Even as Tottenham Hotspur struggle to actually play Archie Gray in his best position again, the biggest clubs in European football are circling around the talented young English center midfielder with Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, and Borussia Dortmund all registering interest in a player who could be one of the most underrated on the transfer market if Spurs go down.
Not only do Spurs have to do everything possible to stay up in the Premier League and avoid losing Gray, but they also need to do whatever they can to value Gray right now. There are more ways to lose a burgeoning young talent than just relegation.
As if Spurs needed more evidence that Gray has the potential to be special, another key midfielder, Xavi Simons, gave Gray some effusive praise in a recent interview with Pro: Direct Soccer. Simons stated that his 19 year old teammate is the best player at the club in training. While he praised other Spurs players, including fellow top summer signing Mohammed Kudus whom he called underrated, he saved his highest compliments for the even more underappreciated Gray.
Xavi Simons is a big fan of Archie Gray
There are those even within the Tottenham fan base who refuse to acknowledge Gray's talent, and they are likely shrouded by the fact that he is utilized suboptimally. Even just recently, Gray started as a left back against Fulham and then later played on the right wing in the game, so Igor Tudor is making the same mistakes that Ange Postecoglou and Thomas Frank did with the teenage star.
Simons has trained with some of the best players in the world at PSG and Barcelona, and he also played with talented footballers at PSV and RB Leipzig. So if Simons is going this far to praise Gray even compared to peers he respects like Kudus, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Dominic Solanke, and more, then Tottenham had better take notice.
It would be lunacy for Spurs to have invested so much in Gray from Leeds United, watch him prove himself as a starter over Rodrigo Bentancur early this season despite Frank's best efforts to hold him back, and see his potential as a progressor and composer in midfield on the pitch, only to sell him off to stardom with a European giant like Bayern or Madrid - or worse yet, Dortmund, who love these sorts of signings from the Premier League. Simons's praise makes it even more obvious for Spurs to hold onto Gray and play him.