Mauricio Pochettino was completely uninterested in talking about the situation of Tottenham Hotspur loanee Jack Clarke at his pre-match press conference this week.
Clarke joined Spurs in the summer from Leeds United in a deal which saw him remain at Elland Road for the 2019-20 season, under the tutelage of Pochettino’s mentor Marcelo Bielsea.
However, the 18-year-old winger has not played a single minute of Championship football this term and there have been suggestions that Spurs may recall Clarke in January to either integrate him into the first-team squad, or find him a more beneficial loan move.
But Pochettino said that is not currently the plan.
“Today, no. Today no. But football is dynamic. It always changes,” he is quoted as saying by Football London.
“Jack Clarke is at Leeds now. He is playing for Leeds. He is our player but he is on loan. Of course, if you say to me today about Jack Clarke, I don’t know because today he has not got a place to come with us.
Pochettino was dismissive of the whole line of questioning and even went as far as to say that talking about Clarke was “wasting time” ahead of Saturday’s visit of Watford.
“You know we have the people to look after Jack Clarke. We have the structure to look after him. I cannot think too much about Jack Clarke. “Of course I have all the reports every week but I cannot be focusing on what is going to happen with him in January.”
“I need to be trying to help my players and the team today because we need to win on Saturday and on Tuesday. It is wasting time, with all my respect to Jack Clarke.”
It is common for Pochettino to knock back transfer talk but the ignorant nature in which he did so is indicative of his recent strops.
The kid Clarke has been cast aside by Leeds and now has to hear that the manager of his new club, whose reputation for working with young players was probably a major pull for the teenager, has no time for him.
This is something that Poch would not have said 12 months ago.
