Angus Kinnear has opened up on some of the behind-the-scenes details that saw Archie Gray leave Leeds United for Tottenham Hotspur in the summer.
Following Leeds‘ failure to win promotion, Gray was the first of three major sales across the window at Elland Road, with his seen as the key to complying with P&S at the time.
His move was completed just after the end of the financial year on June 30, and with him coming through the academy, will represent pure profit on Leeds’ accounts.
It was suggested in Leeds’ official statement announcing Gray’s departure that it would then help to keep some of their other key players, which according to Kinnear, it did to an extent.
Leeds are said to have knocked back big bids for Wilfried Gnonto, but it is hard to see it that way given Crysencio Summerville and Georginio Rutter both also left.
Kinnear on what he told Gray just before Leeds exit
Kinnear was making his yearly appearance on the Square Ball Podcast in which he revealed he was with Gray and his Dad in north London on the day the deal was wrapped up.
Given his family legacy at the club, and the fact he only spent one year in the first team after progressing through the academy, Leeds fans were absolutely livid when news of Gray’s exit first broke.
There were some murmurs across social media that Leeds’ handling of the situation had damaged his family’s relationship with the club and could’ve therefore led to his brother Harry leaving, though those rumours were shut down.
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And now Kinnear has explained in more detail exactly how Gray’s final days at Leeds played out, even sharing how both he and Paraag Marathe both made a late plea to the 18-year-old to return to Thorp Arch if he had any doubts.
He said: “Leeds United did not approach any other club to sell Archie Gray across the whole window. Normally when you are trying to sell a player, you offer them around, speaking to the agent telling them we want that player to leave.
“We could have kept Archie Gray, but when you see – and I spent a day at Tottenham Hotspur’s training ground with Daniel Levy, Archie and his dad, putting the deal together. The deal is absolutely life changing, and let me be clear, Archie and his dad handled the situation impeccably.
“They will always be great friends of the club, they could not have done anything more in terms of the way they handled it. But the opportunity to play in the Premier League and in Europe, for one of the six biggest clubs in the country, on a multiple of the money he was ever going to earn at Leeds, you can’t begrudge the player that.
“We spoke to him on the final day, Paraag and I, said, ‘Archie, if this doesn’t feel right, just come back and train, give us another year’. But I don’t begrudge him of the decision at all, it’s just the reality of the gap to the Premier League and Championship.”
Tottenham plotting move for Archie’s brother Harry Gray
Though Archie may be the best talent out of the academy since James Milner, there are suggestions his younger brother Harry is even better.
In fact, that has come from Archie himself. At just 15, Harry was heavily involved in pre-season with Leeds’ senior side, though injury has set him back in his development.
Unfortunately, though, Leeds may now face a fight on their hands to keep Gray, with Tottenham Hotspur and several top Premier League clubs keen.