Scout Report – Jack Clarke
Jack Clarke, another of Leeds’ potential future stars, has scored 9 goals in 7 starts for the club’s Under-18 side this season and has now reportedly snubbed advances from Manchester City to sign for them on a long-term basis.
Despite the interest from one of the hottest teams in Europe now, the player believes it would be a mistake to walk away from Leeds at this point, especially since the club helped him ward off interest from others by offering this deal around a year earlier than expected.
The player believes that he can push on over the next couple of years without the worry of trying to earn a contract and considers Leeds United very much his club. Here’s what we know about him:
History
The 17-year-old Clarke was born in York and signed for the Thorp Arch Academy with his fellow York resident Niall Huggins 8 years ago.
Clarke attended the Archbishop Holgates School and always had a flair for the game, which got him noticed by scouts at a very young age indeed before being snapped up by the Leeds Academy. Now that he has signed his professional deal, it marks the arrival of another potential first-team player for Leeds.
Style Of Play
Clarke has good range and can fill out over the next couple of seasons, which will allow him to add more strength to his game. For now though, he certainly uses his ability to take a man on very well.
Skilled at fighting his way past opponents, Clarke possesses a very powerful shot and has already used that to good effect when he was promoted to the under-23’s in recent times. Not afraid of taking a shot whenever he is in range, he is just the sort of forward that Leeds could do wonders with. If only he were ready for first-team football now!
His Future
He obviously has a big future in the game as anyone who has seen him play will attest to. Hopefully, nothing goes wrong in the meantime and over the next season or so we see Clarke being introduced to the first-team for cup games and the like.
In fact, Clarke has already been invited to train with the first-team squad by manager Thomas Christiansen, giving the young forward some vital experience, which is sure to stand him in good stead for the near future.