Despite being almost double his age, Stuart Dallas actually spent a lot of time working alongside Archie Gray at Leeds United before his move to Tottenham.
As everyone is well aware, Dallas spent the final two years of his career at Leeds attempting to work his way back from a femoral fracture he suffered in April 2022, which ultimately forced him into retirement.
For much of the first year of that, Gray also spent a lot of time in the treatment room with Dallas as he picked up several different little injuries, one of which came in a pre-season friendly with Aston Villa in Australia.
All those fitness issues at such a young age would’ve proven detrimental to so many players’ development at that stage of their careers.
However, Gray was thankfully able to overcome all of those injuries he had and make a full recovery, so much so he was in Leeds’ first team by August 2023 at just 17.
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Dallas shares what Gray did at Leeds which made him ‘special’
Unfortunately due to Leeds’ failure to win promotion, supporters only got to see one season of the best talent to come out of the academy since James Milner, in the first team.
Gray made the £40 million move to Tottenham in the summer and the fact they were willing to spend so much one a player with just a year of senior football under his belt shows the potential he has.
As mentioned, Dallas will know as anyone behind-the-scenes how hard Gray had to work to get into the position he is now.
And speaking in an interview with Sky Sports, Dallas has shared a story about Gray from his time out injured which told him how far he’d go in the game.
He said: “For me to have him in the gym as well, he got injured for quite a while but never once complained. I always tell the story about him that he’d have been given his programme in the morning, and it would have been pretty long for him.
“He was still doing his education at the times, so he’d have done one part of his gym programme and then do his education. By the time his education was done, I’d have finished and I was gone.
“Every other player was gone, but I’d return in the evening with my kids in the pre-academy, and when I’d comeback, Archie would still be in the gym. I’d say, ‘what are you still doing here?’
“He’d say he’s finishing off his programme and that to me showed this kid wants it and is going to get it, because anyone else would’ve been gone, ‘there’s no coaches here or staff, I’ll go.’ But no he was still finishing is core, or whatever he had to do and that to me showed he’s different and special.”
Dallas story ridicules what Jamie O’Hara has just said about Gray
Former Spurs midfielder and now fan Jamie O’Hara has gone into meltdown mode about his club in the last 48 hours following their defeat to Arsenal.
O’Hara was critical of Spurs for spending so much money on a ‘Championship player’ in Gray, but this from Dallas shows he’s talking nonsense.
Some of the Premier League’s best signings in recent years have come from the Championship and anyone who nails their recruitment from that division tend to do well.
Crystal Palace’s signings of Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze show that, and in time, Gray will prove just how wrong O’Hara is about his arrival.
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