It is no secret that Crystal Palace are expected to lose influential forward Wilfried Zaha this summer.
After 12 seasons as a Selhurst Park regular, spanning across two spells either side of a disappointing period on Manchester United's books, Zaha is set to become a free agent later this month and has plenty of options on the cards, most notably Atletico Madrid.
Palace already have other talented wide players in their ranks, but it is surely a position the club will look to add to if Zaha does indeed move on, with Saudi Arabian side Al Nassr said to have offered the Ivory Coast international a £15m-a-year contract.
According to The i, Palace already have some options lined up, one of those being arguably the Championship's most in-demand player in Jack Clarke, who starred for Sunderland in the past campaign.
Is Jack Clarke an adequate replacement for Wilfried Zaha?
Zaha has yet to make an official decision on his Palace future, but time is ticking for him to do so. Sky Sports claims the 30-year-old, who came through the club's academy, has not ruled out signing a new deal but is tempted by offers from elsewhere, not least the big-money lure of the Middle East.
While Zaha's future is very much in his own hands, Sunderland will ultimately have the final say on what happens to Clarke on the back of a campaign in which he scored nine goals and assisted 11 more in 45 regular-season matches.
Indeed, no player in the Championship assisted more goals than Clarke last season, while he also ranked second for progressive carries (183) – defined as moving the ball at least ten yards towards the opponent's goal – behind only Coventry City's Viktor Gyokeres (198).
To give that some added context, Zaha averaged 3.39 progressive carries per 90 minutes in the Premier League last season, compared to 4.35 for Clarke in the second tier.
While the latter outscored the former nine goals to seven, there was little between the pair in terms of efficiency as they scored from 0.14 and 0.11 of their attempts respectively.
Where will Jack Clarke fit in at Crystal Palace?
Clarke has kick-started his career at Sunderland after being let go by Tottenham last year, having previously impressed during a spell on loan at the Stadium of Light in the 2021-22 season when helping the club to promotion.
Football reporter Josh Bunting described Clarke as an "unreal" player last season after his "stunning performance" in a 3-0 win over Rotherham United when scoring once and assisting two more.
With Zaha set to leave, and the exciting pair of Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise quite simply overused last season – the pair playing in 38 and 37 of Palace's 38 league games respectively – the Eagles need to be proactive in launching a bid for Clarke.
Sunderland may want more than the £15m fee that has been bandied about for Clarke, which is unsurprising given three other Premier League clubs are credited with showing an interest, but as the 22-year-old's own agent Ian Harte told The i recently, "every player has a price, no matter what club you're at."
Zaha's exit will be painful given all he has given to the club, yet it may just instigate a transfer that provides Palace with some more freshness as they embark on another new era.