Sunderland winger Jack Clarke is relishing life on Wearside and is back enjoying his football. The former Leeds United winger earned a big-money move to Tottenham Hotspur back in 2019 after a glistening Championship breakthrough season under Marcelo Bielsa.
However, the England youth international was unable to live up to the hype and force his way into Spurs' first-team set-up. His move to Sunderland last season was undoubtedly one of the coups of the League One transfer window and fans were very happy when the move was made permanent earlier this summer.
His arrival was a real statement of intent from Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and Kristjaan Speakman ahead of their return to the second tier. They've surpassed early expectations despite having lost Alex Neil to Stoke City midway through the early campaign.
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Tony Mowbray has come in and the seamless transition has seen the Black Cats continue their good start. Speaking to Sky Sports following the win over Reading, Clarke was quick to thank both managers for putting faith in him and is glad to be repaying them.
Clarke said: "I've enjoyed it ever since I came to this club and thankfully I've had two managers now that have put a lot of faith in me and given me the opportunity to play. Thankfully I'm starting to repay that faith and hopefully there's more to come.
"Obviously it's our first season back after a while and we all knew it was going to be a massive season. We'll just take it game by game and hopefully after ten, 15, 30 games - whatever it is - we'll put ourselves in contention to be there at the end of the season, but we just need to take it game by game."
The arrival of Mowbray didn't excite the vast majority of supporters on social media - although neither did the appointment of his predecessor Alex Neil - but the former Boro boss has a track record of improving youngsters. A key factor in his appointment and coinciding with the long term vision Louis-Dreyfus wants to implement on Wearside.
The technical ability of the current crop of Sunderland players is one of, if not the best, in the past five years, with their third goal against Reading being dubbed the goal of the season already. If the Black Cats can continue to produce that kind of football, it seems like only a matter of time before they'll return to the top flight.
"To be fair I probably had to do the least," Clarke said when asked about the goal of the season. "Everybody played their part - the gaffer has been drilling it into us, since he got here, that he likes good football being played.
"Wants us playing through the lines, one touch, two touch, pass and move. Obviously one of them came off and everyone was in the right areas, thankfully I was on the end of it."
It's been far from plain sailing for Sunderland who have played the last two games without a recognised striker, but have come away with four points against sides in the top-half of the table.
Clarke said: "I think everybody already knows we've all got a big role to play this season. No matter whether you're coming from the bench of starting week in, week out.
"We've all got to do our job regardless of who's injured, who's playing. It makes it more difficult not having a natural striker up there but like Pat [Patrick Roberts] said, we've been working all week without a striker and we're willing to adapt. Like you saw [against Reading] we can play without one. Hopefully we get one back soon."
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