Tottenham to keep Jack Clarke and let him grow with them – The wrong choice?

According to Football.london, Tottenham are looking at the prospect of retaining Jack Clarke for the season. Jose Mourinho said that it might be difficult for the player to get minutes but he does want him to train at the club alongside the senior forwards.

Profile

The 19-year-old English winger started his youth career at Leeds United. It was only in 2017 that he was handed a professional contract. He was promoted to the senior side in 2018 and went on to make his debut in October 2018 against Brentford.

He made a total of 25 appearances that season, scoring and assisting 2 goals each (source – Transfermarkt). Spurs signed him in 2019 but he returned to Leeds on loan for the first half of the season. He was recalled as he was not getting enough playing time.

QPR signed him on loan for the second half of last season. However, he managed to just make the 7 appearances for them. Currently, the player is back with Spurs and is playing for the U-23s. He is a part of the England U-20s and has 4 appearances for them, scoring once.

Should Spurs keep him or send him on loan?

For the first time in a long while, Spurs look like they have a good squad with able backups in every position. They did some good business bringing in the likes of Gareth Bale, Sergio Reguilon, Matt Doherty, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Carlos Vinicius.

If we were to look at the wings, since that’s where Jack Clarke plays primarily, we can see that there are a good stock of players. Bale is likely to be the first choice on the right, backed up by Lamela and Moura. On the left, Heung-Min Son is the undisputed starter backed up by Steven Bergwijn.

For a young player like Clarke, that does not look any good. Sure he can gain good experience from training with them but he is highly unlikely to get any sort of game time.

Verdict

With so many options in attack, Spurs should let Clarke go out on loan to a Championship club at least for the current season. He is too young but has potential and needs a regular flow of games.

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That is one thing he cannot get at Spurs. A temporary deal should be agreed in the coming days to help him with his development. The Championship could be the best place for that.