Demarai Gray

[sacreblueits442]

...is it possible that Rodgers would off load Ghezzal instead of Gray!

   Gray features for the England U21 and has been successful and that may just sway Rodgers to try to get more out of him. Taking Ghezzal off the books frees up the wages bill and money for a new winger.

 I understand Tielemans will be priority but it would be good if the budget could stretch to a Leon Bailey or a David Neres. We need someone who can compete at the top level and i am not convinced Championship players are the answer as they are not proven and could need a season to adjust, we are looking to go to the next level, getting the aforementioned players would show our intent. 

[Clever Fox]

You're welcome, always willing to be of service, Though I know you prefer Rachel.

[murphy]

23 hours ago, HighPeakFox said:

The Leicester way - pick out the stats that back up your premise, and ignore all the stats that don't.

 

Sorry - not trying to be personal, but I think yesterday proved that Murphy's Law doesn't exist.

Yes it does.

 

Murphy's law is the whole of the law.

 

[HighPeakFox]

3 minutes ago, murphy said:

Yes it does.

 

Murphy's law is the whole of the law.

 

Disgraceful egotism 

[shailen]

Hopefully he can become an inside forward next season and contribute more goals. Think this would improve his overall game. 

[egg_fried_rice]

A few comments from Gray here: https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/leicester-city-news-demarai-gray-goals-assists-england-u21/

 

Leicester City news: Demarai Gray gives frank assessment of his progress
The young winger is away at the U21 Euros this summer with England and is determined to return to the King Power a better player

 

Demarai Gray admits he must improve, after conceding that his season for Leicester City was no more than “OK”.

The winger, who is preparing with England for the European Under-21 Championship, managed just one assist last season and four goals.

“It was just OK,” said Gray when asked to critique his own season. “I wanted to achieve more, but at the same time I did improve and learned things about different aspects of my game.

“My numbers – my goals and assists – need to improve. I might get a bit of criticism for that but I know it myself.

“I’m 22 and am still improving and I have a lot of improving to do. I know it will come.”

More responsibility
Despite his frank assessment of his own performances at club level, Gray can expect to play a key role in Aidy Boothroyd’s plans for this summer’s tournament in Italy and San Marino.

 

As one of the squad’s senior players, it will be the former Birmingham man’s final chance to help the under-21s claim an elusive major trophy.

“I have more responsibility now, but I like that,” he said.

“I’ll be helping the young lads who are coming through. They know what is involved but this tournament is different. It is a proper tournament – similar to what you see with the seniors, and a completely different ball game to the qualifiers and friendlies.

“One mistake, or moment of sloppiness, and it’s over, the Euros is gone. It’s big.

“France is the first game and they are probably a team that is on our level. I see that game as a final, to be honest.

“We need to win that game. There is no time to ease your way into this tournament.”

 

[egg_fried_rice]

I have to say I do forget he's only 22. I know we all wanted him to have kicked on more by now, but he's clearly aware of where he's lacking and still has time to take his game up a level. I hope he's able to do that with us.

[Muzzy_Larsson]

I Leicester want to break into the top 6 they won't do it with this guy as a mainstay in the team, not good enough and would be surprised if he ever is.  

[huggybear]

One thing missing from his comments - the recognition that he needs to work hard.  Feels like he's expecting improvement to land in his lap and lets face it, work rate isn't exactly one of his biggest assets on the pitch

Edited 13 June 2019 by huggybear

[TJB-fox]

15 minutes ago, huggybear said:

One thing missing from his comments - the recognition that he needs to work hard.  Feels like he's expecting improvement to land in his lap and lets face it, work rate isn't exactly one of his biggest assets on the pitch

[ealingfox]

Time to man up and get rid. We will still make a decent profit considering how cheap he is.

[lcfcsnow]

He's got two years left, last chance to sell really. We don't want to be giving out a new deal.

[StriderHiryu]

9 minutes ago, huggybear said:

One thing missing from his comments - the recognition that he needs to work hard.  Feels like he's expecting improvement to land in his lap and lets face it, work rate isn't exactly one of his biggest assets on the pitch

I don't think that's fair, the biggest improvement in his game last season was his work rate and defensive contribution. In numerous games he pressed hard all game long and put in some great challenges and interceptions high up the pitch. 

 

Where Gray has always lacked is in his decision making in the final third. He shoots when others are on, or makes a bad pass when the shot is a better option. He doesn't look up enough when on the ball so despite being quick and skilful is not aware of what's going on around him. For me his season was summed up away to West Ham when the ball was played into him and he had a wild lashed shot that went nowhere when Maddison could have been played in. He's just always guilty of doing things like that during his time here.

 

The player has to be aware that younger players such as Hudson-Odoi, Sancho and even Barnes at Leicester have all moved in front of him in terms of development despite all being younger. I feel like he has as much natural ability as all of those players, but he's just not clicked from a football intelligence point of view. And sadly, given how many games he has played for us already I can't see him proving. Barnes already makes much better decisions, even if his positioning is probably worse. Look at Barnes goal against West Ham in the same match mentioned above as a comparison. He made a great series of runs to receive the ball from Tielemans before slotting home assuredly. That's the sort of play we need from our forward wide men.

[M0901]

20 minutes ago, huggybear said:

One thing missing from his comments - the recognition that he needs to work hard.  Feels like he's expecting improvement to land in his lap and lets face it, work rate isn't exactly one of his biggest assets on the pitch

Completely disagree. I think over the last 2 seasons his work rate has drastically improved. 

[Muzzy_Larsson]

How much did he cost initially?  Was it around £7-8m, if so I'd imagine you'd probably get that back and maybe a little bit more from a lower EPL/Championship club.  I'd definitely be selling if so.

[mancunianfox]

He is at worst a good backup, his contract can't be that much and he has two years left on it. Doesn't make sense to sell, we still need squad players too.

[Bozman]

1 hour ago, mancunianfox said:

He is the worst  backup, his contract can't be that much and he has two years left.  it Does make sense to sell, we still need squad players too.

Sorted that for you 

Edited 13 June 2019 by Bozman
typo

[Dan]

23 minutes ago, henrik_62 said:

How much did he cost initially?  Was it around £7-8m, if so I'd imagine you'd probably get that back and maybe a little bit more from a lower EPL/Championship club.  I'd definitely be selling if so.

It was about £4mil maximum. We did get him very cheap.

 

Times up for me as well personally. This summer's the one to sell.

[Nod.E]

29 minutes ago, M0901 said:

Completely disagree. I think over the last 2 seasons his work rate has drastically improved. 

Don't think he means work rate on the pitch. That's a prerequisite. You don't get picked at this level if you're not putting a shift in.

 

There is no acknowledgement that to improve, he will need to knuckle down on the training field, identifying weaknesses and working on them until it benefits those elements of his game. 

 

Of course I don't know the guy, but I just don't imagine him to have the humility to listen to areas of improvement and put in the hard graft to put it right.

 

Say what you like about that being an assumption, but his decision making hasn't shown any sign of improving in over two seasons with us. Proof is in the pudding.

Edited 13 June 2019 by Nod.E

[brucey]

45 minutes ago, henrik_62 said:

How much did he cost initially?  Was it around £7-8m, if so I'd imagine you'd probably get that back and maybe a little bit more from a lower EPL/Championship club.  I'd definitely be selling if so.

We paid around £5m. We had an offer of £25m from Bournemouth a couple of summers ago, which we turned down, unfortunately that ship has probably sailed now. His current value to us as purely a bench/backup player is probably still £10-15m minimum though.

[Tuna]

I don't get the desire to get rid of him, he's part of the squad. I'd rather have him on the bench than Ghezzal or Diabate.

[Nod.E]

27 minutes ago, Tuna said:

I don't get the desire to get rid of him, he's part of the squad. I'd rather have him on the bench than Ghezzal or Diabate.

But that's like saying you should stick with your 4/10 girlfriend because you've only ever shagged rotters.

 

Get yourself a nice hair cut, buy yourself some Paco Rabanne, get on the vodkas and see if you can do a bit better.

 

Christ, such a negative attitude to have.

[Royston.]

I think he will have a great euro's and we'll either sell big or give him a new contract.

 

[sly1]

Move him on

[Nicolo Barella]

If we sell him next season with only one season on his contract, that's quite frankly dumb. We're banking on huge improvement this coming season so he either stays here, or we can sell for an ok price. If he just does "ok" again, his value plummets with twin aspects of the waste of another year of development and the fact that he only had anther year on the contract.