Tottenham's Archie Gray receives award for performances last season

Archie Gray has received an award for his place in the PFA 23/24 Championship Team of the Year for his impressive performances throughout the season for Leeds United, who fell at the last hurdle in their bid to return to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

Gray has been named as a midfielder, alongside Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Gabriel Sara, who both also left their clubs, moving to Chelsea and Galatasaray respectively. The Spurs youngster did actually play a lot of his football last year as a right-back, playing there on 28 occasions last season, compared to eight as a central midfielder, five as a defensive midfielder, and one game as an attacking midfielder.

Instead, the right-back named in the team of the year is former Spurs academy graduate Kyle Walker-Peters, who left the club on a permanent deal to join Southampton in the summer of 2020, having spent the second half of the 19/20 season on loan in the South Coast.

Tottenham's Archie Gray receives award for performances last season

It is a very talented side, with Gray's former teammates, Leeds United duo Illan Meslier and Ethan Ampadu the only two players that are not playing top-flight football for the 24/25 season, so high praise indeed for Gray to be included among his peers. It is little wonder why Spurs made him the fourth most expensive 18-year-old of all time when they signed him in the summer.

Gray was also named the EFL Young Player of the Year, joining a number of other players to join Spurs after winning this award in the last ten years or so.

The 18-year-old has found game time somewhat hard to come by this season, but that simply owes to the form of his teammates and has nothing to do with Gray himself. His performance against Qarabag was superb, and he will surely be in line to start again in the Europa League, as Spurs travel to Ferencvaros for their second league phase game on Thursday evening. He will most likely be at right-back again, with the excellent Pedro Porro given some deserved rest.