July but immediately resembled a player transformed, both physically and mentally. From the lightweight winger who, at times, felt bullied by League One defenders, Clarke became a player with the bit between his teeth to start the new season in the Championship and with a point to prove after being left out of the play-off final starting XI a few months earlier.
Clarke was put straight into the starting line-up by Neil and would reward him by scoring Sunderland’s first goal in the Championship in over four years since Paddy McNair notched against Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2018. Surprisingly, it came via the most unlikely of sources as Clarke scored the first of just two headers with the club in the opening day draw with Coventry City.
Clarke drifted in at the back post from a Lynden Gooch cross from the right and was able to create just enough space to nod beyond Simon Moore – a player who has since become his new team-mate this summer.
Clarke was certainly not renowned for his heading attributes, nor was that why he was brought in, but it was a welcome start to his permanent career on Wearside.
Instead, what supporters had expected from Clarke was the glimpses shown in League One. Take his first goal for the club against Fleetwood, for example. Clarke has scored 27 times for Sunderland over his two-and-a-half-years and there is an element of cut and paste to a number of those goals for which he displayed against Fleetwood.
Clarke is constantly on the lookout for space on the pitch and being able to stretch teams wide. And in this example, you can see just that as the ball is ushered out to the left wing by Matete to start the move.
Clarke then does what Clarke does in driving towards the penalty area and putting opposition defenders on the back foot at pace.
Despite being predominantly right footed, Clarke has the allure of being able to go down the line or cut inside as an inverted winger which keeps defenders guessing. On this occasion, and most for that matter, Clarke is able to drop the shoulder and advance in-field thanks to the decoy run of Defoe on the overlap.
Clarke then drives across the box with only one intention in his mind as to whether he can create enough space to shoot.
Eventually, having reached the centre of the pitch with a number of defenders left in his wake, Clarke unleashes a fierce strike into the corner to hand Sunderland their first home win in over a month.
Although that approach has become synonymous with Clarke’s attacking play, he did show some variance when it most mattered in the play-off semi-final against Sheffield Wednesday.
When picking the ball up in a similar position wide on the left, Clarke is faced by Jordan Storey.
Sunderland, at this stage, were hanging on to take the game to extra-time after Lee Gregory levelled the tie at Hillsborough. But rather than take the ball into the corner and relieve some of the pressure, Clarke sensed an opportunity for Sunderland to win the tie there and then.
With Storey on the back foot, as shown in the image below, Clarke has the option of going either side on his left or on his right. On this occasion, Clarke checks back down the line onto his left before driving a low cross into the box for the on-rushing Roberts to power a finish at the near post and spark jubilant scenes in the upper tier of the Leppings Lane End.
And it’s that ability to drive at defenders which has become so prominent in Clarke’s game with Sunderland – an ability which has grown and grown as he himself has grown in confidence and skill.
Clarke is one of those players who likely frustrates the so-called ‘normal’ players. There are games where he can be on the fringes, rarely involved when it comes to touches or productivity, but he has the capacity to create something out of nothing beyond the abilities of your average players.
Take his display against Rotherham United, for example, where he scored and assisted twice in a 3-0 win at the Stadium of Light in Tony Mowbray’s first game in charge. Clarke took on the mantle of expectancy and shouldered it with ease as he carried Sunderland to an impressive win after what had been in turbulent week in the aftermath of Neil’s walkout.
But it was his goal which really resonates and aligns with that capacity to create something out of nothing. Pictured below, Clarke is hugging the left touchline while Ross Stewart has possession of the ball. Stewart has dragged two defenders out of position which leaves a huge space between the lines for Clarke to exploit after Stewart reverses a clever ball in-field for the winger.
Clarke, as we have already seen in previous examples, drives towards the edge of the area and slaloms his way between a number of Rotherham defenders aided by the intelligent run of Ellis Simms which creates further space inside the penalty area.
From the moment Clarke picked up possession, his intentions were clear in providing a threat on Viktor Johansson’s goal.
Clarke exploits the space created by Simms’ run by shrugging off a number of challenges with the question then being whether he can deliver the finish. Clarke is cleverly able to reverse the ball back across goal and into the bottom corner to cap a man of the match display with his second goal of the season and an encouraging start to life as a permanent Sunderland player.
Over the course of the last two seasons, Clarke has comfortably been Sunderland’s best ball carrier having led the way when it comes to progressive carries – Clarke was the Championship’s leading ball carrier last season by some margin despite missing over a month of action through injury – but it’s not just Clarke’s ability with the ball at his feet which is so dangerous. His off the ball threat is equally as dangerous to opposition teams.
As already referenced, Clarke enjoys stretching teams by maintaining width on the left but his desire to run in behind is also why he plays such a prominent role in Sunderland’s attack.
Take Sunderland’s stunning team goal against Reading in the early part of the 2022-23 campaign, for example. As Mowbray’s team effectively work possession down the right side of the field in a remarkable team move, Clarke waits for the perfect moment to launch his run from the opposite flank up against Andy Yiadom.
As Dan Neil receives possession inside the Reading half on the right wing, Clarke now has the jump on Yiadom and the pace to attack the huge space in front of him.
Neil is able to curl an excellent ball into the path of Clarke, who still has work to do up against the retreating Yiadom.
Once again, however, Clarke’s deft first touch provides him the chance to cleverly drop the shoulder once more and cut inside onto his right foot and find the bottom corner to complete one of the goals of the season in 2022-23 anywhere.
That goal against Reading typified what Sunderland’s identity became under Mowbray, with Clarke increasingly integral to that style of play.
And it wasn’t just teams in the Championship who Clarke began to get the better of on a regular basis. As Sunderland headed to Craven Cottage to take on Premier League opposition in Fulham in the fourth round of the FA Cup, Clarke – already with 10 goal contributions to his name that season – demonstrated his ability to do so at the top level when handing Sunderland the lead after his high pressing caused a mistake in the Fulham defence.
Sunderland earned a replay at the Stadium of Light where, although they would fall to a narrow defeat, Clarke demonstrated his trademark finish once more.
This time, owing to Sunderland’s centre-forward issues following Stewart’s injury in the initial tie, Clarke was drawn a little more central with more emphasis placed on the full-backs to provide overlapping width. In this case, it was Aji Alese.
Alese gets the better of his man in the final third where Clarke, again, has managed to find a pocket of space away from Fulham’s midfield and defence on the edge of the area. Alese’s cross is perfect for Clarke who exhibits his technical ability again with an expert first touch to kill the ball dead and open his body up before his second touch is to curl into the far corner beyond Marek Rodak in what was another stunning piece of individual brilliance from Clarke
In the wake of Stewart’s injury, and Simms’ return to Everton from his loan spell, Sunderland’s attacking options were limited at centre-forward. It meant a greater emphasis on the likes of Clarke, Roberts and Amad Diallo, as well as January recruit Joe Gelhardt, to contribute towards Sunderland’s ‘for’ column. And Clarke stepped up.
After scoring four goals in the first half of the season, Clarke contributed seven in the second half of the campaign along with a handful of assists to take his tally to 20 goal contributions for the regular league season – Sunderland’s best ahead of Amad (16), Stewart (13), Roberts (12) and Alex Pritchard (10).
And it was again the trademark finish which became so evident in the second half of the season. Below is a snapshot of his goal of the season contender against Bristol City where he was able to drive in from the left to create half-a-yard of space before unleashing a wonderful strike into the top corner, as well as his goal against Preston North End on the final day of the season.
Both goals against Bristol and Preston followed a similar pattern whereby Gelhardt was able to draw in a defender in the centre of the field before releasing the ball to Clarke in space on the left where he was able to drive at a defender one-against-one and find the back of the net.
And it’s a trend which continued last season, too, as can be seen with goals against Sheffield Wednesday and Hull City when cutting in from the left and finding the target from range.
Clarke’s blueprint is pretty clear to opposition teams, but being aware of his threat and attributes is different from being able to prevent them. Still in the absence of an out-and-out, established goalscorer, Clarke took his game to new heights last season with 15 goals. In total, Clarke has contributed towards 39 of Sunderland’s 120 goals scored back in the Championship over the course of the last two seasons which represents astonishing value for the outlay Sunderland parted with for the winger two summers ago.
It’s form which has quite rightly drawn attention form the Premier League and across Europe with the club turning down multiple approaches from Burnley and Serie A side Lazio in particular over the last 12 months, with neither able to meet the club’s valuation.
But despite a period of turmoil for Sunderland last season, Clarke continued to demonstrate his capabilities, no matter who was in the dugout, which reiterates just how much he has grown as both a player and as a person during his time on Wearside.
“At this moment, this is the right club for Jack,” former head coach Michael Beale said in February. “He's a fantastic footballer and he loves playing football so I don't even need to say anything to Jack - whatever he wants to achieve, ideally here, then he has to play well.
"I'm in a win-win. The boy has to play well, he's playing well, he loves playing for our club and we do a lot to allow Jack to be Jack in terms of our style and the allowances we make for him defensively so that he can be a matchwinner.
“He's been absolutely superb and any outside noise is nothing new, he's had it since he was 17 really.
“He's still young but he's got a lot of experience. He's had the big move and a couple of loans where it hasn't gone so well. He's found a home in football so I'd say he's very content [but] I'm sure the noise will get louder."
Although Sunderland are experiencing plenty of interest across their squad this summer, with Jobe Bellingham, Chris Rigg and Anthony Patterson among those linked with moves away, Clarke remains the player of most value to Sunderland owing to his exploits since joining on a permanent basis.
Sporting director Speakman has routinely had to field questions over Clarke’s future, particular following comments made by the players agent, Ian Harte, who admitted following the rejected move to Lazio that ‘hopefully this summer we'll probably see Jack moving.’
Harte added: “Last summer Burnley came in and bid to Sunderland to try and take Jack. Sunderland didn't feel the valuation was high enough and they turned it down. Obviously, being an ex-player like myself, you've just got to go out and focus on what you're getting paid to do, go out and perform for the team, which Jack has done.”
But Sunderland have remained firm in their stance over their players under the current ownership, including Clarke, in that they will not be forced to sell unless they receive a substantial offer in correlation with both their valuation and the current market value.
“If you were able to keep our group and keep moving it forward, you could argue that you don't need to sell a player and you can then go and get promoted. I think we're very close to that with the group that we've got,” said Speakman.
“Ultimately, the club will move at a certain pace and the players will move at a pace. With the players it can be quite quick, a centre-forward for example or a wide player could be at your club, score ten goals and all of a sudden they're in demand and have the opportunity to move much quicker than the club can - because we have to move by seasons and players can move by windows.
“I don't see any issue with trading being part of being successful, I think everyone is doing that. Ultimately, we'll just try to make the right decision by the club every time those key questions come up.”
He added: “We've always tried to retain the top talent and those conversations are ongoing for numbers of players.
“We try to keep a really, really close contact with the agents of all the players to know how they're feeling, where they feel they are at the minute, what they think is the next step for them, how comfortable are they with the environment, what can we do to chop and change things here to make sure they're really, really comfortable. And naturally, if anyone's got a contract they're starting to get towards the conclusion of, then we're always really active on that front.”
Clarke’s contract, however, is a particular grey area for Sunderland given he is now advancing into his final two-years at the Stadium of Light. While that represents plenty of time for Sunderland to retain the his services, it does mean his value will only depreciate from here on out.
Sunderland will be aware of fees for Championship rivals after Leeds United’s Archie Gray joined Tottenham for a reported £35m, with Hull’s Jadon Philogene set to move to the Premier League for £18m and Liam Delap on the brink of a £20m move. It’s expected that Sunderland will have their ballpark figure around those kinds of fees, but they will struggle to command that amount of money beyond this summer, irrespective of whether Clarke continues on his upward trajectory, unless he agrees to a new deal.
Sunderland were in talks with Clarke last summer over extending his current contract but those talks reached an impasse according to Harte. Speakman, however, has not ruled out the possibility of talks continuing.
“I don’t think it (contract talks) ever runs its course,” said Sunderland’s sporting director. “There are always ongoing conversations. I think at the minute, everyone is really comfortable with where it sits, and those conversations will continue.
“There’s loads of things that can affect that as you go through, but we’ve always had really open dialogue with players and their agents. We talked a lot about Ross Stewart and there was never a case of on, off, on, off. It was just ongoing, and I just think that's the way it’s done in the modern game.”
Clarke will continue to attract Premier League interest this summer with Southampton already among those potential admirers, while Crystal Palace may reignite their interest following the sale of Michael Olise to Bayern Munich.
But former interim head coach Dodds was not as convinced as many on Wearside that Clarke may have played his final competitive game for the club.
“I don’t feel it’s as completely forgone, in that sense, in terms of Jack is just going to leave the football club. He has a length on his contract still and the club have demonstrated they won’t be letting anyone go for cheap, so there will be some toing-and-froing, I’m sure, if there are a number of clubs interested.
"He’s got huge potential. He’s still a young man. There’s still a lot he needs to work on and there’s still a huge amount of his game he needs to be better at, in particular if we’re talking about him moving on and going to the Premier League. That’s not just one step up, for me the Premier League is like five steps up. It’s the best league in the world. So, there is still a huge amount he needs to improve and get better at.”
Keeping Clarke, at this stage, would be seen as a coup for Sunderland and new head coach Régis Le Bris heading into the new season. The Frenchman has already received a huge boost with teenage midfielder Rigg putting pen to paper on his first professional deal with the club as well as Jobe outlining his intentions to remain on Wearside this summer despite significant Premier League interest.
In that regard, Clarke can prove to be just as useful a figure in the Sunderland dressing room as he is on the pitch, having been that young player to earn a big money move to the Premier League already in his career.
Having progressed through the ranks at Leeds, an 18-year-old Clarke secured a move to Tottenham for around £9m in 2019 but would make just four senior appearances in North London having spent the majority of his time on loan elsewhere before making the switch to Sunderland three years later. Clarke has since been able to rebuild his career on Wearside which can be used as an example to the likes of Rigg and Jobe that such a big move early in their career may not always work out.
At 23, and with two-and-a-half-years under his belt at Sunderland, Clarke is now considered one of the more senior players at the Stadium of Light and is someone who has been ‘great for the football club’ according to captain Luke O’Nien.
Asked how important Clarke is, O’Nien told We Are Sunderland: “It depends who is listening to this; if there are scouts listening to this he’s rubbish, I wouldn’t buy him, he’s no good, he doesn’t score enough goals or make enough assists.
“So, any scouts listen to that bit and now dial out so I can tell you the truth about him.
“Listen, he’s made me a better player. I get him to run at me in training on a daily basis and it’ll be a case of if I do this, he’ll do that and I’ll ask how do I stop it and he’ll say ‘you can’t.’ He’s raised the standards.
“His stats and numbers speak for themselves, and I enjoy it when I come up against him because I know when you come up against the best players in the Championship day-in-day-out it raises your own performance.
“It’s tough [going up against him every day] but that’s the joy of it. We had that last season with some players with Amad and I try to get as close to these players as possible because it only makes you a better player.
“It’s clear how much he’s loved here, I think he’s been great for the club. I said thank you to him [after the final game of the season] for everything he’s done and I know what sort of character he is – he’s going to look to do that and more next season, and hopefully he does.”
Clarke's journey at Sunderland may have started uneasily, accompanied by plenty of misdirection. But in the two years since making his move to the North East a permanent one, Clarke has not only improved drastically as a player, he has also done something he had been craving; he found a home.
Read the rules here