Charlton Athletic never saw the best of prolific Coventry City and Sheffield United striker | OneFootball

In 2011, Charlton Athletic signed a striker who would go on to be prolific in the Championship.

Charlton Athletic signed Leon Clarke from Swindon Town in December 2011, but they never saw the best of the striker during his time in SE7.

The forward joined the Addicks after he scored nine goals in 14 League One appearances for Chesterfield, where he had been sent on loan by Swindon boss Paulo Di Canio following a bust-up between the pair, during the first half of the 2011/12 season.

Charlton striker Paul Benson moved in the other direction as part of the deal, and Clarke would no doubt have been hoping he would be able to make an impact during the Addicks' promotion push, as they were sitting top of the table in the third tier under Chris Powell at the time of his arrival.

Unfortunately, despite the fact he had been in good form prior to his move to The Valley, Clarke never showed the best of what he is capable of in South East London.

Clarke endured a disappointing spell at Charlton

Clarke only played seven games for Charlton during his time at the club, with just one of those appearances being from the start in a 1-1 draw at home against Bury - during which Dale Stephens scored a memorable long-range effort to earn a point in stoppage time.

His other six appearances came as a substitute. The striker replaced Bradley Wright-Phillips four times, Yann Kermorgant once, and Johnnie Jackson once, which shows why he struggled to break into the starting lineup on a consistent basis.

Kermorgant and Wright-Phillips struck up one of the best strike partnerships that Charlton have had since they were relegated from the Premier League, scoring 34 goals between them in League One as Powell's side won the title with an impressive 101 points.

Therefore, it is not a huge surprise that Clarke struggled for regular minutes and was sent on loan to League Two side Crawley Town in March 2012, just a few months after his move to Charlton.

During the 2012/13 campaign, following Charlton's promotion to the Championship, he scored 19 goals in League One across two loan spells at Scunthorpe United and Coventry City, but his good form was not enough to convince the Addicks to give him another chance, and he joined the Sky Blues permanently on a free transfer in January 2013.

Charlton never saw the best of Clarke

Not many people would have predicted that Clarke would go on to become a regular goalscorer in the Championship when he left Charlton to drop back into League One with Coventry, but the striker went on to enjoy the best season of his career a few years after leaving The Valley.

He netted 31 goals in the third tier for Coventry, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Bury across the few seasons that followed his departure from Charlton, with an unsuccessful spell in the Championship with Wolves during that time.

However, after joining Sheffield United in 2016 and helping them win promotion from League One, he scored 19 goals in the Championship for the Blades as they re-established themselves as a second tier side in the 2017/18 season.

The forward made two Premier League appearances under Chris Wilder during the 2019/20 season, including one against Liverpool, completing an impressive comeback from where he had been when he was sent on loan to Crawley and Scunthorpe during his time at Charlton.

There is no doubt that the Addicks did not see the best of Clarke while he was at The Valley, and who knows whether he would have been more successful if he had not joined the club at a time when Wright-Phillips and Kermorgant were so prolific.