Jack Clarke has put his name amongst some of the world’s very best after a stellar campaign with Sunderland this season.
Jack Clarke joined Sunderland on loan in 2022 and endured a particularly underwhelming season in League One, scoring only once and failing to earn his place in the starting line-up in the play-off final.
It wasn’t until he signed permanently and made the step up to the Championship that he really blossomed, netting nine goals and providing 12 assists.
The winger has only improved this time round and now has 14 goals to his name and a further four assists in only 31 matches.
Clarke has comfortably become one of the second tier’s best attackers, dominating with the most successful dribbles in the league (112) – a whopping 27 more than second place Georginio Rutter.
He also has the sixth most key passes in the Championship too (73), only six off Gabriel Sara at the top of the charts.
Clarke has really impressed this term, but one statistic has already put him in the mix with one of the best footballers in the world.
According to fbref (as per safcsource), Clarke already has the record for carries into the penalty area in a single league season with 147 – that’s an eye-catching seven more than Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior. Previous to this season, the record was held by Viktor Gyokeres during his final season at Coventry City (143).
Clarke is also in third-place over all competitions, with Vinicius Jr beating him during both the 2021-22 season (148) and the 2022-23 season (181) – though let’s not forget that the Brazilian had featured in around 20 games more in both campaigns.
Vinicius Jr netted a total of ten goals and provided nine assists in La Liga last term – two less than Clarke’s goal contributions. Perhaps Real Madrid will be eyeing him up in the summer now…
Can we replace Jack Clarke?
All these brilliant stats are just a painful reminder of how good Jack Clarke is and how disastrous next season could be without him.
The 23-year-old is simply too good for the Championship and we are going to have to perform a miracle to replace him with anyone half as good.
Though, saying that, Kristjaan Speakman did spot something in him in the first place. So we are just going to have to pray he can do the same thing again.
Swap deal for Vini Jr?