Clarke: Jack Raymond (Jack)
2017-Current
(Leeds Player Details)
(Player Details)
Striker/Winger
Born: York, Yorkshire: 23-11-2000
Debut: Brentford (h) (Substitute): 06-10-2018
6'1" 10st 10lb (2018)
Clarke became another of the many Leeds players to have graduated through the Leeds Academy after many years of moving through the age groups.
Thomas Christiansen was well aware of the talent that had been caefully nurtured and had thoughts of including him in the League Cup squad for the away
tie with Leicester City on 24th October 2017, but as he had yet to sign a professional contract, he decided against it, thereby not awakening interest from
other clubs. He had already signed a two year scholarship with Leeds in May 2017 and trained several times with the first team and was being carefully
blooded in the Under-Eighteen and Under Twenty-three Development teams. Manchester City did indeed show such interest and on 24th November 2017,
he signed his first professional contract, one of four years. He was called up to the first team, on the bench in the disasterous Cup defeat at Newport County
on 7th January 2018, but sat unused. He scored eleven goals in twelve starts for the Under-Eighteens and had started once and come off the bench six
times, without scoring for the Under-Twenty-threes by the end of the 2017-18 season. New Coach Paul Heckingbottom could also see the potential in Clarke
and on 8th May 2018 he called him into the post season tour of Myanmar. He was a sixty-first minute replacement for Pascal Struijk in the first game in a 1-2
defeat by the Myanmar National League All-Stars. He started the second game against the Myanmar national team three days later but was replaced by
Samu Saiz on the hour in a 2-0 win. With the advent of new coach Marcelo Bielsa, there were reassuring signs for the young professional as he was allocated
the #47 Jersey and selected for the pre-season 1-1 draw at Bootham Cresent in a 1-1 draw with York City on 19th July 2018 and he played a full game. Five
days later there was another full game at Oxford United, and he scored the third Leeds goal in the seventy-first minute in a 3-4 defeat at the Kassam Stadium.
He also got the second Leeds goal, four minutes after half-time as won 3-2 over Guiseley at Nethermoor Park on 26th July 2018 before starting off the season
with the Under-Twenty-Threes. However his new coach was soon bringing him within the first-team fabric and on 15 September 2018, he was named on the
bench for the first time in the League for the trip to Millwall and three days later for the 3-0 home win over Prston North End at Elland Road. Followed quickly by
once more being on the bench at Hillsborough in a 1-1 draw with Sheffield Wednesday on 28th September 2018 and a 1-0 win at Hull City on 2nd October
2018. On 6th October 2018, Clarke made his professional debut, when he came on as a substitute for Stuart Dallas, in the seventieth minute of United's 1-1
draw with Brentford at Elland Road. He was now becoming a regular squad member and two weeks later he again replaced Stuart Dallas, after seventy-six
minutes at Ewood Park on 20th October as United went down 1-2. He was again on the bench four days later, but remained unused, as United beat Ipswich
Town 2-0 at Elland Road to regain top position in the Championship. He once more came off the bench to replace Tom Pearce after sixty-five minutes as Leeds
were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Nottingham Forest.