Tottenham Hotspur center midfielder Archie Gray was arguably the club's best player when looking at the 2025/26 Premier League season from start to finish comprehensively, and he was especially strong when Spurs were at their worst in the spring and late winter, heading into a downward spiral with Premier League relegation written all over them.
Gray showed great courage, leadership, and even quality on the ball when many of his teammates did not. So it was profoundly disappointing to see Gray sitting on the bench for Rodrigo Bentancur after Roberto De Zerbi took over, even though Gray was much better than the experienced Uruguayan international in the first half of the 2025/26 season - and better than everyone else in the second half of the campaign before De Zerbi's arrival.
Although it seemed like De Zerbi was still high on Gray despite the Bentancur decision, Tottenham Hotspur fans have to question his true intentions with their best young player. Even though the 185 million pound signings of Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali were wonderful and will help the team a lot, if Lucas Bergvall is thinking about his Spurs future after those additions, Archie Gray is in an even bigger lurch.
Archie Gray deserves the trust
Tottenham have already lost Luka Vuskovic to Brighton and are at risk of losing Bergvall to Nottingham Forest, so now fans can only ask legitimate questions about what De Zerbi is planning with another, even bigger gem in Gray and if he is just blowing up the good things the team had to build everything up in his own image.
There is no reason to believe Gray is disgruntled, De Zerbi is against him, or that the English youth international is going. But it is suspicious what is happening with Gray and what the 2026/27 season holds for him.
But the season is long, injuries always come, and squads need to be deep, especially in the Premier League. You just get the feeling, though, that De Zerbi isn't quite getting how good Gray is and what makes him so special, to the point where Tottenham Hotspur supporters who doubted him heavily turned around and voted him their Player of the Season in 2025/26.
Gray, on the ball, is not quite as good as Tonali, but he is not far off from Fernandes and may be just as good, when considering the context of how well he played under Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor when everyone else was beyond woeful. Spurs fans can only hope De Zerbi has more trust in him than it seems.
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