Harry Clarke - rumoured to be released by Ipswich (p18)

RodneyCharltonTrotta

BarnehurstBob said:

No real surprise, Harry Clarke released by Ipswich, alongside 'veteran' - as Ipswich describe - Ashley Young

Get Ashley in as head of post match celebrations.

BigRedEvil

Wasn't overall convinced of him and preferred Bree or even Feverier in that role. 

Covered End

BigRedEvil said:

Wasn't overall convinced of him and preferred Bree or even Feverier in that role. 

Bree won't be coming back & we need a back up, even if Clarke isn't first choice.
It's a no brainer to get him if he's free.

BalladMan

Covered End said:

BigRedEvil said:

Wasn't overall convinced of him and preferred Bree or even Feverier in that role. 

Bree won't be coming back & we need a back up, even if Clarke isn't first choice.
It's a no brainer to get him if he's free.

Why is Bree def not coming back?  If Southampton go up (big if) he is not a premier league player. 

Athletico Charlton

Go get him. We need two RB/RWB.  No way we end up getting two better than him imo.

Covered End

BalladMan said:

Covered End said:

BigRedEvil said:

Wasn't overall convinced of him and preferred Bree or even Feverier in that role. 

Bree won't be coming back & we need a back up, even if Clarke isn't first choice.
It's a no brainer to get him if he's free.

Why is Bree def not coming back?  If Southampton go up (big if) he is not a premier league player. 

Just my opinion.

Chunes

Fell into awful form at the tail end of the season but so did a lot of players. Was great before that. Sign him up.

swords_alive

Garrymanilow said:

It's been interesting watching Clarke with us, I actually think the more time he's had to take on Nathan Jones' instructions the worse he's got. When he came in he played like a bloke who hadn't had time to settle in yet so could just do what he does. And that was really refreshing, he patrolled his flank well, tackled and tracked and when he went forward he did it with intelligence and purpose; he drove up the pitch, screamed for the ball (often didn't get it) and took up clever positions to cross from. He was always looking to get the ball into the box and was often seeing if he could get a one-two with a player near him to create crossing space. He fitted in really well, against Leicester we saw the best of him and he offered us width and aggression. The problem is after that Jones started pushing him really, really high from the off and he couldn't drive into space anymore, he had to receive the ball up the pitch and his close control, ability to beat a man and finishing were called into question. Jones used to do that with Thierry Small on the left in the first half of the L1 season and it had the same effect; taking a player who wants to start from deeper, pick up speed and cause damage with a deeper cross or by bulldozing through and starting them up level with the opposition wingback just robs them of the space they want to work in. That's why he initially brought Apter in as he was happier starting higher up but Clarke just wasn't suited to the part of the pitch Jones wanted him in. With that in mind if we're going to keep playing that way I don't know if Clarke is the guy for us. He's a good enough player overall but I don't think he'll get any better at being a player expected to be further up than the target man and carve out shooting opportunities.

Found this very insightful, thanks @Garrymanilow.

If only Nathan could take some such learning from this type of analysis.

Callumcafc

Get him in the 2026/27 van

Sword65pf

Would be happy to see him sign, dropped off a bit but saw enough good stuff from him and he bust a gut for us at times, think there is room for him to improve also. 

Crispywood

On a free we’d be silly to not try and get him

North Lower Neil

BalladMan said:

Covered End said:

BigRedEvil said:

Wasn't overall convinced of him and preferred Bree or even Feverier in that role. 

Bree won't be coming back & we need a back up, even if Clarke isn't first choice.
It's a no brainer to get him if he's free.

Why is Bree def not coming back?  If Southampton go up (big if) he is not a premier league player. 

Even then they might see him as a decent back-up, or other Championship sides will see him as the right back from a promoted side - we had more chance when he was doing ok here but seemingly not wanted by Southampton.

J BLOCK

Very solid right back at this level, him on a free plus another for competition is really solid business. 

Bod

I'd like to see Harry here permanently, I thought that in balance it was a successful loan. To have as a free agent would be great, even just for the dangerous throw ins!!

killerandflash

BarnehurstBob said:

No real surprise, Harry Clarke released by Ipswich, alongside 'veteran' - as Ipswich describe - Ashley Young

I've not seen anything official yet?

Pavoren007

Would definitely take if one of two RWB recruits. If not two, think we need one side to have a real ‘trick’ in them rather than a solid defender, passer, crosser which we will have when Josh Edwards returns down the other side. We need more than TC and Carey to have a good at beating their man through a bit of skill basically. 

Laddick01

Bree started to look poor at the end of his time here, and now he’s a regular starter in a premier league bound side (maybe 👀)

Sign him up if we can. He was quality when he first came in and clearly got dragged down with our terrible style of football.

The only part of his game I though was lacking was his finishing.

LargeAddick

BarnehurstBob said:

No real surprise, Harry Clarke released by Ipswich, alongside 'veteran' - as Ipswich describe - Ashley Young

Sorry but where is this? Nothing on their official website. 

Crispywood

Laddick01 said:

Bree started to look poor at the end of his time here, and now he’s a regular starter in a premier league bound side (maybe 👀)

Sign him up if we can. He was quality when he first came in and clearly got dragged down with our terrible style of football.

The only part of his game I thought was lacking was his finishing.

Personally would have put it down to the fact he played through a groin injury which affected his crossing 

Callumcafc

Both Bree and Clarke have been promoted to the Premier League when playing in teams better than ours. 

Both have made a few Premier League appearances too: 22 for Bree and 7 for Clarke.

We’d be mad to think we’re better than either of them. 

CAFCOlly

Not the biggest fan of Clarke but I agree we could do a lot worse for a free transfer.

Athletically he’s excellent and usually does all the hard work brilliantly. Carries the ball well, beats his man, gets into good areas, but too often lets himself down with really, really poor end product. It’s frustrating because there’s clearly a player in there but his final ball and decision-making are among the weakest I’ve seen from a Charlton player in quite a long time.

Bringing him in as backup RB makes sense. I’d be a lot less convinced if the wages are high and the plan is for him to be first choice.

Callumcafc

BarnehurstBob said:

No real surprise, Harry Clarke released by Ipswich, alongside 'veteran' - as Ipswich describe - Ashley Young

Think you may have jumped the gun? Ipswich haven’t announced their retained list yet as far as I can see.

Addicksi

It's a yes from me. We need 2 players potentially for that position next year, we should definitely be in the conversation for him. 

mendonca

I think he'd make a decent RB, but as a RWB he is not very productive in his output in the final third. It could be easy to say 'that will come', but he is more threatening with the ball in his hands than he is with his feet near the goal.

I wouldn't break the wage structure for him and would imagine some established clubs could offer more as he's on a free.

Exiled_Addick

Assuming Bree is unattainable, lower that gang plank and welcome Harry aboard HMS Piss Lower Mid-Table.

bobmunro

A lot would depend on his wage expectations and other clubs being interested. I'm sure Ipswich would have been paying a big chunk of his wage while he was with us.

LargeAddick

I would actually be surprised if he’s released. I’m sure they’d be a number of clubs interested in his services and if they trigger the year option they have then would get a fee of 500k/1m. Unless of course he has a huge pay rise on promotion to the PL and they realise no one else will match them and so they’d be stuck with him for a year.

robinofottershaw

We probably need to spend a significant chunk of whatever transfer budget is available on quality additions to the midfield plus another left footed centre back etc. If Clarke were available on a free and a deal could be done on wages, that would seem like a sensible addition.

SporadicAddick

BalladMan said:

Covered End said:

BigRedEvil said:

Wasn't overall convinced of him and preferred Bree or even Feverier in that role. 

Bree won't be coming back & we need a back up, even if Clarke isn't first choice.
It's a no brainer to get him if he's free.

Why is Bree def not coming back?  If Southampton go up (big if) he is not a premier league player. 

Statistically he is. The general consensus on here was that Simon Francis wasn’t a league 1 player.

StevieK

I really like the guy. Live in Ipswich so know a lot of Town's fans and they absolutely love him. When playing well, he is one of the best full-backs in the division and would be great to get.