Expect a big battle if Jack's available

PASSENGERS have no place in a Premier League squad, so could January see Ipswich winger Jack Clarke head back to the Championship?

- Chris Dunlavy

The Tractor Boys would be loath to give up on a player who cost them £15m, but the stats make for grim reading.

Four starts. One assist. No goals and dwindling minutes. The 24-year-old is having a nightmare at Portman Road.

Gone are the mazy runs and fearless dribbles that routinely lifted Sunderland fans out of their seats. Gone, too, the relentless avalanche of goals and assists that made Clarke one of the hottest properties in the EFL.

In their place is only toil and trouble, most of which Clarke runs into. So error-strewn was his performance against Crystal Palace at the start of the month that some Ipswich fans said he should never play for the club again.

Matters weren’t helped by a ten-minute cameo against Bournemouth that perfectly coincided with the Tractor Boys’ late collapse.