Paul Merson singles out Archie Gray for praise | OneFootball

It is pretty safe to say that however Archie Gray would have imagined his debut season at Spurs to have gone - it wouldn't have been like this. Or even anything remotely close. Nor the fans, and not even Ange would have either.

Speaking on Sky Sports News earlier today, Paul Merson singled out the teenager for praise: "When all these [Spurs] players are fit, I hope Gray plays. I think he's been an absolute credit the young lad. I don't know him [personally], I don't know him at all. But from a distance, he turns up every week, he plays in the wrong position, plays in a stinking team, at the moment - with a lorry load of injuries, and he plays every week.

He ain't one of them who goes 'ooh you know what, I might just step out of this one [game]' and don't get me wrong, there are players like that, everybody will have played with players like that, who you know, when it ain't going well, are thinking [I don't fancy this].

He turns up every week. I hope he plays when everybody is fit, because honestly, the kid has been an absolute credit, playing in a position that is not his position, [yet he] turns up every week."

Can't argue with that, been saying very similar for quite a while now. You would hope that Ange in particular will not forget the sacrifice Gray has made, when picking his team with other players available. It would feel very harsh for him to be benched when others are back fit. Not even just for the sentiment of filling in for so long, either - do Spurs really have better midfielders than him at the moment?

That said, for one or two games would not be a huge issue either, with the 18-year old playing an obscene amount of football lately, which will clearly lead to burn out. However, when he has had some rest, and is back to peak conditioning, you would like to hope that there is a place available for him in the starting XI.

Although Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero are still a few weeks away from returning, we could see a partnership of Kevin Danso and Ben Davies until then, with Gray either rested or in his more natural midfield role, but we will have to see on that one.