Ipswich Town closing in on Sunderland star | OneFootball

Clarke is closing in on a switch to Portman Road, with the Tractor Boys continuing their summer spending spree.

Ipswich Town have agreed a deal to sign Sunderland winger Jack Clarke.

This has been confirmed by Fabrizio Romano, who believes a £20m deal has been agreed, with add-ons included in this agreement.

The Tractor Boys have enjoyed a very busy summer transfer window - and they need to if they want to give themselves the best chance of remaining in the Premier League for more than one season.

With Vaclav Hladky leaving, Aro Muric has come in as his replacement and he could be a real asset this term following his move from Burnley.

Ben Johnson, Jacob Greaves and Conor Townsend, meanwhile, have come in to strengthen Kieran McKenna's side's defence.

Greaves performed very well on the opening day of the campaign and will be hoping to build on that in the coming months, with the player likely to win many more starts during the season.

Looking further forward, Jens Cajuste and Kalvin Phillips could be excellent assets to have in the middle of the park after joining the Tractor Boys on loan.

And in the final third, Omari Hutchinson has joined permanently, as has Liam Delap and Sammie Szmodics, with the latter scoring 27 goals in the Championship last season.

Armando Broja could also be set to join, but more work may need to be done in the final third before the window closes, with the club lacking top-quality wide options.

Hutchinson could be a key player this term and Wes Burns may have a part to play, along with Nathan Broadhead, but a game-changer in this area could really make the difference for Ipswich in their quest to survive.

Ipswich Town close in on Jack Clarke

Ipswich’s interest in the player had been reported before last night, when Romano revealed that the 23-year-old was closing in on a return to the top flight.

The winger, who has been a real game-changer for the Black Cats since his permanent move to the Stadium of Light, is set to join the Tractor Boys in a £20m deal.

This deal is set to include add-ons - and Regis Le Bris’ side have secured a sell-on percentage as part of the agreement - which should allow them to financially benefit from Ipswich’s future sale of Clarke.

The wide player had been the subject of interest from other teams during the summer, with Southampton among the teams to be linked, but Ipswich look to have won the race for his signature.

Ipswich Town could have pulled off a very shrewd deal for Jack Clarke

A lot of the Wearside club's fans will be disappointed that their team didn’t manage to secure more for Clarke.

Consistently impressing in the past couple of seasons and still having two years left on his contract, he probably could have been sold for a lot more.

His contributions will be sorely missed at the SoL - and it will be interesting to see how the Black Cats can adequately replace him - and if they can.

Adding more depth and quality to their forward department should help the Black Cats to replace him, but they may also need a replacement winger.

Someone could potentially be internally promoted to Clarke’s current position, but not replacing him with a high-quality player would be a bit of a risk, even if more quality is added to their striker department.

Looking at the deal from the Tractor Boys’ point of view, it’s a risk because Clarke doesn’t have a huge amount of top-tier experience under his belt, having failed to thrive at Tottenham Hotspur.