Eight months on from Jesse Marsch’s bold Archie Gray proclamation, Leeds United’s newest 17-year-old is back in the club's conversation for Premier League football. In truth, Gray was one of several Tyler Adams alternatives Javi Gracia mentioned, but mention him he did and without being prompted too.
It was in the heat of early July when Gray ran United’s opening friendly of pre-season. Championship Blackpool had been given the run around by a 16-year-old and Marsch was not hiding his opinions after the match.
“I consider Archie a first-team player at 16,” said Marsch. “He has cleverness, the flexibility to play in multiple positions, he can run, he sees things quickly, he’s aggressive against the ball and he’s fearless. He’s got the full package."
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"He’ll play. How much or how often, we’re going to have a strong group, we’re going to need our full roster.
“I’m not the type of person to say we need to take him along carefully. If he shows he’s ready for big challenges like he did tonight, we’ll give him those big challenges.”
Injury put pay to those dreams for much of this season and the club have patiently managed such a young asset. Gray returned to the fold with the under-21s last week and he has impressed enough for Gracia to include him in the plan for coping without Adams.
“Darko [Gyabi] is one option, the same with another young player as well, Archie,” said Gracia. “These are the players [who] are usually training with us in that position.
“Now we have Marc [Roca], Weston [McKennie], Darko [and] Archie [who] are the players. They usually train as midfielders and we have to take the decision for the next games, if Tyler is out, to choose the best option for us.
“We have other players as well that, in some moments of their careers, play as a centre midfielder, but I take the best decision in the different games thinking only what is the best for the team.”
It was Gyabi who had been asked about in Thursday’s press conference, but Gracia, who has chosen his words carefully with the media, saw fit to mention the 17-year-old prodigy. Given neither Gyabi nor Gray were even in last week’s matchday squad, the smart money would be on Roca and McKennie starting at Molineux, though the head coach knows neither is like for like with Adams.
“We have other players,” he said. “All of us know Tyler is a key player for us, but we have to manage with the squad we have and we have other players ready for the next game.
Gracia added: “Tyler is different than others and there is no one like Tyler because all the players are different with the different virtues and different skills they have, but in this case, we have other players ready you can see in the last games we played.
“For example, in the last one, we started with Tyler and Marc. The game before we started with Tyler and Weston. We have other players [who] usually are playing as well.
“They have been waiting for their chances and maybe this is the moment for them and I'm sure all of them are ready to compete at a high level.”
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