Leeds United's game against Tottenham Hotspur is unlikely to become a family affair due to injury and Daniel Farke has been quick to put a stop to any brotherly comparisons.
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Archie Gray makes his Elland Road return with Spurs, 15 months after a £40m move from his boyhood club. Elland Road was graced by his grandfather Frank and great uncle Eddie. His dad Andy played for Leeds. His brother Harry will play for Leeds, before too long. The striker will be 17 in a few days and he's already on the fringe of Farke's first team, well positioned to follow in the many well-trodden familial footsteps. He's the jewel in the Thorp Arch crown and has scored goals at every level of youth football.
A hip flexor issue has cast doubt on any potential involvement for Gray when his brother and Spurs come to town on Saturday, but even if he was fully fit he still has to climb further up the pecking order at Leeds. Dominic Calvert-Lewin is the undoubted first-choice number 9 with Lukas Nmecha tucked in behind. Joel Piroe, a very different player to Calvert-Lewin and Nmecha, is likely the third cab off the rank. Gray has been around Farke's squad for more than a year, made his senior debut last season aged 16 and was on the bench for the Wolves game.
It's perfectly possible that neither Gray gets onto the pitch during Saturday's lunchtime kick-off. Archie started the opening game of the Premier League season against Burnley but has had just one brief substitute cameo since then. In midweek he came off the bench in the Champions League and helped set up an important equaliser. He remains a very good option for Thomas Frank, for a number of positions.
Brotherly competitiveness and the younger Gray's personality being what it is, he would dearly love to play against and get one over on his big brother at Elland Road this weekend. Archie made a Premier League squad at the age of 15 but never played in the top flight for Leeds, having to wait until he was 17 to make his senior debut, under Farke in the Championship. What the elder brother did once he established himself in the first team is difficult for any teenager to replicate but Farke says comparisons between the two Grays and how they develop are almost useless. Not only because it puts pressure on a very young teenager.
"Archie's way how to develop as a young player and show maturity is always a role model for each and every young player," said the German. "But I don't want to put too much weight on Harry's shoulders. He's playing in a different position and you need different skills and even personality. You need natural arrogance, not to be too big time, but in terms of self confidence and being cheeky. Just give me the ball and I'm the main man. I wouldn't compare too much. He's still on the way to develop and he's a different age."
Where Archie played right-back and central in one of the Championship's best teams, Harry is a striker in the Premier League at a newly-promoted club. Farke says the difference in positions alone make the two players' situations apples and oranges. And the careers of some of the world's best strikers tell a tale of how much expectation Harry Gray should carry right now.
"It's a bit easier to shine, sorry, in the Championship at full-back than to shine as a striker against top, top centre-backs," said Farke. "You can't expect a young striker, 16, 17, 18 to shine with consistency at Premier League level. Robert Lewandowski, Harry Kane, they were not regulars at Premier League level at [this] young age scoring goals. There are very rare examples - Erling Haaland is a different way but he went to senior football at 18 in a league that was not the best in the world, with all respect. It's easier there to find your confidence and goalscoring boots than in the Premier League. Lewandowski started to score goals in his mid 20s, Harry Kane is more or less the same. I don't expect a young striker to score goal after goal at 16, 17, 18, 19. You can shine on the wing or as a full-back but as a striker you have to be patient."