Tottenham are set to revive their long-standing interest in Leicester City winger Demarai Gray as manager Mauricio Pochettino plans his transfer strategies for the upcoming transfer window. Spurs have been monitoring a lot of homegrown talent, having shown interests in Wilfried Zaha and Ross Barkley and now Gray has emerged as a potential target.
Tottenham have been targeting a pacey winger since the summer of 2016 and failed in a bid to add Zaha to their squad in the last summer window. But now, Pochettino has identified the Foxes’ youngster as the man who could add that width and speed on the flanks for the Lilywhites.
In their bid to add more pace and directness to attack, Tottenham decided to bring in Moussa Sissoko from the relegated Newcastle United, but the French international has found it tough going at the White Hart Lane and as a result has just started 6 league games and is yet to score a single goal. French youngster Georges-Kevin N’Koudou was also added to the roster, but he too has struggled to settle down in England, meaning Spurs’ search for that missing piece is still on.
Tottenham have been monitoring Gray since his days with Birmingham City, where he broke onto the scene in 2013, but Leicester snapped him up in January last year for a fee of £3.75 million tying him with a contract that runs until June 2020.
However, he has found regular first-team football a rarity at the King Power Stadium this season, despite impressing heavily each time he has been called upon by Claudio Ranieri. Gray has made 26 appearances in total across all competitions for the Premier League title holders this term and has scored two times and has chalked up four assists against his name.
However, it must be noted that out of these 26 appearances, only 18 have come in the league, out of which only five games are such where he has featured from the get-go. Ranieri has been critical of Gray in the past, demanding the England U-21 Youth International to improve upon his coordination with his teammates. Earlier this term, the Italian manager said, “I believe in this player [Gray] and believe he can have a good career. It is important he understands, tactically, that he can’t play alone. He has to link with other players,” indicating the reason for sparingly using him this term.
Extremely fast and very good with the ball at his feet, Gray has shown great potential in his short time at Leicester. A huge threat from counter-attacks due to his pace, the 20-year old is an excellent finisher as well, as can be seen from his two strikes this season against Manchester United and Derby County. While he prefers to cut in from the flanks, Gray has also shown he can be equally threatening hugging the touchline as well, but needs to work on his end product, which can be found lacking at times.
A versatile operator, Gray has featured on either flank for the Foxes this season and has also played as a secondary striker when needed. At 20, Gray perfectly fits into the recruitment policy of Pochettino and Tottenham – young, promising, ambitious and with scope for development. He will provide the North Londoners with a pace and direct threat in the attacking third and will help Spurs stretch opposition defences, turning an already strong attack into a bigger threat.
With Leicester looking likely to go down to the Championship come May, it will not be hard to convince the player to move, while the Foxes will also look to get the deal done to generate funds. And with Liverpool also among interested parties for the services of the 20-year old, Tottenham should look to act quickly in the summer window if they are serious about their interests in Gray. He may not become an instant success, but Gray definitely has shown signs that if nurtured properly, he could develop into a fine footballer and could benefit Tottenham immensely.