Jack Clarke may not love Ipswich Town’s Leif Davis transfer stance – here is why | OneFootball

The style of play of Leif Davis has stifled Jack Clarke, and so it may annoy the latter that the club are intent on keeping the former.

Ipswich Town are one of the title favourites in the Championship this season and it will be a statement of intent should they keep hold of left-back Leif Davis this summer, but it may also be bad news for winger Jack Clarke, should Davis indeed stay in Suffolk.

In their opening game of the season, Ipswich managed to peg Birmingham City back to a 1-1 draw at St. Andrew’s in the Second City, with George Hirst notching a controversial penalty deep into second-half stoppage-time.

Both Davis and Clarke started down the left-hand side for the Tractor Boys once again, but again the pairing didn’t quite click together, despite the quality of both players.

Clarke was taken off in the 79th minute of the game, replaced by Iraq international striker Ali Al Hamadi, with Bright Osayi-Samuel, Tomoki Iwata and the hard-working Demarai Gray helping to nullify the threat of the duo.

It has since been reported that Nottingham Forest have become the latest club to be interested in Davis, with suggestions that they are now lining up a bid after Ipswich had rejected multiple offers from Premier League clubs last week.

Ipswich have insisted that the former Leeds United defender is not for sale this summer, and that decision could be what continues to stifle Clarke’s time at Portman Road.

Davis and Clarke don’t appear to compliment each other

Last summer, Ipswich brought in Jack Clarke from Sunderland, as Kieran McKenna put together something of an all-star Championship side to take on the Premier League.

Clarke struggled to have any real influence in the top-flight, though, despite his progression into becoming one of the very best attackers in the EFL whilst with the Black Cats at the Stadium of Light.

Perhaps just simply unable to adjust to the physical demands and the higher technical level, there is also the view that Clarke struggled in the Premier League because of the way in which Davis plays.

Davis, who has gained promotion from the Championship with three different clubs, provided 18 assists for Ipswich as they finished second in the second-tier during the 2023/24 campaign.

He was magnificent in getting forward and providing more of a threat than most teams’ best attackers from left-back, but it may well have harmed Clarke’s integration into the side.

Constantly bombing up the pitch and hugging the touchline as an extra attacker the majority of the time, it is a reasonable argument that Davis simply takes up the positions that Clarke should and would want too often.

It forces Clarke to come inside, or even simply stifles his attempts to have an influence on the game, with opposition sides focusing on nullifying the threat of Davis and therefore crowing that area of the pitch, as Birmingham did on opening night.

As Sunderland finished 16th in the Championship in 2023/24, with Clarke their top scorer on 15 goals, the former Tottenham Hotspur man thrived on an individual level.

The 24-year-old didn’t really have a set left-back in-behind him that season, with, Trai Hume, Timothee Pembele and Niall Huggins slotting in there out of position, and being out of position forced them to become more conservative, with Dennis Cirkin having dealt with injuries throughout the campaign.

Clarke could thrive as the main man at Ipswich

Sunderland underperformed in that season, and Ipswich will want to avoid that, but they will be aware that putting more emphasis on making Clarke more important to their attack should mean he delivers better individual performances.

The potential sale of Omari Hutchinson, with Nottingham Forest having recently had a bid rejected for the England U21 international, is another thing that could lead to Clarke having more status as the most high-profile attacker at the club.

He has proven that with a full-back in-behind him that is slightly more reserved, such as Huggins or Pembele, there can be a freedom to his game that allows him to put up extremely impressive numbers and performances at Championship level.

The sale of Davis would perhaps be a blessing in disguise for Ipswich in that regard, with Clarke less pre-occupied with his defensive contribution, and also dealing with less of a defensive presence on his flank when going forward.

Davis and Clarke came through the Leeds United academy at the exact same time, but it could well be that, despite it being a magnificent pairing on paper for a variety of reasons, they simply don’t suit each other stylistically.