Sunderland have placed an emphasis on bringing in younger players with the potential to develop and improve as part of their recruitment strategy in recent years.

Sporting director Kristjaan Speakman, during Lee Johnson, Alex Neil, and Tony Mowbray's reigns, has built a squad packed full of talented young gems whose value could rise in the coming years.

In the recent January transfer window, the Black Cats chief added Joe Anderson, 21, and Pierre Ekwah, 21, to the club and brought in 20-year-old Joe Gelhardt on loan from Leeds.

That came after he signed Jewison Bennette, 18, Abdoullah Ba, 19, Aji Alese, 21, and Jack Clarke, 21, among others in the summer window ahead of the 2022/23 campaign.

Clarke, in particular, has been an outstanding addition to Sunderland's squad, after spending the second half of last season on loan at the Stadium of Light, and Speakman appears to have struck gold with the former Tottenham Hotspur man.

How much is Jack Clarke worth now?

The Black Cats signed the forward for an undisclosed fee last summer but FootballTransfers put his expected transfer value at €1.8m (£1.6m) between July and August 2022.

At the time of writing (16/02/2023), FootballTransfers estimate his transfer value to be around €5.1m (£4.5m) and this means that the York-born gem's price has soared by roughly 183% in less than a year since the dynamo made his permanent move to Wearside.

This is a deserved rise for the Englishman as he has been in fantastic form in the Championship this season and is proving his worth as a winger at this level.

In 29 starts for Mowbray's side in the division, the wizard - who has played as a wing-back at times - has scored six goals and provided six assists whilst creating 1.5 chances per match for his teammates.

Only Ross Stewart (13) has been directly involved in more goals for Sunderland than Clarke (12) in the league this season and no player has managed more assists than the ex-Spurs talent.

Former Leeds forward Noel Whelan once hailed the magician's "effortless" dribbling ability and the attacker has showcased his exciting wing play with 1.7 successful dribbles per game in the second tier, which shows that he consistently beats his man to burst into space down the flanks.

These statistics illustrate how impressive the 21-year-old has been for the Black Cats this season as the playmaker has been one of Mowbray's top performers in the final third - regularly delivering goals and assists to change and win matches for the team.

Therefore, Speakman has struck gold for Sunderland by snapping up the youngster as Clarke has been a roaring success both in terms of what he has offered on the pitch and his rising market value.