With Fulham chasing Demarai Gray, both the player and Everton find themselves at a potential crossroads.
A report from Sky Sports says that Marco Silva’s side are interesting in signing Gray and have enquired about his availability this summer while other teams are also keen. The player is about to enter the final year of his contract at Goodison Park but there is an option to extend it until 2025 with the article adding: “Everton’s stance regarding Gray’s future at the club is unknown at this stage.”
Indeed, it’s far from being the only thing about him that is up for debate. Wingers by their nature are often mercurial but Gray can be like the English weather where you can often get – although perhaps not right now – four seasons in just one day.
The Birmingham-born wide man is the archetypal football version of Winston Churchill’s quote about “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma” and if we cut to the chase, such players don’t tend to be Sean Dyche’s cup of tea. Before Dyche’s arrival, Gray played in all 23 matches this season under Frank Lampard – starting in 21 of them – but Everton’s change of manager resulted in a shift in his fortunes.
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Immediately switching to a 4-5-1 formation to cut out opposition space and make things as congested as possible in the centre of the park, the former Burnley boss demanded that those on the flanks also start putting in a real shift, which included plenty of running backwards as well at opponents. Therefore Dwight McNeil and Alex Iwobi – who had been primarily operating in a more central role under the previous manager – were preferred on the wings due to their ability to track back, something that comes less naturally to the forward-thinking Gray.
Having been one of the Blues’ main men for the first half of the campaign, he subsequently didn’t start for the first five games of the new regime before being handed a somewhat unlikely reprieve. Given that previous Dyche centre-forwards have included the likes of ‘battering rams’ Chris Wood, Ashley Barnes and Wout Weghorst, Gray is hardly a like-for-like alternative but for a time he was deployed by the 51-year-old as a ‘false’ number nine.
For half a dozen straight fixtures he spearheaded the attack and as well as providing plenty of running at defenders, something that has always been a big part of Gray’s game, there were times when he even tried to hold up possession with his back to goal. While he did a job in difficult circumstances, ultimately there was only one solitary strike though and that came from the penalty spot on his first outing in the role to put Everton ahead four minutes into their 2-2 draw at Nottingham Forest on March 5.
Once Dominic Calvert-Lewin was fit again, Gray went back out wide for one game at Crystal Palace where he played on the right but after that with Abdoulaye Doucoure having served his three-match suspension for his red card after hitting Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur, Iwobi reverted to the flank and Gray was back on the bench. That’s where he remained for the rest of the season until the Blues’ survival showdown on the final day with Calvert-Lewin was stricken by injury.
Looking to avoid the club’s first relegation in 72 years, Dyche knew that Everton’s destiny was at least in their own hands and they’d stay up so long as they defeated Bournemouth at home but rather than go for a natural striker like Neal Maupay or Ellis Simms, he again decided to utilise Gray in an auxiliary role up top. There was no goal from the man leading the line for the Blues attack – just as there wasn’t on their previous last day escapes in 1994 and 1998 – with Gray spurning an inviting opportunity to break the deadlock shortly before Doucoure’s long-range howitzer proved the difference, when he headed straight at Mark Travers in the Cherries net.
Reflecting on the chance, Sky Sports co-commentator Gary Neville – who won eight Premier League titles with Manchester United – observed: “He apologises to the ball, rather than sticking his head right through it.” Although it would be unfair to criticise Gray for not possessing the kind of aerial dominance that generations of Evertonians have admired from their centre-forwards from Dixie Dean, Tommy Lawton, Dave Hickson, Joe Royle, Bob Latchford, Graeme Sharp, Duncan Ferguson and of course his namesake Andy Gray, that lack of consistent end product in areas that come more naturally to him, continues to leave him open to questioning.
Back in April, Gray discussed his greatest goals in an interview on Premier League YouTube Uncut and his spectacular strike against Manchester City on New Year’s Eve at the Etihad came into the conversation. While he’s a player that possesses the ability to create highlight reel moments like that, some six months on that remains his last goal from open play.
It was a similar story the previous season when Gray again cut inside from the left flank and let fly with a right foot shot from outside the area to net a dramatic late winner against Arsenal. He wasn’t back on the scoresheet for another eight months and 20 matches until netting at home to Nottingham Forest on August 20.
Following the 2-0 home defeat to Gray’s former club Leicester City on November 5, ECHO columnist Michael Ball, who also played for both teams, said: “Demarai Gray’s numbers aren’t good enough,” adding: “It baffles me that our wingers, week in, week out, feel they have to take a man on. As a full-back, I’m absolutely made up if a winger starts running at me because I’ve got him where I want him and I’m backing myself.
“He’s got to do something really special to get past me and also deliver a top quality ball. There was a moment during the Leicester City game that the ball came to Gray who was free and in a fantastic position but he decided to run at the full-back and there were actually two defenders he had to beat and because he’s dominant on one foot, it’s obvious to the opponents where he’s going to go. His final delivery was rushed rather than the composed balls that the likes of Harvey Barnes were doing for Leicester, picking a pass or a cross at the right moment.”
Gray turns 27 later this month and should be at the peak of his powers but almost two years shy of his £1.7million move from Bayer Leverkusen, his inconsistency hints at why he was available at such a knockdown price. He was one of two wingers recruited by Rafael Benitez for Everton in the summer of 2021 and while Andros Townsend has just been released having not played a first team game for over 15 months since he suffered a cruciate ligament injury at former club Crystal Palace in the 4-0 FA Cup quarter-final defeat on March 20, at least the England international offered a certain degree of end product.
Townsend started his Blues spell with five goals and three assists from his first nine matches and as ex-Yeovil Town manager Terry Skiverton, the man who handed him his Football League debut aged 17, told the ECHO: “No matter what you say, Andros always comes up with stats at the end of the season.
“Because he’s a corner-kick and free-kick taker, he’ll always have assists. He’s always heavily involved in influencing a game.
“We have it with the manager here. He says: ‘Do they stop one, make one or score one?’
“Andros over the years has been a consistent player in assisting and scoring goals and that’s always marketable.”
In contrast, Gray’s contributions have been less tangible, hinting that for all those magic moments he can produce that are easy on the eye when looking back upon, Everton, who currently possess a squad chronically short of attacking flair, might have a big decision to make here.
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