Former Leeds United standout Archie Gray has been in the headlines over the past three days following a postgame rant from talkSPORT pundit Jamie O’Hara, who then doubled down on his stance.
Tottenham Hotspur fell 1-0 to Arsenal on Sunday in the latest North London Derby, leading O’Hara to go on X and slam the club’s transfer recruitment plan for signing players who are suited for the bottom half of the Premier League and the Championship.
Rather than retracting his comments, the pundit doubled down on Monday and labeled Gray a Championship-level player, which he believes Spurs should avoid pursuing if they want to challenge for trophies.
“Have we brought in top players?” O’Hara said. “[Dominic] Solanke, one good season at Bournemouth. Hasn’t scored yet. He’s had one good season at Bournemouth and we signed him for £60 million.
“Brennan Johnson [is a] good player, a young player, Nottingham Forest, done the business of Forest. We signed him for £50 million. He looks miles off it, miles off it. And then I look at him and go, Archie Gray, good player. He’s from Leeds. It’s a Championship player. And we signed [Wilson] Odobert from Burnley.”
Former Leeds ace Stuart Dallas praises Archie Gray’s work ethic
Amid the criticism and slow start to the 18-year-old’s stint with Tottenham, former Leeds man Stuart Dallas, who spent 10 years at Elland Road, had high praise for Gray during an interview with Sky Sports. Moreover, the 33-year-old revealed a story about when he knew Gray would be special.
“I always tell a story about him that he’d have been given his program in the morning, and it would have been pretty long for him, but he was obviously still doing his education at the time,“ Dallas said. “So he’d have done one part of his gym program, and he went to do his education.
"That to me showed that this kid wanted it." 💪
Stuart Dallas praises the hard work ethic from Archie Gray whilst at Leeds United 👏 pic.twitter.com/9TOkPuPaLo
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 17, 2024
“Now, by the time his education would have finished, I was finished and I was gone and out of there. And every other player was gone. But I had returned in the evening time with my kids till they were in at the wee pre-academy. And when I had to come back, Archie had still have been in the gym and I had said to him, ‘What are you doing?‘ And he’d have been, he said to me, ‘I’m finishing off my program.’
“And that, to me, just showed that this kid wants it and he’s going to get it because anybody else would have been gone. There’s no coaches here, there’s no staff. I’ll go but he was finishing off his core or whatever he had to do. And that, to me, showed that he’s different, he’s special.”
