Newcastle United won't be re-signing midfielder as medical underway at Championship club
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The former Newcastle United and Liverpool midfielder is set for a move to the Championship.
Bobby Clark is undergoing a medical at Derby County amid suggestions that Newcastle United had been offered the chance to re-sign him.
One of Mike Ashley’s final acts as Newcastle owner was to sell academy star Clark, son of former Newcastle great Lee, to Liverpool for £1.5million in 2021.
Things might have been different had the PIF-led takeover happened a few months earlier. Not that Clark had any regrets having flourished in the academy before appearing in the first-team under Jurgen Klopp.
The 20-year-old made 14 appearances in total, with his first goal coming in a 6-1 Europa League win over Sparta Prague. He was also a second-half substitute as the Reds won the Carabao Cup last year.
Following Klopp’s departure last summer, Clark too left Anfield, joining the German’s assistant Pepijn Lijnders at Red Bull Salzburg for a reported £10million. Klopp later joined Red Bull as their Head of Global Soccer.
But Lijnders was sacked after just 29 games as Salzburg trailed SK Sturm Graz at the top of the Austrian Bundesliga, while Clark was restricted to just 25 appearances. The midfielder was consistently left out of matchday squads towards the end of the campaign and was surplus to requirements for Salzburg's Club World Cup campaign.
Bobby Clark set to join Championship club amid Newcastle United reports
As reported by ChronicleLive, Newcastle have been offered an 11th-hour chance to re-sign Clark, who is available on loan with a £5million option to buy.
However, the 20-year-old looks set to join Championship side Derby County for the 2025-26 campaign, with Pete O’Rourke reporting that Clark is having a medical. Liverpool have a 17.5% future sell-on clause but only for any profit that Salzburg make.
Bobby’s father Lee previously admitted it would be his dream to see his son follow in his footsteps by wearing the black and white. Clark senior got to experience that 260 times across two playing spells.
“Absolutely,” Clark Snr told Sam Allardyce on Big Sam’s ‘No Tippy Tappy Football’ podcast. "I don’t know how many fathers and sons have done it for the club, but yeah certainly.
“I was lucky enough to play for Newcastle 265 times and, who knows, he might have to do an Alan Shearer and come back - that would be my ultimate dream, definitely.”
Newcastle United invest heavily in academy
Newcastle have invested heavily in the academy since PIF became majority owners in October 2021. Not only have the Magpies recruited talent from the North East but further afield too, including other parts of the United Kingdom and Europe.
It hasn’t mattered what age level, United have recruited for all, while a number of coaches and scouts have also increased tenfold. That has allowed the club to look more at young players when previously they didn’t have the resources.
Newcastle are unable to guarantee that they won’t lose a top talent like Clark, but they have put a structure in place to try and prevent it.