Archie Gray: Some (more) love and appreciation | OneFootball

It is safe to say it has been a difficult season for everyone at Tottenham Hotspur, given the terrible season in the league. The other three competitions are going fairly well, though that could look very different by the start of next week. Nevertheless, the form in the league has been seriously terrible.

As a result, plenty of people have criticised the transfer window Spurs had, saying too many inexperienced, unproven players were signed, with only Dominic Solanke seen as a tried and tested player.

Whilst the frustration was completely understandable, and even with some truth to it - the signing of unproven Archie Gray has proven to be pretty good so far. Despite playing everywhere except his actual position, he has been pretty consistent since coming into the team. After doing the same back in December, here is another piece singling out the teenager for praise.

Some more love and praise for Tottenham's Archie Gray

He has gone up another level since moving from the left sided centre half to the right sided centre half. Small details, but key all the same - football is about the one percent's. It massively helps when it comes to passing and carrying out of defence. We see right footed players play on the left side in football, but they are players who have been doing so for years, since they were in academies. As a natural midfielder, that is not the case for Gray.

During the win over Brentford, Gray recorded; five clearances, 89% pass accuracy, 5/8 accurate long balls, two interceptions, and a very welcome clean sheet. Brentford have one of the better attacking forces in the league, yet thanks to Gray and the rest of the defence, they were kept fairly quiet - especially in the second half.

Not only that, but he became the second youngest player to make 10 starts for Spurs in the Premier League, after Aaron Lennon - another player that joined the club from Leeds United. Other than the final minute of stoppage time against Leicester City, Gray has played every single minute of the last 15 games. Given he was not playing a lot before that, you do worry the spike in minutes could cause an injury, but so far so good. Although with Spurs, that might not be far away - touch wood it isn't.

All of this will do him well in the long run when he eventually plays in midfield. Hopefully it will not be too long now before we get to see a partnership of Micky van de Ven and Kevin Danso, with Gray then playing in midfield. There have been rumours that van de Ven has suffered a setback, though they are yet to be confirmed. We could still see a duo of Ben Davies and Danso, which would still allow Gray to play as a midfielder.

There is no doubt that the teenager would not have imagined his first six months at the club to go like this, and there have been plenty of ups and downs - but there is plenty to be excited about, now and in the future.