Archie Gray embraces Tottenham brotherhood ahead of Leeds United reunion after Marbella trip
The Leeds United academy graduate is due back at Elland Road this weekend.
Archie Gray believes a recent Tottenham Hotspur training camp in Marbella has helped forge a brotherly bond ahead of his return to boyhood club Leeds United.
Gray’s Tottenham head to Elland Road on Saturday having turned a corner with three league wins on the bounce. The former Leeds prospect scored in a 2-0 win over 10-man Crystal Palace last time out.
All three of those victories arrived after manager Roberto De Zerbi’s decision to take the squad to Marbella for training and bonding. The Spurs boss was keen to improve group dynamics and ahead of his return to Elland Road, Gray thinks it’s worked.
“The Marbella trip would have obviously helped, just getting to know each other better and being like almost brothers on the pitch,” Gray said. “That's the thing the gaffer speaks about all the time and that's what we've been trying to do. The last few games, we've been doing that.
“It was a really good feeling, especially with them having a man sent off. It’s even more difficult to break them down because they want to defend more. It's just really important to get three wins on the bounce. It hasn't happened for quite a long time.”
Tottenham were fighting to survive alongside Leeds last season and following a huge influx of players over the summer, looked disjointed as they kicked off the new Premier League campaign winless in six. De Zerbi stressed the importance of that Marbella training camp in bringing players new and old together.
That decision looks to have worked wonders with Spurs heading to Elland Road on Saturday in great form. Daniel Farke’s side will have their work cut out if they want to get one over on Gray, who was a former teammate of the likes of Ethan Ampadu, Daniel James and Brenden Aaronson.
“Like I said, we're just more of a team,” Gray added. “We’re all like brothers. We all get on really well and you can see that out there on the pitch, even with the celebrations, all the subs running over to the players and everything like that. It's those little things that mean so much to us as players and I think that's the most important thing.”