Going into last season, we obviously all knew about him but we were all kind of wondering what was going to occur.
By process of part-necessity and part-him stepping into doing what he could do, it was a wonderful thing to see in real time – a player of that calibre with real solid ties to the club.
There’s always that inherent ‘one of our own thing’ for a Leeds United fan. I really enjoyed Archie’s progress and felt his pain when Leeds fell short in the play-off final because of his historical ties to the club.But when it comes to the immediacy of football in a cynical way then sometimes you have got to see what football is if his move to Tottenham Hotspur is the way forward for him and if this is what he and his family wants.
Having known his dad Andy and worked with Andy and played with Andy, he will have been a very level headed guiding hand on the tiller. He himself, of course, was a young player that shone brightly. He’ll have his own experience of it and this position that Archie put himself into is a phenomenal one from the outside looking in.
The sincerity and the kind of feeling and emotion that comes with Archie being Archie and who he is will be keenly felt. But I think it’s a really wonderful step for Archie from a personal progress point of view and it’s a situation and a payment plan that Leeds couldn’t turn down from a monetary point of view, which is a bit more of the pressing matter for the club.
Leeds had Profit and Sustainability Rules to contend with and if you are looking around at jewels to sell, I wouldn’t think for one second that Archie had been railroaded out at all. Any player in this day and age can say ‘no I am not leaving, I am staying put.’ But Leeds probably timed it right in the sense of knowing what the immediacy of football is and striking while the iron is hot with a player that is hot property. And from Archie’s point of view, next season might be different, it might be a tougher one for him and it might have been a tougher one for him in a Leeds United shirt.
I am sure that the advice that has come from the people that look after him has been very, very sound and it’s a big challenge going to Tottenham. We have seen Brennan Johnson go there for just short of £50m from Nottingham Forest and he was a major part in Nottingham Forest going up, a major part in Forest staying up, and he was an international.
If people are having qualms about the price tag on Archie, he’s done a fraction of what Brennan’s done, even though, comparatively, everyone loves their own player more than anyone else’s. But it’s stating the obvious to say that Archie’s career is one that is in its infancy, it absolutely is.
He has had one season in the Championship where a team that was much fancied didn’t get promoted. I’m not saying for one second that was Archie’s fault by any stretch but it was a collective coming up short. So the challenge that comes now for Archie is what can he do at a club like Spurs who they themselves believe to be top four material, to be worthy of a place in the Champions League, off the back of a finish in the Premier League.
That’s a different type of pressure and a different type of ball game. The cynic in me, knowing what it’s like to be a player that moves up to the Premier League, whose career potentially didn’t go as far as he wanted it to, but one that was more than happy and grateful for, says that Premier League football money now is astronomical. It’s hard to turn down and it’s very rare that happens.
That might go against the fairytale of local lad, steeped in local history, steeped in local folklore of the name. But Archie has got to do it for Archie, not for not for his uncle, not for his granddad, not for his dad. He’s got to do it for himself.
The fee is around £40m and I don’t know what people could base a more expensive price tag on. Potential? That’s nonsense. That’s brilliant in the years to come. But to put a price tag on potential can be a bit of a dangerous game, because if that potential is never realised then it means nothing.
You can talk about what players are worth and what potentially they could go for but Leeds have seen first hand that the gap between the Championship and the Premier League is massive. Just because Archie stands out as a very good player, no-one knows what he is like as a Premier League player.
You meet him and he is a lovely kid with a lovely family. He’s got a real nice way about him and everyone absolutely wishes him all the best. But this is such a pertinent next few years for him, because this is where he’ll get really tested and judged as to can he be a Premier League player? That’s the question now of jumping up between the leagues because the gap is ginormous and the ability to go up there and sink without trace is the jeopardy that you place yourself in.
Leeds, as a collective, were good enough for one season there but they weren’t good enough for any more than that really. I think £40m for Archie is an amazing price for him. What else are you going to go get? £50m for a kid that has played one season in the Championship?
He’s not Messi, he’s not Neymar, he’s not Mbappe and I say all that with the greatest respect. Those comparisons are not there to bring him down because Archie Gray is a very, very, very, very good footballer with a lot of promising potential. But beyond that, the price tag that they put on that potential is £40m and I think anything above that would be a little bit fanciful.
Joe Rodon has obviously come in the other way in sealing a permanent move to Leeds from Tottenham for around £10m after last season’s loan spell and when the Leeds defence was at its best last season he was a massive part of that. It’s a good deal, especially with the leadership that he has shown. You can look at Leeds and what they were lacking such as consistency at times.
But he is one of those out and out leaders, the ones that are there to do the mucky stuff and that is not belying what a decent ball player he is because Joe Rodon is a good player. But I think he has also got character in a Liam Cooper mould, something which Leeds have benefited from in recent seasons so having him on board can only be a good thing.
Joe Rodon knows the place and knows the people. He is not moving countries or anything ridiculous like that but he knows what the expectations are and that is huge.
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