Former Leeds United player and now pundit Noel Whelan has given additional thoughts about Tottenham Hotspur youngster Jack Clarke, following his impressive showing against Salford City in the EFL Cup.
Having returned to the club on a season long loan following his permanent switch to Spurs earlier this summer, Clarke has had to be patient once more to get a spot in the team, but Salford was his chance and he impressed plenty with his efforts.
Speaking in his column on Football Insider Whelan has often flip-flopped on the relative merits of the 18-year-old, but he felt that his performance in last midweek’s clash had shown that our Academy graduate had ‘matured’ his game and importantly, that he’d now added a defensive element to his play.
“What we did see was a young man that seems to have matured a bit from a season in the Championship. He seemed stronger on the ball, he wasn’t doing too much and we know what he can do. What he needed to do more of was defending through the 90 minutes. I wasn’t sure he could have done that, to be honest, with just a pre-season under his belt. Out of possession, wow. He was sprinting to get back, get the right side of the attackers and help Leif Davis out on the left-hand side. That was actually more pleasing to me because we now know he can put in 90 minutes of both sides of the game, which is more important when you’re out of possession.”
Given the early potential Clarke has shown and the lengthy speculation about the interest in him, it’s very easy to criticise and forget his age and experience in the game, but despite missing out on the bench given loan rules for the Wigan Athletic victory, after that showing few would think it will be long before we see him again.
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