Sunderland U21s won 7-1 in Europe with Dennis Cirkin, Dan Neil and Luke O’Nien in the side
Ex-Sunderland winger Jack Clarke is starting to find his best form for Ipswich Town.
It’s not exactly rocket science, is it? Play Jack Clarke in his best position, let him do the things that made him such a lethal asset to Sunderland during his last stint in the Championship, and sit back as you reap the rewards.
For a long while, it seemed as if Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna was dead set against taking that simplistic approach. When Clarke first left Wearside to sign for the Tractor Boys, he looked to be a shadow of the player who had, at times, single-handedly kept Sunderland ticking over during the nadir of the previous campaign.
In all likelihood, that was partially due to him making an unenviable step up in quality to the Premier League, but largely, you suspect, it was also because he was deployed in several ways that were both unfamiliar and unsuited to him.
How things have changed of late. So far this season, Clarke has registered six goals and an assist across his first 14 Championship outings, and, at the time of writing, boasts the most prolific “goals per 90 minutes” rate of any player in the division, coming in at a quite remarkable 0.89.
And what’s more, his boss in Suffolk has started speaking about him in the same lofty, aspirational terms that were such a hallmark of his narrative at the Stadium of Light. In a recent interview with the East Anglian Daily Times, McKenna said: “I've spoken with Jack. He's already shown that he can be a really good player in the Championship. What we want him to be, what we believe he can be, what he wants to be is a really good Premier League player. To do that he had to, and he has to, develop from where he was 18 months ago in his all round game - his off the ball work, his defending, his resilience, all those things.
"I spoke to him about this season. Whether he plays 30 starts, 25 starts, or 25 starts, it's probably not going to be the decisive thing in him taking a step towards possibly being a Premier League player again and helping the club take a step towards being a Premier League club again.
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"It's about how he works every day, how he can keep improving his game, how he deal with different situations. He's doing all those things. He knows some weeks he'll do it from the start and he knows that some weeks he'll do it from the bench. I think he's a much better, more rounded player than the one who arrived and that player was already a good Championship player. It's not like he's got anything to improve at this level. He's just on his journey to becoming the best player that he can be."
Whether Clarke does ever successfully make the step up to the Premier League, only time will tell. In an alternate universe, he might already be doing exactly that as part of Regis Le Bris’ high-flying newly promoted upstarts. But at this stage, dealing in the counter-factual benefits nobody; all the 24-year-old can do is his utmost to play his way back to the top flight with Ipswich. If he continues on his current trajectory, and if McKenna continues to deploy him out on his beloved left flank, he might just get there sooner rather than later.
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