Canny, apart from the typical doom-mongering headline: Mike Dodds makes stark admission over ankle injury victim Jack Clarke https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/resources/images/17292906.jpg?type=mds-article-962 By Scott Wilson MIKE DODDS has admitted there is no like-for-like replacement for Jack Clarke within the current Sunderland squad – and is hoping the Black Cats’ attacking talisman will be available for this weekend’s game at Norwich City….. “I won’t allow Jack to be used as an excuse,” said Dodds. “Jack is not just a good player for us, he's probably the best player in the league. “We're talking about one of the best players in the league, so you are never replacing Jack Clarke. But one thing I will say, and I think this is really important, when Jack Clarke came to the football club, he wasn't the Jack Clarke he is now. I think that's an important message. “We have to make sure that message is really clear with Romaine (Mundle), Abdoullah, Naz. I appreciate there will be frustration among the fans and I wish I could fast forward time, but Jack Clarke when he came to the club wasn't the Jack Clarke he is now. “That's a really important message people need to, not understand because they're fans and want to win games of football, but from where I'm sitting, we have to make sure we work with the other players to get another Jack Clarke.” In the shorter term, Dodds is hoping Clarke will be able to resume training this week with the aim of being able to feature in Saturday’s game at Carrow Road. The winger was due to be reassessed this morning, with Dodds continuing to hope his ankle issue is not too severe. “That’s what I’ve been told,” said the Sunderland boss “He's raring to go. He's a robust boy, since he's come in, he's hardly missed any football. He rarely misses training, hence the reason we thought he'd be available (for the Swansea game), but for whatever reason, that hasn't happened.”
Think mundle could fill in for him no bother, might not see the goal return but while Clark is out at least we might have some attacking threat down the left
I still think that was s Rusyn's best position, seen him play there for the under 21,s and he had a very good game
We only carried the ball into the box three times on Saturday so Mundle could really help there. I don’t know if Mundle could fill in easily yet, but he looks really talented. Clarke wasn’t an instant hit in his first few months here and he’d played a decent amount of first team football, whereas Mundle is still petty raw.
Just taken a look at Jack's stats since his move to Ipswich and they're not good. 10 appearances, no goals and only one assist. He's on the bench again today. What a waste of a great talent. It was his choice, but he must be thinking what have I done?
