Archie Gray’s agent Hayden Evans has spoken for the first time on the circumstances surrounding his move from Leeds United to Tottenham in the summer.
Gray made the £40 million switch to Spurs in early July, which was around the time the summer transfer window sparked into life for a few days due to the end of football’s financial year.
All reports were suggesting Leeds were among the clubs needing to make a sale at that point in order to remain compliant with PSR, and Gray being a product of the academy meant he would represent pure profit on the books. Leeds all but confirmed that in an official statement.
Gray’s camp were reportedly frustrated at Leeds‘ handling of the situation back in the summer, as he had actually been in no rush to leave despite the failure to win promotion.
At the time, of course, it had looked as though Gray was on his way to Brentford until Tottenham swooped in at the 11th hour, which does seem to suggest Leeds were actively shopping him around.
Hayden Evans clarifies role of Leeds’ finances in Gray deal
Gray’s agent Hayden Evans has now spoken for the first time on his client’s Elland Road exit on the latest episode of the Square Ball Podcast.
One of the key topics up for discussion was around the ‘financial imperative’ for Gray to leave Leeds, amid such lengthy debate about the club’s finances during the summer.
However, Evans has insisted he would never force one of his clients into a transfer purely because of a club’s financial situation, suggesting that would be ‘their problem’, and not his.
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As such, Evans claimed the only reason Gray did not stay at his boyhood club was their failure to win promotion to the Premier League.
He said: “I don’t think it was so much a financial imperative, because that’s the club’s – this is me being callous as an agent now – that’s a club’s position, and that’s their problem.
“Never would we sell one of our players or move one of our players, because the club said they need the money. I mean, we had one experience of that a long, long time ago, and that was, Batts, funny enough, when basically the club made it absolutely clear he had to go to save the club.
“But no, I think it was more a case of if we’d have been successful in the 90 minutes at Wembley, and gone up, actually was going nowhere. Just as simple as that. It was purely because we didn’t make the Premier League.”
Evans shares thoughts on Gray’s Spurs game time
Another topic Evans was asked is Gray’s current game time. He has played the full 90 minutes of all seven of Tottenham’s matches in cup competitions, but is still yet to start in the Premier League.
Evans has revealed Archie’s dad Andy was the one in charge of negotiations with Spurs regarding his pathway, and confirmed it is not too dissimilar to what was agreed in the summer.
He said: “Andy’s negotiation with Spurs, it was sort of made clear the pathway, and that was not about the money, it was the pathway more than anything else, and that suited Andy for his son. And I think that’s been fulfilled, because certain people will say, look, he’s not getting any minutes.
“He was never going to get 90 minutes in a top-six Premier League side, but what he is getting is 90 minutes in all their European adventures. So he’s playing the Romas of this world and getting full 90 minutes, and he’s getting on now and again with Spurs. So far, so good, I think.”