Jack Clarke’s agent is playing down reports of a potential return to the Premier League with Everton, Crystal Palace and Burnley eyeing the £15 million-rated Sunderland winger.
If you were watching in black and white, you’d have been forgiven for assuming this was a re-run of Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona. The move starts from a simple ball from the visitor’s goalkeeper and ends up in the back of the home side’s net just 15 seconds later, via eight passes – most of them played first-time.
You’d struggle to find a better team goal anywhere in Europe – let alone in the EFL – than the one which put Sunderland 3-0 up away at Reading in September, a flowing move finished off in balletic style back Jack Clarke.
It was the sort of goal a team only scores when they are at their most harmonious. Almost riffing and jamming their way through games.
As Clarke’s agent tells i News, this is a ‘good time to be at Sunderland’.
And despite losing to Luton Town in the play-off semi-finals, the sense that something rather special is being built on Wearside could be enough to convince Clarke to rebuff the advances of Everton, Crystal Palace and Burnley in the hope of reaching the Premier League with the Black Cats in 2024.
Will Jack Clarke stay at Sunderland?
“He’s had 11 goals and 13 assists. Stats don’t lie. He’s played in the majority of games and now it’s about building on that,” says Harte, the former Leeds United defender.
“He loves it. It’s a great group of lads. It’s a good time to be at Sunderland and I think all the Sunderland fans are in the best spirits they’ve been in a long time.
“Jack loves it at Sunderland and he’s got three years (of his contract) left. Of course, I can’t control what other clubs are going to do. If other clubs contact Sunderland, that’s unfortunately out of my control.”
‘Loves it at Sunderland’
Clarke, who has struck up a real friendship with Ross Stewart and Patrick Roberts, knows from experience what can happen when a move doesn’t work out. And, after barely kicking a ball in anger at Tottenham Hotspur, the England U20 international may be a little more wary these days, in the knowledge that the grass is not always greener elsewhere.
“Jack loves it at Sunderland and he’s got three years (of his contract) left. Of course I can’t control what other clubs are going to do. If other clubs contact, Sunderland that’s unfortunately out of my control,” Harte adds.
“I think every player, no matter what league you’re in, has a price. And no matter what club you’re at if a club is happy with it they’ll take it.
“But top and bottom of it, I love going (to Sunderland). We’ll just have to wait and see. Since Tony (Mowbray)’s come in it’s moved up a level. He’s a good guy. For young lads, he’s willing to sit down, talk and explain to them how to improve.
“Some of the football that Sunderland played this season has been breathtaking. Finishing sixth was an incredible achievement in their first season back.
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