Leeds United are currently fighting to secure automatic promotion out of the Championship at the second time of asking, after they failed to reach the Premier League last season.
The Whites extended the gap to third to eight points on Saturday with a 1-1 draw against West Bromwich Albion, with 11 matches left to play in the regular campaign.
Daniel Farke’s side have been brilliant in the Championship and currently sit top of the division, but that does not mean that every player in the squad has lived up to expectations.
Former England international Patrick Bamford, for example, has endured a frustrating campaign in West Yorkshire and should be moved on in the summer.
Why Leeds should move on from Patrick Bamford
Back in October, Football Insider reported that the striker is planning to find a new club at the end of the season, due to his lack of game time at Elland Road this term.
The 31-year-old dud has come off the bench for all ten of his appearances in the Championship so far this term, as Mateo Joseph and Joel Piroe have both been preferred ahead of him as the sole number nine.
Bamford has also missed the last ten matchday squads with a hamstring injury and it remains to be seen when he will next be available for selection.
In The Pipeline
Leeds should, therefore, move on from the experienced striker in the summer because he has not been a frontline option for Farke, and has become a liability through injuries, and that would open up a space in the squad for another player to come in.
The starlet who could replace Patrick Bamford
Instead of dipping into the transfer market to spend millions of pounds on an external replacement for Bamford, the Whites could promote Harry Gray from the academy set-up to join the first-team squad.
Farke made a big call in the summer of 2023 when he decided to do the same thing for his brother, Archie Gray, who had yet to make his senior bow, and it is fair to say that the Whites hit the jackpot with that call.
Tom Elliott
February 2007
16 years, 02 months, 25 days
Simon Walton
August 2004
16 years, 10 months, 25 days
Ryan Edmondson
May 2018
16 years, 11 months, 16 days
Sam Chambers
November 2024
17 years, 02 months, 15 days
Aaron Lennon
August 2004
17 years, 04 months, 13 days
Archie Gray
August 2023
17 years, 04 months, 25 days
As you can see in the table above, Archie fell just short of making the top five youngest players to make their debut for the club, but his brother could make that top five.
Harry Gray does not turn 17 until October of this year and this means that he could still make the top three, albeit number one is already out of the window, if Farke brings him into the senior set-up in the summer.
Analyst Ben Mattinson once claimed that he is “more talented” than his brother Archie and described him as a “killer” number nine who has been “shining” at youth level this season, which is backed up by his return of two goals in four U21 matches and eight goals in 11 U18 games last term.
Journalist Joe Donnohue recently revealed that Gray has already been in first-team training and that the 16-year-old ace is “making all the right noises” behind the scenes, which shows that he is catching the eye at Thorp Arch.
Whilst there is no need to rush his development, Farke has already shown that he is willing to throw players in at a young age if he believes that they are ready, as he did with Archie, and the centre-forward could be thrown in at the deep end to replace Bamford as the third-choice striker this summer.
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Bringing the 16-year-old into the senior side as a back-up to Piroe and Joseph would also save the club millions in the summer, freeing up funds to be used on other positions.
