Jack Clarke has sent Sunderland fans a message after the club turned down multiple bids for him in January.
Jack Clarke has long been linked with a move to the Premier League, with the likes of Burnley, Brentford and West Ham all expressing interest in his signature.
However, it was Serie A outfit Lazio that launched numerous bids for the winger in the later stages of the transfer window.
After failing to meet Sunderland’s demands, Lazio turned their attentions away from Clarke and instead looked set to sign Fenerbahce’s Ryan Kent.
While a move for the former Liverpool attacker collapsed on deadline day, the Black Cats were left undisturbed any further and managed to keep hold of their key man.
Clarke went onto occupy his usual position on the left side of the starting line-up as they travelled to Middlesbrough yesterday, pulling off a spectacular assist which allowed Nazariy Rusyn to level the scoring and grab his second goal of the campaign.
Clarke has now addressed the interest of last month and has admitted he is still ‘happy’ on Wearside.
“I am happy to be here,” the 23-year-old told the Sunderland Echo. “I enjoy every minute of playing for Sunderland and pulling on the shirt. For me, the stuff that gets said on the outside doesn’t seem to bother me. As long as I’m coming in everyday wearing a Sunderland shirt, I’m happy.”
When will Jack Clarke leave Sunderland?
Sunderland have done brilliantly to keep hold of Jack Clarke so far, and the weekend’s performance was another example at how lost we would be without him.
Michael Beale’s side put on a very disappointing second-half display at the Riverside Stadium and looked set for defeat before Clarke did Clarke-things. Though, of course, credit still has to go to Rusyn for his fantastic effort.
Clarke now has 17 goal contributions in 30 games in the Championship and is simply too good for this league.
We aren’t taking advantage of having someone of his quality in the team though and will still miss out on the promotion this term, before he is guaranteed to earn his move to the Premier League in the summer.
The former Tottenham Hotspur man surely won’t hang around for us any longer after this season and deserves to be playing top-flight football, while we will realise just how important he was to us when we discover it is impossible to replace him.