Jack Clarke is the Championship top scorer firing another Sunderland promotion push when it seemed another young talent had landed on the elite scrapheap.

Who’s this then?
Jack Raymond Clarke is a 22-year-old, York-born, 5′ 11″ winger and forward for Sunderland who currently tops the Championship scoring charts with nine goals, an assist and an amazing 85% shot accuracy. Some are tipping him for The Big Time, whatever that is. A time where things are big, presumably.

He got his start as a kid at Leeds United’s academy, graduating from there and signing a two-year development deal. The boss in 2017, Thomas Christiansen, was reluctant to field Clarke, fearing alerting other clubs to this talented youngster. That seems an odd thing. I mean, unless the kid plays, how do you know he’s consistently any good?

In the 2018/19 season he finally got a squad number and made his full debut that October. Although he only scored twice that campaign in 25 appearances, he nonetheless impressed so much that Spurs arrived at his door with about £5million, took him to White Hart Lane and then loaned him back to Leeds for the rest of the season. He won Young Player of the Year for them in 2018/19.

In the end he only made four appearances for Spurs who, it turned out, didn’t really fancy him and he was loaned to QPR, Stoke City and finally Sunderland who bought him after 17 appearances on loan, for £3.5m of your English pounds last summer. So far, so journeyman you may think. But things have changed.

It’s quite typical for young and promising players to be bounced around during the early years of their careers and it’s been that way for Clarke but his form this campaign suggests a player who has finally matured and hit his straps for the Black Cats. He made 50 appearances last season and scored 11 times. This season he’s scored eight goals in 15 and tops the Championship scoring charts, in the process helping Sunderland to an early push for promotion. How well he performs will probably dictate how well the club does. It’s time to deliver. Can he do it? So far, the answer has to be very much in the affirmative.

READ MORE: Leeds United, Sunderland stars among six Championship talents primed for England duty at Euro ’28

Why the love?
He can play on the left wing, right wing, midfield or through the centre. He’s played 62 games on the left and 48 on the right, as well as 34 as a left midfielder and eight through the centre. That’s pretty good flexibility but left wing seems to be his favoured position.

When you’ve got an 85% strike rate, it basically means that if you get the ball in front of the goal, you’re odds on to score, so the pressure is now on him to maintain this ratio through a full season.

A high strike rate also means that you don’t need a hatful of chances to score and that is probably the most important aspect when transitioning from second to top tier: you get fewer chances, so you’ve got to be able to take them. Time and again we see second-tier strikers struggle in the top flight simply because they’re not ruthless enough. Jack’s numbers in the last season and this suggest he’s on a steep upward curve.

In August 2019 he received his first international call-up as a member of the England U20s squad. He made his England U20s debut in a 0-0 draw against Netherlands U20s. Clarke scored his first goal for the U20s with the late winner in a 1-0 victory against Switzerland that September. That said, he’s not had a call-up to the senior squad yet and probably won’t do so until he’s playing in the top flight, because that is the test you’ve got to pass.

He’s not one of those forwards who you’d identify as having a particular skill set but that’s not a criticism. He’s just good at most things. There’s no doubt he’s got pace, though not lightning. Where he’s a cut above is in the accuracy of his strikes. He simply isn’t very wasteful and that in turn makes him super dangerous. His art is to not just aimlessly shoot at goal but take chances when they occur.

Three great moments
Two goals which illustrate his talent:

The fella is very composed in front of goal:

Makes it look easy:

Future days?
Although his numbers are not especially impressive, such things can be deceptive. Twenty-one goals in 141 appearances across his whole career doesn’t seem great, but 19 of those have come last season and this. Clearly, he’s growing into the player he’s about to become. Spotting The Next Big Thing is never simple unless it’s blindingly obvious, but should Clarke not go up with Sunderland this campaign, it’s not hard to see a lower-half Premier League club pay some decent money for him, or for a newly-promoted side to acquire him as a goalscorer.

It’s funny how these things work. His career before this season has been one of potential and promise but now is the time to start to deliver. There’s only so long you can be a useful youth development player; at some point you have to offer more. It looks as though he has decided this is the year to do that.

His market value according to Transfermarkt is only about €15m, which is peanuts to a Premier League side set to have around £130million hosed into their account at the start of the next season. So expect this excellent forward to be on the move next summer if Sunderland don’t get promoted. He is one of those players who stands on the threshold of being a top forward but it could go either way. Easy to see him, either for Sunderland or a Premier League club, blossoming into one of the league’s best goalscorers, but equally it’s easy to see him hit some sort of ceiling and be a Championship player for most of his career. He’s at a crossroads. Which way will he go