Come on, let’s face it – we’ve built a reputation for being one of the best clubs in England when it comes to youth development over the last few years haven’t we?
You only have to go back a few years before names start rolling off yer tongue, I mean, the rate at which we bring young uns through – crikey, it’s like breeding whippets.
And, for the majority of ‘em, if they didn’t end up at a top club, then they stayed. Ye’h know, when thinking about our youth lads that have come through people forget about David Batty and Gary Kelly. Two absolute gems right there and fair play to ‘Gazza’, he stayed put.
Then we’ve had the lad Kalvin Phillips, Jack Clarke before him, a few years before that, Spurs did a number on us with Paul Robinson and Aaron Lennon (and Clarke actually).
It is fair to say that pretty much all of our young lads cracked on and made a decent impact for the Leeds United first team and we did get some tasty transfer fees as well, so can’t really complain there.
One of the club’s most recent prospects, famously sold even before his 20th birthday, divided opinion, though for £30 million, became the most expensive English teenager at 18 years old.
Archie Gray is a player who had a particularly breakthrough season during the 2023/24 campaign in the Championship, highlighting his maturity; displaying outstanding awareness for a teenager, in addition to his fantastic versatility, being able to play in central midfield, or a right-back. It’s fair to say that I was quite excited when he first burst onto the scene and his adaptability to play in multiple positions seemed like a great asset for us.
Though, for this price we got for him, you can’t really complain about that, especially when we have prospects waiting in the wings – there is one, I’m actually even more excited about..
Who Is Harry Gray?
Primed and ready to carry on the family’s dynasty at the club after his father Andy, grandfather Frank and, most notably, great-uncle Eddie (who also managed the club briefly), is younger brother Harry, three years Archie’s junior, promoted to the first team in the wake of his sibling’s departure at just 15 years old.
🗣Archie Gray cannot wait to play with brother Harry Gray:
"He’s a good player, I don’t want to say too much. He’ll get big headed. If he keeps training hard I’m sure he’ll be doing what I’m doing. I’d love to play with him one day, it would be like Eddie and Frank again." pic.twitter.com/iNnGnIo3fe
— Leeds United: Marching On Together (@leeds_together) March 19, 2024
Although injured, it is more than likely that Harry will still predominantly be turning out for the reserve side on a regular basis, given his young age, though club chiefs will also be following the player’s development closely due to the meteoric rise of his older brother, whose breakout season came when he was just 17 years of age – a campaign in which he won the Championship’s Young Player of the Year award.
Following his brother’s departure, Harry was immediately selected as one of our four other youngsters in the squad’s 2024 pre-season summer squad for the club’s training camp in Germany, though endured a brief setback due to a slight injury.
Despite this, manager Daniel Farke was cautiously positive about the youngster’s prospects going forward after his cameo appearance in the friendly win over Harrogate Town, when he came on as a substitute to make his senior debut.
Farke revealed: “Obviously he is a guy with lots of talent but I don’t like to praise the young lads too much and to put them too much into the spotlight. This was a good scenario and also a good chance to give him a little appetizer of first team football but we can’t expect to see him pretty, pretty soon right now at Elland Road.
“He is full of potential, and here and there he will get a chance also to smell a bit more like how it is with the first team and also to adapt a bit to senior football, but we will stay patient.
He continued: “We won’t put too much load on his small shoulders, so we have to work a little bit with him. But he has also earned good performances on the youth level that he is involved in, and for that, it was great also for him, more or less, in his home stadium to get the first experience, at least in the first public game with us.”
Compared to his brother, Gray Junior plays as a striker. However, Archie, at such a young age, highlighted his footballing maturity by being able to operate in a number of positions during his breakout season, so do not be surprised to see a similar level of versatility from Harry as he progresses.
One thing I personally like about the ‘Gray tha younger’ is that he seems to be more attacking – it seems that in some of his games so far, he has been played as a striker, or at least in an attacking role. I can’t remember the last kid that came through the youth team as a forward and really made an impact. Maybe ‘Smithy’? But, bejaysus, I’d love to see tha lad hit the back of the net for the senior side sooner ratha than later.
