Leeds News

Jack Clarke’s disastrous loan spell could cause huge problems for Leeds going forward – Opinion

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This isn’t the first time we’ve heard news like this.

However, given both who the story is coming from, and how close we are to the January transfer window being open, this sort of gives the whole thing a lot more credibility. Phil Hay in a recent story for The Athletic confirmed that Jack Clarke has kicked his last ball at Elland Road. The report later states that “he is expected to work under Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho before seeking a loan to another Championship club towards the end of the January transfer window.”

I’ve got two reactions to this news coming through.

The first of which is that I’m glad this whole thing is going to be over and done with so that we can wash our hands of the whole affair. The fact that we have been talking about this story for so long has just gotten nauseating and it will put an end to the ‘will he, won’t he’ debate about his playing time at the club.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from all of this though, combined with the struggles of Eddie Nketiah to make a breakthrough into the first-team, is that it could leave Leeds in a rather precarious position when it comes to dealing with clubs in the January window.

Whilst the club will have gotten rid of one ‘problem’ if you will with Clarke, it could just set the club up for a whole batch of new problems with the players the club is trying to sign on loan. Are clubs really going to trust Leeds to give their players the playing time that they want, when they know full well what kind of fate is going to await their players once they get under Bielsa’s wings?

And given that it was around this time last year that cracks started to appear in the side, with similar results already starting to show themselves during this campaign, we might need a few players to help smooth things over as we make the turn for home in the promotion challenge.

Should Clarke have been given more of a chance during his loan spell?

Yes

No

But if the other teams don’t trust us, we might not get the help that we’re looking for.

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