‘A strange time’ – Jack Clarke opens up his Spurs experience, training with Kane and Bale
Jack Clarke says that even though he did not get much game time at Tottenham, he learned a lot from working with the top players and managers at the North London side. Clarke was seen as one of the most promising young talents in the EFL when Tottenham shelled out £10m to sign him from Leeds United […]
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Jack Clarke says that even though he did not get much game time at Tottenham, he learned a lot from working with the top players and managers at the North London side.
Clarke was seen as one of the most promising young talents in the EFL when Tottenham shelled out £10m to sign him from Leeds United in 2019.
The winger never managed to fulfil his potential during the three years he spent at the Premier League side and he also underwhelmed during his loan spells at Stoke City and Queens Park Rangers.
However, the 22-year-old has thrived since sealing a permanent move to Sunderland last year, and he is currently leading the second-highest scorer in the Championship this season, having found the back of the net nine times in 16 matches so far.
He could soon be back in the Premier League, with TEAMtalk claiming last month that the Black Cats star is attracting interest from the likes of Crystal Palace, Brighton, and Burnley.
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Clarke has now spoken about his experience at Tottenham and admitted that he tried to learn all that he could from the way the big-name stars at the club operated.
When asked about his time at Spurs, he told Football.London: “It was a bit of a strange time. I learnt under a lot of different coaches, there were a lot of players coming in and out, it was a transitional period for the club.
“Just being in the building every single day, with top players like Heung-min Son, Harry Kane, even Gareth Bale for a period of time. They are the players you aspire to be when you’re a kid – just sharing the training pitch with them and how they go about their day-to-day business, you can’t help but be in awe of it, you had to apply yourself, learning from coaches at the top level.
“I wasn’t playing every day, but I had to use that timeframe to improve, and I tried to improve by almost mimicking these top players every single day.”
Jack Clarke learned a lot with Tottenham Hotspur
When asked if any particular manager left a mark on him at Tottenham, Clarke responded: “There were a lot of top managers. They all wanted different things – all managers in this day and age play a different style of football, and you have to be adaptable.
“You can only use it to learn – there’s a reason they are top coaches, and there’s a reason top players are there. You have to be a sponge and absorb everything – I tried to do that to the best of my ability.
“Every day I went into training, I applied myself and tried to get better – I just didn’t have the platform to showcase that. I still use a lot of what I learnt there to this day, and maybe that’s why I’m playing well.”
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While it is easy to say with hindsight that Tottenham should not have sold Clarke, the reality is that he did not really show much during his time in N17 to suggest that he is good enough for the highest level.
Perhaps, the 22-year-old is a confidence player, who needed an arm around his shoulder, which he did not really get following Pochettino’s departure.
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