Tottenham Hotspur were beaten for the 17th time in the Premier League this season when they lost 4-2 to relegation-threatened Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday.
Despite Wolves having battled against the drop throughout the 2024/25 campaign, Vitor Pereira’s side are now just two points behind Spurs, who are sat in 15th place in the division.
Player ratings courtesy of Sofascore
There is no escape from the fact that it has been a failure of a season for Ange Postecoglou in the Premier League, as his team are 17 points adrift of the top seven and European qualification, whilst they are only 16 points ahead of Ipswich Town in the last relegation spot.
Spurs are still in the Europa League, and face Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday, but there will be no domestic success for Tottenham before the end of the campaign.
Tottenham do have a clutch of very young players who are learning on the job, and Postecoglou may point to that as one of the factors behind their underperformance, but there is no guarantee that they will fulfill their potential.
There have been talented young prospects in North London in the past who have not gone on to live up to the hype, including electric winger Jack Clarke.
Why Jack Clarke failed at Spurs
Back in the summer of 2019, Tottenham swooped to sign the 18-year-old forward from Championship side Leeds United for a reported fee of £10m.
He had just made 25 appearances in the first-team for Marcelo Bielsa as the Whites reached the play-off semi-finals, only to lose to Derby County, and Spurs clearly saw him as a high-potential talent who could be a future star for the club, hence why they were willing to spend £10m on his services.
Clarke, as you can see in the graphic above, went on to make a further three appearances for Leeds on loan in the 2019/20 campaign, before playing six times in the Championship for QPR in the second half of that season.
At the start of the 2020/21 season, the English whiz was given a few opportunities to showcase his quality in the first-team for Spurs, with two appearances in the Europa League and one in the FA Cup, but did not muster up any goals or assists.
Appearances
2
Shots
1
Shots on target
0
Goals
0
Key passes
2
Assists
0
Big chances created
0
Dribbles completed
0
Duel success rate
25%
The £10m signing showed promise at youth level with a return of four goals and four assists in 18 academy matches in the first half of the 2021/22 campaign, before being sent out on loan to League One side Sunderland in January 2022.
After one goal in 20 League One outings – including the play-offs – Tottenham decided to cash in on Clarke, who had yet to prove himself on a consistent basis at senior level three years on from his £10m move, by selling him to the Black Cats.
Ultimately, Clarke, who now plays for Ipswich in the Premier League, failed to realise his potential at White Hart Lane, and Archie Gray is in danger of following in his footsteps after a dismal showing last time out.
Archie Gray's performance against Wolves
The 19-year-old defender started at right-back, the position he made his breakthrough in at Leeds last season, against Wolves on Sunday and put in a dismal showing.
Gray was far from the only poor performer on the pitch, as Vicario flapped the ball back out for two of the goals, Djed Spence scored an own goal, Cristian Romero lost the ball for the third goal, and Ben Davies completely mistimed his challenge on Matheus Cunha for the fourth.
However, it was still a disappointing 90 minutes of football from the England U21 international, whose play in and out of possession left far too much to be desired.
Minutes
90
90
Pass accuracy
85%
87%
Key passes
0
0
Successful crosses
0/4
1/4
Possession lost
19x
17x
Interceptions
2
1
Tackles
0
3
Duels won
0/3
8/11
As you can see in the table above, Spence delivered an even better performance than him – despite playing as a right-footer at left-back – even with an unfortunate own goal to go with it.
Gray offered no threat at the top end of the pitch, with no key passes or successful crosses, and was a lightweight off the ball, losing 100% of his duels.
Why Archie Gray is in danger of being the next Jack Clarke
The versatile youngster is now in danger of following in the footsteps of another Leeds academy graduate, as it remains to be seen if he can realise his potential at Spurs.
Tottenham reportedly splashed out a fee of £30m to sign the defender from the Whites last summer, and he has yet to prove his worth on a consistent basis in the Premier League.
Gray has made 40 appearances in all competitions for Spurs, far more than the three outings that Clarke had at the start of his Tottenham career, but there has not been too much quality in those outings.
The England youth international has started nine of his ten appearances in the Europa League, resulting in zero goals, zero assists, and a duel success rate of 47%.
Appearances
23
Goals + assists
0
Key passes per game
0.1
Tackles + interceptions per game
0.9
Error led to shot
1
Error led to goal
1
Duel success rate
47%
As you can see in the table above, Gray has also failed to deliver much in the way of quality in the Premier League, with one chance created every ten games and less than one tackle and interception combined per game on average.
The 19-year-old, who has the lowest Sofascore rating (6.58) in the squad, does not offer a threat in possession or quality off the ball as a defender, rarely making interventions and losing the majority of his duels.
You could argue that he is being played out of position at right-back, as central midfield was the role he came up through the academy in, but 30 of his 49 starts for Leeds came in that area of the pitch.
At this moment in time, Gray is on his way to following in Clarke’s footsteps by failing to live up to his potential at Spurs after joining the club for big money.
Of course, there is plenty of time for the teenage talent to improve and develop if Postecoglou is willing to trust him in the long term, but he will need to show far more than what he is doing right now to become a success and avoid being Clarke 2.0.
As bad as Vicario: 3/10 Spurs star just reduced his price tag by £50m
Spurs’ miserable run of form continued with a 4-2 defeat to Wolves on Sunday.
ByMatt DawsonApr 13, 2025
