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Tottenham Hotspur aren’t just looking at Tanguy Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso this summer. They’re also looking at the market for some young, preferably English, players to help shore up their depth and hopefully develop into the Tottenham stars of the future.
One of the players that’s been on Tottenham’s radar for a while now is Leeds teenager Jack Clarke, who broke out under Marcelo Bielsa this past season in the Championship. It’s no secret that Spurs have been watching him for quite some time, but Leeds have been unwilling to let him go cheaply and for good reason.
There’s been a lot of chatter about Clarke today on social media after some bookies apparently closed bidding on the Clarke-to-Tottenham line. That’s made a lot of people perk up their ears. I’m not someone who thinks that just because a gambling company shut down betting on a transfer rumor that it means they have some sort of inside information... they usually don’t.
But then there’s this:
LEEDS. Spurs have bid for young winger Clarke. Around 14m. Hearing he’s in London now ahead of a potential move. #Lufc #LeedsUnited
— David Smith (@DavidSJourno) June 14, 2019
This is, for now, the only place I’ve seen it stated that Spurs have actually made a bid for Clarke. If so, that’d represent a pretty decent deal in today’s market for a youngster that could develop into a Premier League star.
But before you get too excited, it’s probably worth tapping the brakes a bit for now. Football.london beat writer Alasdair Gold throws cold water on that rumor, saying Clarke is a target for Spurs and that there have been talks, but they are very much ongoing and the clubs are pretty far apart in their valuation.
Then there’s the Yorkshire Post, who in an article about another Leeds player (Kalvin Phillips) linked to Aston Villa, drops a line that says that confirms Spurs’ interest in Clarke, but says that Tottenham are “unlikely to meet Leeds’ current valuation.”
Clarke’s a good young player and is the kind of English youngster that Spurs should be gambling on every offseason. If he ends up here, it’d be a very good thing. However, all that’s to say: A) don’t trust transfer rumors that are solely based on the odds made by gambling agencies, and B) Jack Clarke may or may not be working on a transfer to Spurs, but it’s probably going to be a while yet before anything significant happens.