ARCHIE GRAY: BUILDING HIS OWN LEGACY — Leedsunited.com 26/4/22
A look at the stats from the Leeds United star's breakthrough season
After winning Young Player of the Year at club and league
level in recent weeks, Opta statistician and Leeds United fan Jonny Cooper
takes a look at some of the numbers behind Archie Gray's breakthrough season
and how it compares to others who have worn the Leeds United shirt at an early
age.
When Archie Gray made his Leeds United debut in August
against Cardiff, he wasn’t just following in the footsteps of a long line of
academy graduates to play for the Leeds first team – much more than that, he
was the fourth member of his own family to pull on the white shirt, continuing
an association with the club that stems back to New Year’s Day in 1966 when his
great uncle Eddie made his debut for the club. Following Eddie was his brother
and Archie’s grandfather Frank in 1973 and then Frank’s son and Archie’s father
Andy in 1995. Andy’s final game – in his second spell – was 47 years to the day
after Eddie’s first, playing as a substitute in a 2013 New Year’s Day match
against Bolton, a nice bookend to Gray appearances until Archie started a new
chapter in 2023.
Archie is the youngest of the four Grays to debut for the
club, aged 17 years and 147 days against Cardiff, which was 161 days younger
than Andy in a 1995 League Cup tie with Notts County. Eddie is third-youngest,
17 years and 349 days old on a scoring debut against Sheffield Wednesday in
1966 (indeed, Eddie Gray is the fourth-youngest player in the club’s history to
score on debut), while Frank was 18 years and 106 days old when appearing
against Leicester City in a Division One match in 1973. Indeed, since New
Year's Day in 1966, a member of the Gray family has made an appearance in 28%
of Leeds United's matches in that time, including a run of 201 consecutive
matches between 1975 and 1979.
In December 2021, Archie could not only have made family
history but Leeds United history when he was named in the matchday squad to
face Arsenal during an injury crisis, aged just 15 years and 281 days. Had he
made an appearance from the bench in that game, he would have broken Peter
Lorimer’s record as the club’s youngest ever player, which has stood since
September 1962 when Lorimer, aged just 15 years and 289 days, featured in a
Division Two match against Southampton, a match that also included the great
John Charles in the 325th of his 327 games for the club.
Before Archie started against Cardiff City on the opening
day of this season, you had to go back 736 matches to find any Leeds player
starting a match as young as he was that day, with Aidan White (who would later
start a League Cup match against Oxford alongside Andy Gray in 2012) facing
Millwall in October 2008 aged 17 years and 8 days. Before him was a 16-year-old
Tom Elliott in August 2007 against Macclesfield Town and Simon Walton during
the 2004-05 campaign. Both Aaron Lennon and James Milner featured for Leeds
aged 16 but both only made one start each at an age as young as Archie was
against Cardiff, Milner featuring in the XI against West Ham in February 2003
and Lennon against Swindon in the 2003 League Cup tie with Swindon Town, made
famous by goalkeeper Paul Robinson’s last-minute headed goal.
A grand total of 186 teenagers have made an appearance for
the Leeds United first team but only seven of those have ever made as many as
47 appearances in a single campaign, with Archie Gray this season the most
since Lewis Cook in 2015-16. Indeed, only two players – current teammate Sam
Byram in his first spell and Fabian Delph in 2008-09 – have ever played more
times as a teenager in a season for Leeds than Archie has this season. Of this
list, only John Charles in 1949-50 has made this many while aged 18 or younger
during the season as Gray has in 2023-24. Byram’s club record 53 teenage
appearances in 2012-13 included several alongside Archie’s father Andy.
The sheer volume of Archie’s appearances this season have
led him to break several age-related Leeds appearance records. He is the
youngest player to appear in the first 10 league games of a season for the club
(17 years, 206 days vs QPR in October), has the most starts in a season before
the age of 18 (a record previously held by goalkeeper Gary Sprake in 1962-63)
and has the most starts overall before the age of 18 (36), a record that was
held by Terry Connor. He is also the youngest player to start 40 matches for
the club (18 years, 25 days vs Coventry in April), nine days younger than
Connor was on his 40th start in 1980 against Nottingham Forest. He would also
have become the youngest member of the Gray family to score for Leeds, had the
goal initially awarded to him in February against Leicester remained his (it
was later adjusted to a Wout Faes own goal) and at the age of 17 years and 348
days that night, he would’ve beaten Eddie’s age against Sheffield Wednesday in
1966 by a single day. The last 17-year-old to score for Leeds therefore remains
Simon Walton in 2005 against Cardiff City.
🥳 Happy 18th Birthday, @ArchieGray06! pic.twitter.com/7hLZErXAj3
— Leeds United (@LUFC) March 12, 2024