Ciaran Clark has been warmly welcomed back into the Newcastle United defence and Rafa Benitez says they may not have gained automatic Premier League promotion without him.
The 27-year-old went through the wringer with a struggling Aston Villa side but revelled in the move to United and has had a fine season.
Clark and Rob Elliot returned to the Newcastle side, last night, as they turned Preston over and secured a Premier League return.
Former Manchester United and Chelsea midfielder Ray Wilkins was on Sky Sports News, this morning, reflecting on the Newcastle season. Paying credit to Rafa Benitez, he lumped Clark in with the rest of the Spaniard’s smart ‘British’ signings. He said:
“Buying the majority of Brits was a fantastic… obviously Ciaran Clark is Irish but we’ll class him as a Brit because we’ve inherited him from Ireland.”
Class him. Inherited him.
Wilkins really doubled down on that.
https://twitter.com/handyandy1990/status/856815774937362433
Clark, of course, was born in Harrow, England in 1989 and played underage football for the country of his birth.
The defender captained England U20s but switched his allegiance to Ireland back in 2010. When he declared for Ireland, seven years ago, he commented:
“Richard Dunne played a big part in me linking up with the Republic. He mentioned it to the Irish officials. And then they contacted me and Aston Villa at the start of the season.”
With a mother from Leitrim and a grandmother from Donegal, Clark certainly ticked all the international rule boxes to play for Ireland. Wilkins was not far off but ended up getting himself into a complete muddle.
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