Demarai Gray is set for a make-or-break summer at Leicester City as the winger considers his future after a season of limited opportunities, with the 20-year-old desperate to play more first-team football to further his career.
Gray, who signed from Birmingham City for £3.5m in January last year, has showed flashes of real promise and is expected to be part of the England Under-21 squad that competes at the European Championship finals in Poland next month. He scored superb individual goals this season against Manchester United and Derby County, and also attracted interest from some of the Premier League’s leading clubs, including Liverpool.
Yet Gray has become frustrated with the lack of time he has spent on the pitch at Leicester, where he has completed only two league matches this season and generally been used as an impact player – he has been a playing substitute 23 times in total. Gray has not appeared for 90 minutes in any competition since February and has been unused back-up in five of Leicester’s past 10 matches, including the 1-0 victory at West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.
Despite those figures, Gray is highly regarded at Leicester. He is viewed as one for the future, a talented player who needs to be patient and wait for his chance. With that in mind the club certainly have no desire to lose Gray, who has three years remaining on his contract.
It is also understood that the player has a £22m release clause in his deal. Leicester dispute that is the case and have denied that any “get-out” figure has been written into the contract, despite strong suggestions to the contrary.
Either way, his future is unlikely to become clearer until the end of the season, when Leicester will have to make a decision about whether Craig Shakespeare stays on as manager.
There are also huge questions hanging over the future of the 26-year-old Riyad Mahrez, who plays in the same position as Gray and seems likely to move on in pursuit of Champions League football elsewhere.
