Archie Gray's season is not over just yet following his inclusion in England's Under-21s squad for this summer's UEFA Under-21s EURO Finals in Slovakia. Lee Carsley's Three Lions team begin their tournament on Thursday with a Group B opener against Czech Republic, before then facing Slovenia and Germany in their other two group games.
Gray is Tottenham's sole representative in the 23-man England Under-21s squad after teammate Dane Scarlett was forced to withdraw from the pre-Euro training party due to injury. Scarlett has since uploaded an image from the gym at Hotspur Way to his Instagram Stories as he bids to get back to full fitness ahead of a big pre-season.
Gray will be joined at the tournament by fellow Tottenham stars Wilson Odobert and Mathys Tel, who are representing France Under-21s in Slovakia. As it is a summer with no senior international tournaments following last year's European Championship and Copa America, Ange Postecoglou, or whoever is in charge at Tottenham next season, will have the majority of his players at his disposal early on in pre-season.
That was not the case 12 months ago as the likes of Rodrigo Bentancur, Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven missed the pre-season tour of Japan and South Korea due to their international commitments. The trio and a number of their Tottenham teammates will be in international action over the next six days with 2026 World Cup qualifiers, the UEFA Nations League final and friendlies all taking place.
The last of those will see Tottenham's South American stars play in the early hours of Wednesday morning, with Gray and England Under-21s getting their campaign underway with a match against Czech Republic the following day. In regards to the UEFA U21 EURO Finals, the group stage ends on Wednesday, June 18 and the knockout phase commences three days later.
If either Gray and England Under-21s or Odobert, Tel and France Under-21s go all the way and make the final then it will be played in Bratislava on the evening of Saturday, June 28. Tottenham's first pre-season friendly is in the calendar for Thursday, July 31 when they take on Arsenal in Hong Kong, thus giving those involved in the finals plenty of time to recover, enjoy their summer break and return slightly later ahead of the pre-season tour.
After a wretched 2024/25 Premier League season which saw the Lilywhites finish 17th in the standings, pre-season is going to be vitally important to the team as they look to get back to challenging towards the top of the Premier League table. If it is to be a new manager at the helm rather than Postecoglou, the opportunity to work with the vast majority of his squad very early on in pre-season will only be a good thing as he looks to get his ideas and football vision across.
Tottenham's 2024/25 season ended in glory after their Europa League triumph but it is now about trying to reach the next level, challenge for trophies once again and get some consistency into their game following such a long period of mixed results in the Premier League. A strong pre-season campaign is going to be key to Spurs hopefully achieving their goals and that is only going to be helped by having near enough the full squad available from the get-go.