Jack Clarke will be back in north London over the coming days after Tottenham decided to recall him from his loan spell at Leeds United.
Joining the Lilywhites from the West Yorkshire club at the start of July after an impressive debut season, the winger returned to his former side on loan for the season to gain some more valuable first-team experience.
However, the move has just not gone to plan at all and it was confirmed by CEO Angus Kinnear in the Championship side's matchday programme ahead of the Boxing Day game against Preston that Spurs want the player back in N17 due to a lack of playing time.
Starting in both of Leeds' Carabao Cup games against Salford City and Stoke City back in August, the rule that states only five loan players can be named on the substitutes' bench meant Clarke regularly missed out on the squad as Leeds had six loanees at their disposal.
The 19-year-old did start to feature more regularly on the bench over the past couple of months but his only appearance in the league this term came in November as he played the final 19 minutes of their late 2-1 win at Luton.
Amid reported interest from Brentford and Fulham, Spurs have decided to cut short the player's loan move and he is expected to move elsewhere on loan once the transfer window reopens for business.
Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa was quizzed about Clarke following their Boxing Day draw against Preston and he did state that the player had improved in recent days before Spurs decided to pull the plug on his loan deal.
"I am very grateful with Clarke. He made his contribution in this part of the season, even if I didn’t use him," said the Argentine, as reported by Leeds Live.
"In the last days, he improved his performance, but just when this process was going on Tottenham decided to ask Leeds for Clarke to come back.
"I thought it was unnecessary to keep him if I knew he wasn’t going to be with us.
"I always try to make the players arrive as the best version of themselves. Sometimes, this process is not fast, it’s slow and we don’t achieve it faster.
"For instance, I saw Nketiah tonight at a good level, light and fresh to run in a tough match and comfortable.
"He unbalanced a lot of situations. He was fast. Comfortable in small-sized spaces and able to unbalance the match."
