Tottenham youngster Archie Gray has struggled for regular Premier League minutes this season
Having seen Leeds United miss out on promotion to the Premier League, thanks to a Championship play-off final defeat to Southampton in May, Tottenham Hotspur made the most of the situation and splashed £30million to sign Archie Gray in the summer.
Brentford were close to signing the England youth international but Spurs came from behind to win the race for his signature. It was considered to be a big coup given how highly rated the teenager is across the nation and his sky-high potential.
However, Archie Gray has struggled to secure regular game time at Tottenham under Ange Postecoglou. The teenager has been limited to just 581 minutes of action across 11 games in all competitions since his summer arrival and has not been handed a single start in the Premier League.
The Lilywhites are bracing themselves for the England under-21 international to be the subject of loan offers in January, with the player having been linked with moves to Leeds United and Sevilla. Former English striker Don Goodman thinks Gray would prefer a move back to his former club Leeds on loan rather than joining Sevilla in winter should an opportunity arise.
“Spurs will look at the levels in LaLiga, the style of play Sevilla play, and will compare that to Archie coming back to the Championship,” Don Goodman told MOT Leeds News.
“Leeds are a top team but would it be better for him to be in a league that is probably more technical than the Championship? He ultimately needs game time at a technical team, which is what Spurs are.
“That leads to a conundrum for Spurs. If he’s given the choice, you’d imagine he’d prefer to go back to Leeds because they have a part of his heart. But it’s a footballing decision and it’ll likely be taken out of his hands.
“Spurs have to do what they deem to be best for the player’s development. If that’s in LaLiga with Sevilla, that’s their gift to have.”
After arriving at N17, Gray has featured predominantly in cup competitions, starting all matches in the Europa League and Carabao Cup, although not in his preferred No.6 role in midfield. He has struggled for minutes in the Premier League, which is understandable due to Pedro Porro being the undisputed first-choice right-back, and experienced pros Rodrigo Bentancur and Yves Bissouma ahead of him in the midfield pecking order, but it certainly now makes sense for Spurs to let him continue developing elsewhere temporarily.
Therefore, despite Gray’s disinterest in not leaving Spurs in the January transfer window to try and break into Big Ange’s first XI, a loan move in January would be beneficial for all parties involved. Spending the rest of the campaign with his boyhood club Leeds seems the perfect fit rather than moving abroad and adapting to the demands of La Liga.
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All in all, if Big Ange and Daniel Levy are ready to sanction a temporary exit, Gray should certainly take it and go away from Spurs to secure some regular minutes under his belt.
