The YEP's chief football writer has been speaking on the last episode of the Inside Elland Road podcast.
Leeds United are facing some major decisions over the future of a number of their senior players between now and the end of the Premier League season.
At just 17-year-old, the England youth international is viewed as a player with serious potential and he has already made his senior debut after coming off the bench to replace Brenden Aaronson during the final stages of a 6-0 hammering of Stoke City during the last month of last season. Gray has regularly trained alongside Daniel Farke’s senior stars over the last 12 months and he was an unused substitute in last month’s 3-1 win at Premier League rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers and the Carabao Cup exit at the hands of Championship club Sheffield Wednesday.
After turning 17 recently, there was an expectation Gray would pen his first a new deal and bring an end to speculation over his future at Elland Road. No such announcement has been made but the YEP’s chief football writer Graham Smyth has revealed there is no need for Whites supporters to panic as the striker looks to follow the lead of older brother Archie, who also made the step from academy star to first-team player prior to his move to Tottenham Hotspur.
What has Graham Smyth said about Harry Gray’s contract situation?
Graham Smyth talking all things Leeds United.placeholder image
Graham Smyth talking all things Leeds United. | Yorkshire Evening Post
Speaking on the latest episode of the Inside Elland Road podcast, the YEP’s chief sports writer said: “I did a bit of digging, it’s positive news I think you can qualify it as. I did some digging this morning, inside and outside of the club, and there was a little bit of surprise at the amount of panic there was out there. The first thing I would say as the parent of a 17-year-old is you can’t let your peace be disrupted by the social media activity of a teenager, you have to rise above that often.
“But the club’s position was it’s a case of when not if he signs a new deal. His camp’s position was they expect it to get done in the next couple of weeks. So I think a lot of people may have thought this has to be done on his birthday, or it would be done on his birthday and announced shortly after. There are a myriad of reasons why that might not be the case. The player himself and his camp may want to listen to all of the offers on the table before making a decision. Maybe his injury played a part in that, maybe there was no rush on the part of either of the parties and they just wanted to nail down the final details - but it sounds like we are progressing to where we want them all to be really. Leeds don’t seem to be worrying, his camp aren’t giving any cause for worrying.”
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