Jack Clarke will step out at Wembley later this month after helping Sunderland set up a League One play-off final clash against Wycombe Wanderers. Leading Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 from the first leg of their semi-final tie, the Tottenham man played a pivotal role in helping the Black Cats progress following a 1-1 draw at Hillsborough.
Electing to remain at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last summer and fight for his place in Nuno Espirito Santo's plans despite having offers from elsewhere, the 21-year-old was given 45 minutes off the bench in the team's Europa Conference League tie away at Pacos de Ferreira but failed to play after that. Only making the matchday squad once in Europe after his appearance in Portugal, it was clear to see that Clarke needed to depart in January for the third year in succession in order to play regularly.
With his loan move to QPR in 2020 just not working out and his time at Stoke City 12 months later cut short through injury, the York-born player dropped down to League One this time in hope of featuring regularly and getting his career back on track. His temporary move to Sunderland has proved to be a huge success so far, featuring more regularly towards the end of the season and chipping in with some important contributions to help his team seal a play-off berth.
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His most important contribution came on Monday evening, however, as he teed up Patrick Roberts for a stoppage-time goal to cancel out Lee Gregory's strike and send Sunderland to Wembley. It was Clarke at his best as he picked up the ball on the left flank and breezed past his marker to tee up his teammate for a simple finish.
Clarke was a constant threat for the Wearside club, notably in the second half, as he toyed with the Sheffield Wednesday backline and produced run after run in the final third to give them major issues. The hosts just couldn't live with him when he was in full flight and he looked more like the player who burst onto the scene at Leeds United following a tough few years in his young career.
Coming to the attention of a number of top clubs during the 2018/19 season at Elland Road, his displays against Aston Villa and Derby County were particular highlights as he caused them problem after problem with his direct running. It hasn't quite worked out for the player since departing West Yorkshire but his performance against Sheffield Wednesday was undoubtedly his best one by some way since his switch to Tottenham in 2019.
It was dubbed as a "coming-of-age Sunderland performance" by the Sunderland Echo as they awarded him nine out of ten for a "simply outstanding" showing. Now all at Tottenham and Sunderland will be hoping that there is another huge performance to come from him on the biggest stage as the Black Cats look to return to the Championship.
Clarke will then head back to N17 after his Wembley appearance in what is set to be a huge summer for the youngster. Signing a four-year contract following his transfer from Leeds United in July 2019, the attacker will soon enter the final year of his deal and that leaves Tottenham with a decision to make over whether they part with him permanently or he remains at the club.
Always going to struggle to force his way into the Spurs team previously with Son Heung-min, Steven Bergwijn and Lucas Moura as wide options, Clarke has made four appearances off the bench in total during his Tottenham career and has not even made the matchday squad in the Premier League once. The player's chances of first-team football will again be severely restricted next term following Dejan Kulusevski's move and any other potential incomings in the wide areas ahead of 2022/23 in a pivotal summer for the football club.
Clarke, however, has sent a timely reminder to Fabio Paratici about what he can offer after recapturing his old Leeds United form for Sunderland on Monday evening. It will now be down to the managing director of football and Tottenham to decide what comes next in his career.
