Signing number four is in the building.
And this one shouldn’t take too long to settle into his surroundings, as he returns to his hometown and the scene of his early football education.
Harry Clarke is back at Ipswich Town in what looks to be another impressive-looking piece of business, following the January arrivals of Massimo Luongo, George Hirst and Nathan Broadhead.
The former Town academy player returns after more than seven years away from Suffolk, during which he has become a man, grown significantly in a physical sense and picked up some vital experience.
If Playford Road was his primary school, Arsenal provided him with the higher education he needed as well as work placements in three different professional leagues.
He left as a midfielder but returns a 21-year-old defender who, while at one time would certainly have described himself as a centre-half, now has other exciting strings to his bow.
Clarke has played a significant amount of football as an attacking right-back who, with pace, power, ability in the air and a desire to attack the penalty area, looks to tick a lot of the boxes required by Town boss Kieran McKenna.
Every manager he has worked with speaks highly of his attitude, maturity and leadership skills despite his young age, while Clarke himself has often discussed a 'desire to prove people wrong' in interviews.
So, where does he fit in?
It would appear Janoi Donacien now has some real competition on the right side of the Town defence, in what is a vital position in McKenna’s system.
A lot is asked of the right-sided defender, who needs to operate as something of a hybrid between a centre-half and a right-back, making the system work, with Clarke looking well-equipped to do that.
He can clearly operate at centre-half, too. He's another adaptable player, just like McKenna likes.
Whether he makes his debut at Oxford this weekend remains to be seen, but Town appear to have another young asset who could be capable of rising through the leagues, with or without Ipswich.
An Ipswich boy
Clarke is an Ipswich boy and, after some persuasion, is back to begin the senior career at Portman Road he always dreamed of, while growing up in the Playford Road academy.
He joined the Blues from Brantham Athletic and worked his way through the system, with his biggest moment undoubtedly coming when he put the ball in the net following a stunning, 13-pass move from Town’s Under 14s against Millwall in 2014.
That video has now been viewed 1.6million times on YouTube and is the most-watched video the club have ever published by a significant distance.
But a year after it was filmed he had moved on, with Arsenal coming calling and paying Ipswich what was believed to be a compensation fee in the region of £100,000 for the teenager.
His exit, as well as those of Charlie Brown to Chelsea and Ben Knight to Manchester City among others, led to former Town owner Marcus Evans criticising a system which allowed Premier League clubs to snap up young players produced in the lower leagues for fees well below their true value.
Evans wrote: “It is frustrating to be put in a position where we invest in a young player from the age of nine for several years and then are forced to lose him for a fee well below what I would consider to be a true valuation of that potential.
“We fully respect that at the age of 15 a person can’t be bound to a club based solely on their location and if the player wants to move on for valid personal reasons, so be it.
“However, more often than not, these decisions are influenced by money and if it’s about money then the club that has developed the player should be fairly rewarded, as the club taking the player is doing so for their own financial advantage.”
Big move
Clarke moved to the Emirates in 2015 and progressed well through their youth system before signing a first professional contract in 2018.
Having initially operated as a forward in Town’s academy, Clarke signed for Arsenal as a midfielder and eventually moved back into defence while with the Gunners, whose staff have described him as ‘a natural leader on the pitch’ on a handful of occasions.
Another new contract arrived in December 2019, after the then 18-year-old had played a key role in Arsenal’s Under 18s winning the Premier League South title and a breakthrough into their Premier League 2 side. He also featured twice in a young Gunners team in the EFL Trophy before penning the deal.
The 2019/20 season would prove to be his last full season spent at The Emirates club, though, as he deemed a good enough prospect to be sent on the loan path at the beginning of 2020/21
A first taste
First stop, Oldham.
The youngster managed 32 games of League Two football during his first season in the senior game, having captained his young Arsenal team in the EFL Trophy at the beginning of the 2020/21 season before making the move.
The first half of his spell with Oldham was managed by former Leeds and Liverpool winger Harry Kewell, who was certainly impressed with what he saw.
“Harry has done excellent since he’s been here,” he told The Oldham Times. “When we were first approached we were thinking ‘a young player coming in there, will he be able to handle it?’ but what a fantastic character he is first and foremost.
“He’s a pleasure to train, always willing to learn, always first out on the pitch, always last in and full of energy.
“We know he’s enjoying it and off the top of my head I can only think of one not-so-great game.
“Other than that he’s always pulled his weight, he’s looked strong, he doesn’t look out of place, he loves a challenge, he loves the physical side of it.
“He’s quick, he can play the ball, he’s comfortable on the ball.”
Clarke said at the end of the season: “It’s gone much better than I expected to be honest with you.
“When I first got the message that I was coming up here, we were at the bottom of League Two and people were saying ‘it’s going to be an absolute dogfight’ and people were saying I wasn’t ready for it because I’d been in the youth team. They said I didn’t have the mentality.
“They doubted me and it gives me a bit of fire in my belly just to prove them wrong. It’s been a chance for me to show that I am quicker than a lot of people say.”
Scottish split
Next stop, Scotland
Clarke’s season north of the border saw the youngster begin the campaign at Ross County, where he played under former Norwich defender Malky Mackay.
“Harry is a player that I have tracked and watched for some time having seen a lot of youth football during my time with the Scottish FA,” Mackay said.
“He is a player with talent and ability but more so he has a tremendous attitude and one that I think is a perfect fit for our club.”
Those who watched him regularly during his 17 Ross County appearances will tell you he looked technically sound, showed good pace and switched nicely between central defensive and right-sided roles.
He scored three goals, including one against Rangers and impressed Mackay to the extent he described him as ‘a more-rounded player’ when his loan came to an end.
Such was his improvement, Arsenal opted to end his loan at Ross County and move things up a gear for their young defender by loaning him to Edinburgh club Hibernian, with the added pressure that would bring.
It brought big experiences, too, including two appearances in Edinburgh derbies, one of which was at Hampden Park in a cup semi-final loss.
He signed on an 18-month loan but saw his early weeks disrupted by injuries, restricting him to only eight appearances before the end of the season. He did score on his debut, though, netting against Dundee United.
He was in bullish mood heading into the start of the current campaign, though, as he prepared for a full season at Easter Road.
“For me it’s about being the best in whatever position I’m playing, to be the best in the league,” Clarke said during the summer of 2022.
“So if it’s right back I want to push James Tavernier (Rangers captain) or whoever it is to be the best in the league.
“And obviously it’s about proving people wrong who have said things in the past about me and for going back to Arsenal I want to prove to them that I can be in their team in the future.
“That’s the long-term goal.”
Change of plan
Clarke’s Hibs journey ended in the summer, when Arsenal opted to pull him from his loan and move him to Championship side Stoke City instead.
“This will be his fourth loan and every loan he’s stepped into he’s dealt with the level and he’s impressed,” Potters boss Michael O’Neill said after signing Clarke in the summer. “He’s young, 21, and athletic with good pedigree coming from Arsenal and is still an Arsenal player. We’ve seen why that is quite quickly in the early few days we’ve had him.”
He started Stoke’s first two games under O’Neill, scoring in the victory over Blackpool in the second of those, but was then ruled out for two months with a shin injury.
By the time he returned, Alex Neil was in charge and, once fit again, Clarke forced himself into the Scot’s starting XI, featuring in 11 of the final 12 games Stoke played prior to his Ipswich move.
He made 20 appearances in all, split equally between starts and from the bench, but with the vast majority coming down the right side of the pitch in wing-back roles of varying attacking intent.
While Neil certainly didn’t send Clarke back to Arsenal, given his importance to the team, the Potters boss has hinted at shuffling his pack of loanees during a January window he started by carrying six, meaning not all could be included in the matchday squad.
With Liam Delap returning to Manchester City and subsequently being loaned to Preston, and Clarke now at Ipswich, Neil may just have the room to manoeuvre he was searching for.
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