Sunderland's Jack Clarke discusses his Premier League aspirations after leaving Tottenham and Leeds United

The 21-year-old joined the Black Cats on a permanent deal from Tottenham in the summer and has made an excellent start to the campaign, scoring four times and providing four assists in 16 Championship appearances.

Clarke joined Spurs from boyhood club Leeds in 2019 but didn’t make a league appearance for the club amid multiple loan spells.

Still, the winger says he learnt a lot from the experience in North London at an early stage of his career.

"Obviously it didn't pan out the way I or Tottenham had envisioned, or how the people around me envisioned it," Clarke told Sky Sports.

"It probably looks unsuccessful from an outside perspective, but on a personal note I didn't consider it unsuccessful.

"I felt I developed a lot as a player under good managers, and with good players around me. It was good for my personal growth and development.”

Clarke has benefitted from playing regularly at Sunderland this season, both under former boss Alex Neil and Tony Mowbray.

And while the side have won just one of their last seven matches, the Black Cats have held their own in the second tier and sit 14th after 16 games.

"We've got to be optimistic," Clarke added. "We're not going to try and not get into the play-offs obviously, but we have just come up from League One and we're not the finished article yet.

"We're not going to win every single game - however much the fans think we can! - and we just want to try and win as many games as possible and see what happens.

"I feel with the gaffer now he lik players who want to get on the ball. He's a forward-thinking manager who likes to play on the front foot. For a player like me it's the perfect fit really."

On his personal targets, Clarke added: "Obviously like everyone I want to play in the Premier League. I'm not going to say I don't. I hope it's with Sunderland. I'm just taking it game by game, and we'll just have to wait and see."