Harry Gray's Sheffield Wednesday grow-up mission detailed by Leeds United decision-maker
Leeds United teenage prodigy Harry Gray is on a learning mission with Sheffield Wednesday.
The loan of any young player is a voyage of discovery, these days carefully-chosen to build around the needs of the individual.
Harry Gray’s arrival to Sheffield Wednesday this season is no different. An England youth international whose reputation at parent club Leeds United has delivered hope that he could even go on to equal or surpass the achievements of big brother Archie, his reputation and talent is highlighted by the fact he was scouted by the likes of AC Milan while on loan with Rotherham United last season.
It was known at the time of his signing in early July that Wednesday had beaten strong competition to the loan, including from clubs in the Championship. One man who had a steering hand on the agreement and indeed on Gray’s development is Andrew Taylor, Leeds’ assistant sporting director who placed the deal in the category of ‘development loan’ - one where ‘the focus is very much to go and get games in a first-team environment to ultimately come back to our first team squad’.
“He had options,” Taylor told club media. “He met with four teams, with the managers. One of my big philosophies is that the player has to have a big say in things, because he's the one going somewhere. We cannot be in a position where we're going 'no, you're not going where you want to go, we're sending you here,' because you're setting them up to fail almost. We can steer them. I sit in all the meetings he has with the managers and we talk about it. We discuss it with the player, his agent, his dad. We discuss it internally. You've got to try and get to a position where all the key stakeholders are happy with the decision.
“Sheffield Wednesday is local enough; he's not going too far away, because when he first went out on loan to Rotherham United he was only 17 so there's a bit of a safeguarding issue. We don't want to send him somewhere too far because he can't just go and stay in a hotel on his own. So he gets to still stay at home until 18, and then obviously he can make his own decision.”
Gray’s Hillsborough stint has been one dotted both with moments of class and moments of challenge. He turned 18 just last month and bagged his first Wednesday goal in the routing of AFC Wimbledon a little over three weeks ago. Concussion protocol ruled him out of three Owls wins just as he had got going and a pull-up in the warm-up of Sunday’s FA Cup defeat at Oldham Athletic prevented involvement in Dave Challinor’s first outing as his new boss.
The loan was not one chosen to be easy. Though inconsistent in terms of impacting games and clearly still learning vast aspects of the game including certain defensive responsibilities, sections of matches have seen Gray’s talent shine through in an often less-than-fluent Wednesday attack. It is that sort of opportunity that Leeds are keen on the youngster being thrown into throughout the course of the campaign, with a battle for minutes seemingly not a primary concern as he looks to grow into his time in S6.
“Last season he went to League One in a good club, but a struggling club, and he spent a lot of his time defending,” Taylor said. “I thought he had a really good loan spell last year, and there were a couple of possibilities of maybe the Championship this season, but we felt it might be the bottom end of the Championship. Our question was 'how do we go and give Harry Gray the best possible platform to go and be successful at what he's really good at, which is in the final third?' A couple of other clubs we spoke to would have been in that category.
"Sheffield Wednesday are going to be strong. Secondly, there's a huge expectation on the club, a huge following, huge pressure because they're a massive club, and if we're trying to prepare him to come back and play for Leeds United in the Premier League, where there's huge expectation, huge following, huge pressure, it's really difficult to replicate that. Going somewhere like a Sheffield Wednesday under the scrutiny, under the big club mentality - everybody who plays against Sheffield Wednesday, it's their big game, so you've got to come up with solutions to win games, to be creative.
“There's going to be significant competition, and people maybe overlook this and say ‘send him somewhere where he's going to play every minute of every game,’" Taylor continued. “Fine, but that's not the real world, because he comes back here or in a year or two years and Premier League squads are competitive. So actually, how about we send him somewhere where he can't just coast through the week, where he has to perform every day in training to make sure he's in the squad first and foremost on a Saturday, and then try and stay in the team? And the only way you do that is by performing.
“Now that might be quite an intense way of looking at it for such a young player. But if we've got aspirations for him to come and do that in a Premier League club, that's what it takes. You've got to be at it every single day to get into a team.”
A change in manager, in coaching team and in mood around Wednesday’s rebuild challenge is all part of the experience. Leeds, well-placed in the Premier League table, will continue to carefully monitor a loan that allows Gray to continue his education at Thorp Arch once a week. The proximity to Leeds means staff and clubmates are able to check-in with the youngster. But by design, the onus is on the player and Wednesday. Micro-management of the loan by Leeds is not an option and these agreements are seen as a personal mission as much as a football one.
“Part of lads going out on loan is to develop off the pitch as well, to a certain extent, and not to be mollycoddled,” said Taylor. “After a week or two I always say to them that I'll be hands-off, but they know they've got the safety net here and can call me with any issues. We'll have a coffee during the time before January to check in. If there are issues I'll go into training grounds and sit with managers to find out what the problems are and try to resolve. We've had plenty of them over the years.
“But ultimately Harry is a Sheffield Wednesday player and we let him be. We don't want him to be in that environment and for him to feel like he's above them, if that makes sense. Yes, believe you're still a Leeds player. Yes, we're still monitoring you. Yes, you're going to be coming back into a Premier League environment but we're trusting Sheffield Wednesday to look after him. We have conversations openly about what they're doing and how they're doing it. There's constant communication.”