Jack Clarke completed his long-awaited Sunderland exit yesterday evening.
The attacker had been heavily linked with a move away since last summer, but it wasn’t until Ipswich Town came in with a £15 million bid that the Black Cats were prepared to let him leave.
Many Sunderland fans are surprised that Clarke has gone to a newly-promoted club who are tipped to come straight back down, given that he had previously been linked with the likes of West Ham and Brentford.
While Clarke was desperate to play Premier League football and will now achieve that with Ipswich, it has been claimed that he had actually considered joining another Championship club.
A return to Leeds United was on the cards for Clarke
According to the Sunderland Echo, the 23-year-old was ‘open’ to rejoining Leeds United this summer.
The Whites had expressed interest in re-signing Clarke, but eventually went onto snap up Almeria’s Largie Ramazani and Manor Solomon from Tottenham.
Clarke was keen to return to Elland Road though and could well have stayed in the Championship if they had met his valuation.
The report claims that he could have shelved his eagerness to play in the top flight to have rejoined the club that he holds close to his heart – while they would have offered him a significantly better contract than Sunderland.
Leeds never bid for Clarke though and so he didn’t get the opportunity to return to his former club, but did instead earn a move to the Premier League.
Sunderland fans wouldn’t have accepted the move
While the winger’s love for Leeds is understandable after spending ten years there, a move to the Whites would have been incredibly hard for Sunderland fans to take.
Clarke’s move to the top division is certainly well deserved and he is much better than the Championship, so if he was to leave to join their rivals, then his departure wouldn’t have been accepted quite as comfortably.
The Black Cats have enjoyed a much better start to the season than Leeds, and if they can keep it up then they may well have been challenging Clarke for place in the top flight.
His move to Ipswich is much more bearable for supporters, though still understandably frustrating.