Jack Clarke is earning rave reviews at Leeds United – but where does this lead Mallik Wilks?
Jack Clarke is progressing ahead of his age. At just 16, the Leeds United prodigy is already starring for the club’s Under-18s side and has nine goals and seven starts to his name in 2017/18.
The striker is now expected to sign his first professional contract at Leeds when he turns 17 later this month, per Radio Yorkshire, and it is understood The Whites have beaten off Premier League clubs for his signature. And it speaks volumes about how highly Clarke is rated at Elland Road that he made his under-23 debut last season and also regularly trains with Thomas Christiansen’s first-team.
And former Leeds hero Ian Harte, who now represents the teenage phenomenon, knows just how good his fresh faced client can be.
“He is a top talent,” Harte said earlier in the year, in quotes reported by The Express. “Remember the name.”
But is Clarke now the most exciting homegrown striker in Leeds’ youth ranks? Mallik Wilks may have something to say about that.
The Leeds-born 18-year-old has been tipped for the top for quite some time and it appears only a matter of time before he gets an opportunity to prove his talent in the first-team.
Wilks has certainly taken well to professional football during a season-long loan spell at Accrington Stanley. Though he’s started just one League Two game, the teenager has taken on a ‘supersub’ tag – and scored his third goal of the season from the bench in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Newport County.
Wilks, then, appears closer to Leeds’ first-team plans than Clarke. But with the latter rising through the ranks at a remarkable rate, it will be interesting to see who Leeds manager Thomas Christiansen puts his faith in first.
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