Leeds United: Archie Gray departs for £40 million to Spurs
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00:00Well, welcome back to the Marching On Together Leeds United podcast.
00:05We've had a little bit of a break. It's been quite nice.
00:09Lee, it's lovely to be back. Of course, I'm your host, Daniel, from Leeds TV,
00:14and I'm joined, as usual, by Lee Sowood of the York Post.
00:18Hello, hello, yeah.
00:19Lee, before we get on to anything pressing and important,
00:22we'll get on to the really important stuff, and that was how was your holiday?
00:25Yes, very nice. Although, to be honest, out in Catalonia,
00:29to be honest, too hot. You spend weeks and months and months moaning about it here,
00:33and then you go somewhere that's just too hot, and ironically,
00:35you end up being quite relieved to be back.
00:37But yes, good to get a break. I hope everybody else has had a good chance for one,
00:40because you definitely need them. That's everybody, whether it's journalists,
00:43whether it's fans, whether it's players, the seasons are long and obviously gruelling,
00:47and going on to the Championship play-off final.
00:49Obviously, Leeds has went off on a lot longer than it could and should have done, really,
00:53and because of that, it feels like a very, very quick turnaround,
00:57as we'll come on to in a minute. Before we know it, the fixtures are going to be here,
01:01in terms of the new season. We've had them now, we'll have a look at those.
01:04Obviously, the pre-season friendlies as well, and we've got the Euros in between.
01:08It's all go, really, and very, very quickly we'll be back into it.
01:11Obviously, we've not been back very long, and we've had some big news already,
01:15which we'll come to in a minute, with a certain teenager moving,
01:18which is, without doubt, top of the shop in terms of the news.
01:21It certainly is, yes. We'll come to that in just a moment.
01:24Yes, I hope everyone who's watching on us now has had a lovely break.
01:27As I say, it can be a bit relentless. We often fail to escape the football at times.
01:31Of course, as you say, the European Championships have been going on,
01:34whilst we've been away. We had a bit of a prediction towards the end of our last episode,
01:39before the summer break, but now we're back.
01:43The Euros, of course, are still going on, but they are teetering towards the latter stages of the competition.
01:48Regardless, we'll start with our first topic, and that is, as you've alluded to, Lee,
01:53the sale of Archie Gray, one of Leeds' mercurial young talents.
01:58We did a lot of videos on him towards the end of last season about where his future may lie,
02:03but just how good he was as a player as well, given his very young age.
02:07Just in the last week, he has completed a permanent move to Tottenham Hotspur.
02:12We'll mention, of course, that Joe Rodon has gone the other way in a separate segment,
02:16but for now, though, it is disappointing for Leeds.
02:19But if you ignore the disappointment of losing a player of his ilk in a PSR world that we live in,
02:26in football these days, is it actually good business?
02:29Well, I think it probably is from a PSR perspective, yes, and that's the crux of the matter here.
02:34I don't think Archie was itching to go. Certainly, fans were itching for him to go.
02:37He's top of the list, very much top of the list of players that fans wanted to stay, I feel.
02:42That's even allowing for having the Championships Player of the Year in the ranks in Crisenzio Somerville,
02:47whose obviously goals and assists and pace are extremely valuable to Leeds.
02:52But Archie, obviously a homegrown player with all the family links and the Grey Dynasty and everything,
02:57a Leeds fan, you could tell even in one season what it meant to him.
03:01He was the sort of player, basically, that fans and the club as well wanted to build a future around.
03:07He's the sort of player you could have imagined becoming a future Leeds captain very, very quickly.
03:11It's amazing to think that last season, when the season started, he hadn't even played one minute.
03:16All of a sudden, he was there for the first game of the season.
03:19Then I think it's 3,873 minutes of football he ended up playing in the Championship,
03:23which is fifth out of all Leeds players.
03:26It was a breakthrough season, obviously, but it wasn't just a case of bedding your way in.
03:30He was very, very much a first-team player and a very, very important first-team player at that.
03:36The bottom line is, we were all there at the Championship play-off final at Wembley.
03:41Obviously, Archie was one of the players left in tears by that.
03:45The fact of the matter is, you are sat there even in the stands and you're looking at the players on the pitch
03:49and you're thinking, you know yourself that someone's going to have to go,
03:53because that's the world that we're in.
03:55If you miss out on promotion, obviously, the massive finances involved and profit and sustainability rules to deal with,
04:01basically, Leeds had to sell at least one big player and that was it.
04:05It was looking like it would be Somerville and we'll come on to that.
04:09We cross everything that he stays, but it might still be that he goes.
04:13It's just hard to call, really, that one. I think it depends on what interest there is.
04:17Obviously, Brighton interest was there in Somerville.
04:19It soon became apparent that, obviously, when they got the signing from Newcastle,
04:23who'd been on loan at Feyenoord, and said that they wouldn't be in for him.
04:27Really, to be quite honest, the Archie one just made sense, but it made sense in a sort of heartbreaking way.
04:33I think you summarised it pretty well there, really.
04:36In terms of the fee for him, I think £40 million is pretty good, really, to be honest.
04:40You're buying a very good player, obviously, Tottenham and Archie Gray,
04:45but you're also buying potential and it's difficult to weigh up potential.
04:48Sometimes, potential isn't fulfilled, but I, for one, fully expect him to just fulfil all of his potential
04:54with his family links and the people he's got looking after him and also the talent he's got.
04:57I think he's going to be an England player and an important one at that very, very soon.
05:03I don't think there's any doubt that he'll be worth an awful lot more money in the future.
05:07But, I mean, he's only had one season of Championship football,
05:10so I think £40 million is probably pretty good-ish business, to be honest,
05:14especially when you've got Roden coming the other way, albeit that's a separate deal.
05:18It's disappointing, obviously, and it's a hard one to swallow.
05:22I think the fans will definitely be a little bit more...
05:25It maybe sits a little bit easier that he's gone to Tottenham and not Brentford,
05:28and that's no disrespect to Brentford, but obviously, it was looking like he was heading there.
05:31Obviously, then Leeds pulled the plug over the payments and whatever,
05:34and Tottenham were there, and that just made sense, and he's gone to a bigger club.
05:38How much he plays remains to be seen, but I don't think he's going to be one of these ones
05:41that just sits on the bench and doesn't feature.
05:44I think he'll feature reasonably heavily. We'll wait and see.
05:47But this is about Leeds United now, obviously.
05:49You wish him all the very best. You always come across as a lovely lad,
05:53brilliantly upbringing and everything like that, and extremely talented.
05:57But this is again about Leeds United now, isn't it, Daniel?
05:59And like you're saying, with that £40 million done, it basically almost settles the PSR worries.
06:05I think Leeds are in a situation now whereby, with that deal regrettably done,
06:10they basically don't actively have to look to go and sell players.
06:13It's not like they think now we need to shift off of Somerville,
06:16or we need to shift off someone to make more money.
06:18If someone comes in for those players and the player wants to go,
06:20then that'll be a different ballgame.
06:22But I get the sense there's a pretty good squad vibe at Leeds.
06:25There's a good big togetherness there.
06:27We've seen the pictures of them all coming back to pre-season training.
06:29It looks like a squad that's tight-knit and very much will be chomping at the bit
06:34to go and get promoted at the second attempt.
06:36So, yes, huge news with Archie, obviously.
06:39You wish him all the very, very best.
06:41But obviously, like everybody, we keep an eye out for him and wishing him well
06:45and seeing how he does. But now it's about a Leeds United point of view.
06:48And as I say, PSR is hopefully now more or less settled-ish.
06:52And now it's what Leeds do.
06:54And the obvious thing with that is, as we'll come to,
06:57apart from anything else, apart from just losing a very, very good player
07:00who's got enormous potential, it also leaves a big gap in the squad.
07:04Because, as I say, the number of minutes he played tells its own tale.
07:09And you're talking both at right-back and as a centre midfielder.
07:12So, in particular, right-back as well.
07:14So, yes, it's huge news.
07:17I think it was obvious, like I say, it was inevitable.
07:19It had to be the case that a star was going to go.
07:21I think people thought it might be Somerville and it isn't.
07:24It's actually the one that people didn't want to lose, really.
07:26But this is the cruel reality of what football is now with the PSR rules
07:30and what happens when you don't go up, really.
07:33Yes, it is. I think all clubs are trying to mitigate any potential issues with PSR.
07:41You saw a lot of Premier League clubs just towards the end of last weekend,
07:45the weekend before the deadline on the 30th of June,
07:47trying to do quick-fire sales and negotiations and trades with each other
07:51just so they can also sort each other out.
07:53I think a lot of clubs were quite actually willing to help each other out
07:56as long as point deductions weren't incurred.
07:58So, I mean, and that's the Premier League as well,
08:00and it's the same in the Championship too.
08:02So, yes, for Leeds, on the pitch, it's going to leave a big hole.
08:07But given the money that they've recouped in selling him,
08:10it's one hole you'd think would be plugged,
08:13given the money that they now perhaps have free and available to spend.
08:18Obviously, as I say, though, he is a loss,
08:22and as a Leeds United supporter himself, as well as a player,
08:25it's going to be an interesting move for him.
08:27Obviously, he's played at his boyhood club last season
08:30in what was his breakthrough season as well,
08:32which is quite something then to get to have one season there
08:36and not really perhaps appreciate just what it's like to play for your club
08:39because it's only the space of 10 months he's been in the first team.
08:42Suddenly, you're off to a team like Tottenham Hotspur,
08:44who will be in Europe next season as well.
08:47So, it's a big move for Jurgen Archibald, and as you say there, Lee,
08:51it just depends on how much playing time they get,
08:53how much squad rotation Andrzej Postakoglu makes at Tottenham.
08:57There's a couple of things to say about it as well,
09:00which is that I think one way of looking at it,
09:03you could say is that, I mean, hopefully it's the case where they don't lose both,
09:06but in a way, it feels like immediately speaking, as in next season,
09:11I think losing Somerville would have left a bigger hole to fill, really,
09:16purely because of the goals and assists he scores and stuff.
09:19And that's like no disrespect to Archie.
09:21He's been absolutely brilliant.
09:22But obviously, he's played a bit of a deeper player,
09:24obviously right back or a bit deeper in midfield.
09:27But it's more the future, really, with Archie.
09:29That's the thing.
09:30It's what he could have done and should have done in the future
09:32because if Leeds would have gone up, I'm sure he would have stayed.
09:35And it's kind of like what he could have achieved for Leeds in future years.
09:38And heaven knows what he could be worth in five years.
09:41I'm not going to start poking figures out of thin air,
09:43but he could be worth anything, times 40 by anything, really, if all goes well.
09:50But the other thing with him is he's very young, 18.
09:52And I think there is a hope that one day he might be back at Leeds.
09:55We'll wait and see.
09:56Because at 18, he's got his whole career ahead of him, hasn't he?
09:59And hopefully Leeds aren't too long in getting back up to the Premier League.
10:02And then the day he's got Leeds United at the bottom of his heart,
10:06his best interest in Leeds United, he's a Leeds fan, he's a Leeds lad.
10:09So if there is an opportunity to come back at some point,
10:12then I could see that happening.
10:14But obviously that's one for way down the line.
10:17But hopefully it's not goodbye forever to him.
10:19But yes, you've hit the nail on the head.
10:22It's the cruel reality of the game now.
10:24And sadly, something like that was inevitable.