Leeds have hardly made use of Jack Clarke this season. The winger was used last season a lot as he made his breakthrough, but so far this time around he’s hardly featured and is yet to play his first minutes in the Championship, despite making two appearances in the Carabao Cup.
Now, though, with Leeds out of the lesser English domestic cup competition, the next game for Clarke looks a long way away seeing as he is yet to feature in the league and has only made the 18-man squad twice, as per Transfermarkt, both coming in the first two games.
That will be down to the fact that EFL regulations prevent a club from having more than five players in their matchday squad, and with Ben White, Eddie Nketiah, Jack Harrison, Helder Costa and Kamil Miazek the five that have been used, it leaves no room for Jack Clarke.
The 18-year-old did bring a pretty penny to Elland Road over the summer, his first season in professional football was all that Tottenham needed to see before shelling out a fee in the region of £10m on him and loaning him back to Leeds for this season, BBC, although now he can’t get a game.
All it will take is an injury or two to those in front of Clarke for the youngster to be given a chance in the senior side yet again, but if that doesn’t happen then Bielsa surely can’t justify holding onto the young starlet and playing him in the U23’s when he could be doing that at Tottenham?
If Leeds want to sign another loanee in January then they’ll be further restricted and need to leave two of their signings out of any given matchday squad, so with Clarke not playing at the moment allowing him to leave looks like it could be the best way to go about things regarding both the club’s and Clarke’s futures.