Most managers avoid comparing young players to world-class footballers too soon in order to avoid comparisons, backlash, a player getting too big-headed, or even a player limiting themselves to comparisons. But some managers don't believe in jinxes or curses, and Tottenham Hotspur head coach Thomas Frank appears to be in that latter camp.
Frank has shown more of a willingness to trust young players than his predecessors did, and he's also earnings plaudits from Spurs supporters for playing his players in positions where they can succeed. Well, for the most part, other than some experimentation.
Archie Gray was always going to be a player to benefit from Frank's appointment, as the former Leeds center midfielder was actually recruited pretty heavily by Brentford and Frank the same summer that he ended up joining Spurs.
So far, Gray is impressing for Tottenham, looking like a much better player under Frank than Ange Postecoglou, who inexplicably was playing the teenage sensation as a center back. Yeah, like that was a brilliant plan.
Thomas Frank is an even bigger fan than we thought
Frank seems to be very high on Gray, and in the process of praising him before his big match against his old team Leeds in the Premier League, the Danish manager even compared the 19-year-old to two of the best players in the entire league.
He said at the pre-game press conference, via the official Tottenham Hotspur website, "I see him as a midfielder who can play six or eight. That is his position and these days midfielders need to be more complete. You need to be a little bit of a six, a little bit of eight and 10 and two of the best in the world right now are probably Rodri and Declan Rice. They can do a little bit of everything. I see Archie, and they are big names to compare him to, but I see he has got the same potential."
Yeah, those are literally the two biggest names in the defensive midfield that Thomas Frank could have possibly compared Archie Gray to. One of them went for more than 100 million pounds in a transfer from West Ham to Arsenal and dunked all over Real Madrid in the Champions League, while the other is a treble winner who won the Ballon d'Or and European Championship a season later (and the Premier League).
The fact that Frank is so high on Gray and sees him as a do-it-all player in that vein is massive for Tottenham, but that's exactly why Spurs pushed so hard to sign him as a teenager from Leeds at such a high fee of about 30 million pounds. If Frank can turn Gray into a world-beater in midfield, Spurs are going to be in great shape for the next decade at least.