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Leeds United legend Eddie Gray backs the club for promotion to the Premier League

By Jack Walker

Former Leeds United player and manager Eddie Gray expects the club to be pushing for promotion to the Premier League at the end of the season.

Gray, who achieved domestic and European success playing in Don Revie’s side in the 1960s and 1970s, believes Marcelo Bielsa’s Whites can seal a top-flight return.

Leeds United are currently riding high in third place after fifteen games, only two points away from first place and outside of the automatic promotion places on goal difference.

He told Yorkshire Voice: “In terms of quality, we are as good, if not better, than most of the teams in the division.

“If that is the criteria, we should be going up [to the Premier League].”

But Gray did acknowledge that avoiding injuries and suspensions to key players would be vital in mounting a push for promotion.

He believes the Championship is “a tough league” to get promoted from, as the league’s top twelve teams are currently just separated by eight points.

As well as managing the first team on two occasions, Gray also coached the Leeds United youth team, overseeing the rise of several prominent players in the past twenty years, including Harry Kewell, Alan Smith and Jonathan Woodgate.

He said it was great to see players like Kewell, and more recently Lee Bowyer “passing their knowledge on” as they move into management.

Kewell has managed Notts County and Crawley Town while Bowyer is currently the boss at Charlton Athletic. Gray offered some words of advice to players transitioning to management.

He added: “You’re dealing with a group and you’ve got to keep them all happy for a start. That’s the most difficult thing, but that’s how it should be.”

Gray is now a co-commentator on LUTV, the club’s in-house TV channel, and can regularly be heard commentating on Leeds United games alongside Bryn Law.

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