David Ornstein says Tottenham Hotspur 'expect' to seal £40m deal for Leeds United star soon

Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur have been given a huge boost in their pursuit of rising Leeds United star Archie Gray after the Elland Road club rejected a £40m deal from Brentford for the midfielder.

The 18-year-old looked poised to join the Bees after The Yorkshire Evening Post reported he had made the trip to London on Saturday night to undergo a medical. A £40m fee had been agreed but the structure of the payments had not been finalised. The Yorkshire Evening Post was first to report on Sunday morning that Brentford’s £40m offer had officially been knocked back by Leeds. Gray had agreed personal terms with Brentford while Chelsea and Spurs also held talks with Leeds while the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund had been tracking Gray.

According to talkSPORT, Tottenham had been weighing up a move for Gray by matching Brentford’s £40m offer. Leeds need to sell one of their more valuable players to stay in line with Profit and Sustainability regulations. The rejected offer opens the door for the likes of Tottenham, Chelsea and Liverpool to try and steal a march on Brentford for the in-demand midfielder. And Spurs appear to have done just that after David Ornstein of The Athletic reported the North London club were in talks with Leeds with the expectation all sides cam come to an agreement, although nothing has been finalised.

Gray first came to the attention of Leeds fans back in December 2021 when, aged just 15, he was named on the bench by then manager Marcelo Biela for a clash against Arsenal. He shot to prominence under Daniel Farke last season, as he played over 4,000 minutes of football across the entire campaign at right-back and in defensive midfield.

Speaking to the YEP earlier this year, club chairman Paraag Marathe was unable to rule out Gray leaving Elland Road as Leeds battled to stay within Profit and Sustainability regulations. He said: “If I can paint the big picture for you, there are certain things that we need to do and we will make sure we are fully compliant with P&S, as we always have been. And there are certain trade-offs that we have to make and so we'll have to get to the drawing board and figure out which moves we have to make sure that we are compliant. It's too early to say. Obviously Archie is a tremendous player, as are all of the players who put in so much effort for us, but you know, every season brings change and so I can't yet comment on it, but we'll see what happens."

Gray's move to Brentford would have represented a club record arrival for the West London side, just months after Igor Thiago's £30m move from Club Brugge had been agreed. The 22-year-old will officially join the Bees tomorrow after a deal was announced in February. A £40m deal for Gray would have represented unprecedented spending from Brentford across one transfer window. Last summer they forked out around £61m transfer fees, which is their highest total to date in a single window.