Jack Clarke the victor in the battle of Leeds’ academy old and new — The Athletic 13/12/23

By Phil Hay

The offer was worth more than £9million and, when it landed, Leeds United could not believe their luck.

They rated Jack Clarke, that was not the issue, but in the summer of 2019, when he was subsequently sold to Tottenham Hotspur, they had not banked on a valuation so high.

All round, it was a strange transfer. Spurs’ then coach, Mauricio Pochettino, was thoroughly indifferent about them signing Clarke. The 19-year-old winger was going from seeing decent game-time at Elland Road in the Championship to most likely getting none in the Premier League for Tottenham. Leeds, as part of their own strategy, wasted no time cashing in on a quality academy graduate.

For a good while, Leeds thought they had the better end of that deal. And perhaps they did.

Ahead of the 2019-20 season, it provided funding for a club trying to give coach Marcelo Bielsa a second bite at Premier League promotion after play-offs disappointment against Derby County weeks before, while treading within the boundaries of the EFL’s profit and sustainability net. They went up as champions 12 months later and were not once inclined to rue the loss of Clarke in return for seven figures. Clarke shimmied from loan to loan for the next three years, resigned to being in Tottenham’s peripheral vision.

But one bout of wrong club, wrong time does not need to define a career and Leeds would acknowledge that the Clarke who played against them away in Sunderland last night has — by going around the houses — justified Tottenham’s valuation of him.

If he were to be sold next month, the now 23-year-old would earn Sunderland considerably more than the £9.4million ($11.8m) Spurs committed four and a half years ago and considerably more than the fee the Wearsiders themselves put up to sign him permanently from Tottenham in July last year. His slow-burn growth underlines the complexity of youth recruitment: knowing who to sell and when, minus any guarantee that a maturing footballer will not leave you with regrets.

Deals for academy footballers, or those recently graduated from that level, come in different shapes and sizes.

It was Leeds who were motivated to sell Clarke in 2019, so sell him they did, under no great duress.

But as they found a month or so ago when they negotiated the exit of 15-year-old Finley Gorman to Manchester City, other scenarios involve more damage limitation, in which you have a weaker hand to play. Gorman, one of the best English midfielders on the scene in his age category, had resolved not to sign a scholarship with Leeds and join City instead. So it was either drive up the price with City or take whatever smaller sum the standard compensation process yielded.

Nobody at Leeds wanted Gorman to go, but facts were facts.

Nobody at Leeds wants Archie Gray to go any time soon either. Fortunately, he occupies the middle ground between ‘Quick, take the readies’ and ‘B*****ks, what can we do?’.

Leeds have him on a professional contract after outmanoeuvring the clubs who tried to get their claws into him when he turned 17 (and still would, given the chance). They will preempt the fact that when Gray turns 18 this March, the rules governing contracts allow them to sign him to tastier terms again.

It is best not to put too much stock in Gray being a one-club man like his great uncle Eddie was for Leeds because, well, you know how it is, but it is good they have a degree of control over a scenario they wish to control.

It was Leeds Academy old and new on one side of Sunderland’s pitch last night — Clarke as their left-winger against Gray as Leeds’ right-back.

The temptation is to still think of Clarke as the kid he was when Leeds pushed him through because that is how the club remember him and he is fresh-faced enough to be. But nothing will make him feel older than the realisation that when he made his debut for Leeds in October 2018, Gray was 12 years old.

Clarke has developed as a player in the period of his career when he had to and one of the dangers for a highly-regarded prospect is the failure to spot when the tag of ‘prospect’ no longer applies.

The case of Lewie Coyle, once the captain of Leeds Under-21s, sums this up perfectly.

As a serious break in the first team eluded him, various people at Leeds kept telling Coyle that he had time on his side; that he was still a whippersnapper. Then Fulham came to Elland Road in August 2016 with 16-year-old Ryan Sessegnon in their squad and whatever Coyle in his early 20s was at the time, he wasn’t daft. After a series of loans, Coyle, now 28, has been with Hull City since the summer of 2020.

Gray has been doing that to others in the Championship since August: making them feel their age, however old they are.

But not last night and not with Clarke, who pulled rank on him and set the tone for Sunderland by using his vibrancy to drag them out of a cumbersome start to the game. Clarke had the advantage of playing in his position. Gray had the disadvantage of playing out of his, with the added handicap of a visible yard of pace less than the man he was tasked with pinning down.

One quick burst from Clarke drew Gray into a lunge and an early booking. When they went one-on-one soon after, Gray did well to get out of that web without letting Clarke go or incurring a second yellow. But by then, Sunderland had found their stroke and Gray was reduced to playing in a conservative mode.

Playing within themselves would be the story of Leeds’ midweek trip to Wearside.

A certain group in Daniel Farke’s dressing room have amassed a lot of minutes under him already and Gray, in his first season, has played more than all but three outfielders.

Across the pitch, Leeds were leggy in body and mind, starved of individual spark or collective authority. There were scrambles and chances, but Sunderland had the better of them and by sticking at it, they pinched a winner 12 minutes from the end. Clarke’s sprint into the box forced Gray to go with him and play Jobe Bellingham onside as Alex Pritchard guided the ball towards the former Birmingham City youngster. Bellingham, himself only 18, then cushioned in a header from a few yards out, too close to miss.

Leeds have been pleasingly durable to this point in the season, unyielding more often than not. But Gray was pushed further by Clarke than he had been before, nobody around him looked like themselves either, and the fixtures Leeds are wading through are not designed to forgive anyone.

For the line-up which has been establishing itself under Farke, last night felt like one start too many.