Leicester City interested in signing Spurs youngster on loan

According to a report from Yorkshire Post Sport, newly promoted Premier League side Leicester City have registered their interest in securing the services of Archie Gray on loan from Tottenham Hotspur in the January transfer window.

They further suggest that Sevilla "remain interested" with sporting director Victor Orta still keen on Gray, who he will be aware of from his time at Leeds United.

Leicester are making quite a habit of this, having signed Harry Winks and Oliver Skipp in the last year, and are now trying to complete a midfield three of Winks - Skipp - Gray.

With James Maddison coming the opposite way to Winks in 2023, there is clearly a good relationship between the clubs when it comes to negotiating. Considering some of the comments that a number of clubs have made about Daniel Levy, this does come as a bit of a surprise.

Nevertheless, this should not happen. Spurs are going to need Gray this season. There has been noise over the midfielders lack of game time this season, but it is all incredibly short sighted and without looking at the big picture.

There are so many games this season, there is enough minutes to go around for everyone. The 18-year old is particularly of use in the Carabao Cup and Europa League, where he has seen plenty of minutes already so far this season. Gray has also got plenty of minutes for England U21s, so his sharpness is still fairly good.

It has been pretty unfortunate for him that Dejan Kulusevski is playing the best football of his career, whilst Pedro Porro has had the right-back slot locked down. In any case, they can not play every single game, and there will be plenty of opportunities over the course of the season for Gray.

We can all be guilty of forgetting just how young it is to be an 18-year old playing top level football. If you look at where every current Spurs player was at 18, it would offer some useful and necessary perspective on Gray’s situation.

The Spurs squad is pretty stretched as it is, and that’s with versatile players like Gray who offer cover across the backline as well as in midfield. Now imagine what that would be like without him? Just a no brainer here, he must stay at the club this winter, nothing to even weigh up with this one.