Jamie Shackleton has been quoted by Leeds Live as saying Archie Gray is doing things he has not seen before from a 16-year-old, having played alongside the Elland Road kid in training – and in a friendly against Blackpool.
Shackleton, 22, like Gray came up through the Leeds academy. But after 79 appearances, Shackleton decided to leave on loan in the summer – joining Millwall in the Championship. Alongside Charlie Cresswell, he is impressing in London.
Indeed, Shackleton has started seven of Millwall’s eight league games so far, in a variety of different positions. Meanwhile, Gray is training with the Leeds first team, albeit after a slight injury sustained at the start of the season.
Asked about the England Under-17 international, Shackleton recalled playing alongside him in a 4-0 pre-season win over Blackpool – and training with Gray. He gave a glowing verdict of the highly-rated Leeds talent.
“I’ve seen a fair bit of Archie,” Shackleton said. “I trained with him last year and this year I played in the game against Blackpool. He pretty much ran the show. We were playing against Championship midfielders that day.
“At 16 he was giving them the run around and getting stuck in as well. He can hold his own and I haven’t seen that many players who are able to do that at such a young age. There’s a lot more exciting things to come from him.”
Shackleton: Leeds kid Gray doing things he has not seen before
Gray is a super talent. As Shackleton says, he dictated the game against Blackpool and looked every bit as good as Marc Roca alongside him. The latter is a player to have played for Bayern Munich, and is currently a regular for Leeds.
The challenge Leeds have is two-fold. Help him and give him the platform to reach his huge potential. Secondly, it is to keep him away from the lure of bigger clubs. Manchester City are supposedly keeping tabs on Gray.
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