Marcelo Bielsa says Jack Clarke has ‘improved his performances’ at Leeds ahead of Tottenham return

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Leeds United winger Jack Clarke is set to make a return to Tottenham Hotspur next month.

Despite hardly featuring this season, Marcelo Bielsa has interestingly claimed that Jack Clarke has ‘improved his performances’ during his ‘last days’ at Leeds ahead of a return to his parent club Tottenham.

After a breakthrough campaign at Leeds last season, Clarke saw his services secured by Tottenham over the summer, as it looked like his career was on the up.

But he has only played 19 minutes of Championship football for now-loanee club Leeds this season, as Spurs have decided to recall their player because of his lack of game time, as reported by Sky Sports.

After the news came out that Clarke will return to North London, Bielsa praised the teenager and claimed that his performances improved even though he hardly played under him this season.

“I am very grateful with Clarke,” Bielsa told Leeds Live. “He made his contribution in this part of this season, even if I didn’t use him. In the last days, he improved his performances, but just when the process was going on, Tottenham asked Leeds for Clarke to come back.

“I thought it was unnecessary to keep him if I knew he wasn’t going to be with us. I always try to make the players arrive as the best version as themselves. Sometimes, this process is not fast, it’s slow and we don’t achieve it faster.”

Bielsa has played a big part in Clarke’s rise, but many Leeds fans would perhaps be disappointed in the manner in which he is leaving Elland Road because many thought he was going to play a big part in their promotion push this term.

Clarke’s standout performance for Leeds perhaps came against Aston Villa last season when he came off the bench to help and score a wonderful goal as Bielsa’s men came from 2-0 down to secure all three points.

Now the highly-rated player will return to Tottenham where he will be hoping to impress new manager Jose Mourinho. He will have to do very well to impress the three-time Premier League winner because it needs to be remembered that it wasn’t Mourinho, but Mauricio Pochettino who signed him in the summer.