'Icon' - Archie Gray told his future should lie with Leeds United

Leeds United youngster Archie Gray has been told he is in the best possible place to continue his development despite suffering the biggest heartache of his short career.

The teenage academy product became the youngest Leeds United player to turn out at Wembley on Sunday but the day ended in despair for Gray as Leeds lost to Southampton to condemn the Whites to another year in the Championship.

Gray’s breakthrough season has not gone unnoticed with English football’s big-hitters and some from around Europe reportedly sniffing around, but the 18-year-old from a famous Leeds United family, has been told that Elland Road should remain the place he plays his football.

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“What would keep him at Leeds United? I suppose the history of the families as much as anything else,” said former Premier League manager Martin O’Neill on Talksport. “He's 18 years of age. I do not think another season at least with Leeds United, trying to get them back again would do him any harm at all. That would be my view from a distance. And if I belonged to him, that's what I would be saying to him.”

Playing devil’s advocate, former Norwich City and West Ham striker Dean Ashton countered: “Very difficult, still though if those big clubs come calling and he'll have an agent like everyone else, of course he'll have pressures elsewhere ...” To which O’Neill added: “Well if I was his dad then I would become his agent.”

Ashton did go on to agree with O’Neill and said that Gray has the opportunity to build his own legacy at his boyhood club, by batting away interest from top flight clubs and attempting to get Leeds back into the Premier League.

“Martin is right in terms of the size of Leeds United,” added Ashton. “He will know more than anybody what hes actually got there at that football club.

“It certainly might seem the right thing to stay at Leeds, that will be up to him, of course, but he could become an icon at Leeds United if that's what he desires and he stays and gets them promoted and all of a sudden that totally changes your legacy; even as a young player, being a Leeds boy and coming through, I think can be huge for any players. But there's no doubt when you get into this position, you will be getting phone calls.”