Former Leeds United striker and now BBC pundit Noel Whelan has recently claimed that he feels Jamie Shackleton is set to be an absolutely huge player for the club in the coming 2019/20 Championship campaign and he feels he’s already ‘better than Jack Clarke’.
Shackleton and Clarke have become household names across the 2018/19 campaign as we almost made our way out of the second tier and into the Championship, but both fared slightly differently when it came to game time and involvement under manager Marcelo Bielsa.
It also can’t be forgotten that just when Clarke looked like he was going to turn a corner, he fell down ill and that collapse in the dug out naturally held him back as we took a kid gloves approach to him (and rightly so).
There should be big things to come from both next season though with the experience they gained his year, so whilst it’s too early to make comparisons on who is the better player – given they are different types anyway – I can’t see many disagreeing with Whelan’s general thrust on Shackleton.
Speaking to Football Insider recently, he explained.
“Jamie Shackleton is the standout young player at Leeds, for me. I know everyone is talking about Jack Clarke, but Shackleton is better than Clarke, who doesn’t make the same impact. Shackleton is an all-round player who has a bit of everything. He ticks more boxes than Clarke, who is an out-and-out winger, and is going to be a really important player for Leeds next season. Shackleton can play in different areas of the pitch, drive the team forward, win the ball, see a pass, beat a player, he can do most things really well. I’m getting really excited about what he can achieve.”
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