Archie Gray is set to make his competitive debut for Tottenham Hotspur in some capacity on Monday night after leaving Leeds United for Spurs, a move The 49ers preferred to other clubs.
Whether 18-year-old Gray gets a start under Ange Postecoglou remains to be seen when Spurs go up against newly-promoted Leicester remains to be seen, the side Gray’s only senior goal has come against.
Certainly, he has impressed for Tottenham in pre-season. Gray has caught the eye both on and off the pitch at Spurs, even playing at centre-back for Postecoglou against Hearts and on tour in Japan.
The day has arrived for Gray, then. It comes after his £40m move to Spurs and an exit from Leeds that turned into a bit of a saga, as the England U21 star initially travelled to London to go to Brentford.
Why Leeds wanted to sell Gray to Tottenham over Brentford
Even before Brentford, Aston Villa held talks to sign Gray from Leeds. He then went to West London before Gray had a change of heart and chose to join Tottenham, and Leeds were all for his decision.
That is according to The Telegraph, who highlight a number of reasons as to why The 49ers preferred selling Gray to Spurs. The main reason of course, is that it allowed Leeds to do a deal for Joe Rodon.
A more favourable payment structure was put in place with Spurs over Brentford, while the report says that Leeds felt selling Gray to a bigger club in Spurs would appease fans who were angry with Gray’s exit.
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How much Leeds have raked in from Gray and seven others
Gray’s £40m move to Tottenham saw Leeds sort their finances out and remove any concern of breaking Profit & Sustainability Rules. Given he is a Thorp Arch academy product, that £40m was pure profit.
A big tick in the eyes of PSR. Following Gray have been sales of Charlie Cresswell, Marc Roca, Diego Llorente and Kris Klaesson which equates to little over £10m in total, before Crysencio Summerville.
The Dutchman went for an initial £25m but a deal could reach £34m with add-ons, while Georginio Rutter is set for a £40m move to Brighton. A total then, at least initially, of almost £120m raked in at Leeds.