Leeds United journalist Phil Hay has been speaking about when Jack Clarke decided to leave his boyhood club.
Clarke came through the ranks at Leeds United and made his first-team debut when just 17 years old in the Championship, but only ever started four matches in the league for the Whites.
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In 2019, Tottenham Hotspur came calling and Leeds saw fit to sell the winger for £10 million. It looks to have been a stellar piece of business, as Clarke is still yet to make his Premier League debut for Spurs, despite there being a fifth different manager in the dugout in north London.
Hay has been delivering the inside information about Clarke and his move to Spurs on The Phil Hay Show.
He said: “What was strange about that [transfer] was that from speaking to people who I know that cover Spurs, regardless of whether the club wanted Clarke, nobody seemed to think that [Mauricio] Pochettino at the time was particularly bothered about that deal.
“It seemed to me to be a kind of odd move all round, in which the winners of it were always likely to be Leeds.”
TIF Thoughts on Clarke and his decision to leave Leeds…
It appears to be a shambolic decision from Clarke to join Spurs, but also for Tottenham to shell out £10 million for the winger, especially if what Hay has claimed is true and that former Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino never really wanted him.
It does not appear that Clarke is anywhere near being good enough for Tottenham given his severe lack of appearances and that even on his loan spells at Leeds, Stoke City and QPR, he’s failed to produce any sort of meaningful numbers to convince them he’s ready.
For Leeds, though, it could be considered one of the best pieces of business they have done in recent years given that as a Championship club, receiving that amount of money for someone who has failed to live up to the hype will surely have delighted the board immensely at the time.
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