BBC Leeds pundit Noel Whelan has claimed that a move for Jack Clarke has stalled because the club has priced him out of the market.
Clarke broke through into the Leeds first-team under Marcelo Bielsa and was linked with a move to numerous clubs this summer.
Talking to Football Insider, Whelan claimed that Leeds had slapped a £20m valuation on the player amid interest from Bournemouth Crystal Palace and Southampton, saying “He’s not worth that”.
“Leeds have overpriced the young man from what I hear,” Whelan said. “They want £20million for him and he’s not worth that. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
“£12million is a lot of money, but £20million is overpricing a player. You have to be sensible with a player’s valuation. He still has a long way to go.”
OPINION
The way that Whelan is talking, you’d think Leeds want to sell Jack Clarke. We don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes and we know Leeds don’t have much money to spend on bringing new faces in, but we imagine they’d want to hold onto their best young players. Admittedly, Clarke’s form stumbled in the second-half of the season after he recovered from time out with a virus, but he showed enough to prove that he’s a real talent. With a whole pre-season under Marcelo Bielsa, we think Clarke could go on to be a real force in the Championship next season. However, every player has his price and if Leeds were to get £20million then they should probably take it and bring in a few quality new players. With all the will in the world, though, we’re with Whelan on this one. Clarke isn’t worth £20million at the moment and we can’t see any Premier League side matching the asking price.