West Brom boss Carlos Corberan owes a lot to Sunderland's Jack Clarke

Carlos Corberan and Sunderland star winger Jack Clarke go back some time – and their back story is more than your average coach and footballer.

Indeed, in the Spaniard’s words, were it not for talks with Clarke and his father while at Leeds, and a chance meeting with then-owner Andrea Radrizzani, Corberan may not have gone on to enjoy a career in senior management, he may not have become married to wife Claudia and he certainly would not have two sons, Marcos and Dario.

In a way, he owes everything to Clarke, the supremely talented 23-year-old former Leeds academy graduate who moved to Tottenham for £10million while a teenager in 2019.

Corberan was initially under-23s boss at Leeds before his meeting with Radrizzani left such an impression on the Italian businessman he was promoted to become the great Marcelo Bielsa’s first-team coach following his appointment.

“I remember very well Jack Clarke because I was working with him,” Corberan explains. “Individually, he had a massive contribution in my career as a coach. My career as a coach in England changed the day I had a conversation with the previous owner of Leeds. I remember Victor Orta, the sporting director, rang me one day and said ‘Carlos, can you come to the club and speak with me and the agent of Jack Clarke?’

“It was to talk about the project of Clarke and to renew his contract. I went to the club to talk with the agent and the father of Jack.

“I didn’t spend a lot of time talking with Andrea Radrizzani, the previous owner of Leeds, but that day we spoke a lot. If I hadn’t gone to this meeting, I wouldn’t have spent time with Andrea.

“Spending that time with him, he decided that I would be Bielsa’s assistant if he took the job.”

Corberan was later offered a role in his native Spain by the Leeds hierarchy, to manage Cultural Leonesa, but the coach was enjoying England too much – and had recently discovered another reason to stay put.

He continues: “He (Radrizzani) sent me to Buenos Aires to talk with Bielsa, in that meeting. After that meeting, I started to work with Bielsa – he has had an amazing contribution in myself as a coach.

“My history as a coach, starting with Bielsa and moving up to the first team because of Andrea, came from having the conversation with the father of Jack Clarke.

“Imagine how important this player was for me. The one who made the decisions at Leeds at the time wanted me to move to Spain, to work in one of the other clubs where he was organising. I didn’t want to move because I love England and I had just met my wife. If they’d sent me back to Spain, it would have been a challenging relationship to keep!

“Thanks to Jack Clarke, that meeting, I convinced the chairman that I must stay at Leeds, I stayed at Leeds, I created a relationship with my wife, I have now two lovely children, and everything started with Jack Clarke. Imagine how important he has been!”

Clarke’s journey has not been a straight line since his big-money move to Spurs. He missed several months of action after collapsing in a match against Middlesbrough in February 2019, a few months before the move. Corberan explained it was a difficult setback to recover from, while at the same time being catapulted as a big-money “project” to north London.

Prior to that, Corberan had selected winger Clarke and his scholarship team-mate Jamie Shackleton as promising stars of the future ready to step up to his under-23s side. When it was confirmed Bielsa would be checking into Elland Road, one of the Argentine’s first calls was to contact Corberan and demand individual videos on every under-23 squad member. That intricate detail is partly why Albion’s Spaniard places Bielsa – who went on to return Leeds to the top flight – on such a pedestal.

“Not many coaches spend the level of detail and time on these types of things,” Corberan continues. “When we arrived to pre-season, he asked me which players from the under 23s and he agreed to pick up Shackleton and Clarke as pre-season players for the first-team. Why? Because he had the talent, but not always does the talent mean you have the maturity to play football.

“He needs time like every young player, but he used his time very well in the under 23s and the first team, he became a very important player and scored a goal against Aston Villa.

“When he came back (after the collapse), he was not at his best level. His best level, though, was why Tottenham paid £10m for him.

“Was he ready? He was a project, it’s why Tottenham probably signed this player and paid this amount of money. Tottenham paid £10m, six years ago when he was scoring goals in the Championship for a team who finished third in the league.

“To recover his level, it took more time than he probably expected, how much the collapse affected him. He started with loans at Stoke City, which probably didn’t work at the level he expected. He needed to move to League One, to Sunderland, and there he found his best level as a player.”

Initially on loan, Clarke helped Sunderland win promotion from League One and last season netted 11 goals as the Black Cats reached the Championship play-offs. He has trumped that total this term with 15 goals and recently returned from six weeks or so on the sidelines for today’s visitors, under interim boss Mike Dodds. Form has prompted reported interest from the Premier League and clubs across Europe.