Everyone at Leeds United would have felt gutted when Stuart Dallas announced his retirement from football this week, the 32-year-old Whites icon bowing out of the game after an extensive two-year period out with a now career-ending knee injury.
The Northern Irishman was once a key part of the Marcelo Bielsa machine at Elland Road, hanging up his boots having helped himself to 28 goals and 18 assists from 267 Leeds games.
The time for sentimentality is obviously now, with an outpouring of love coming his way from fans and ex-players alike after the tragic news was revealed.
Yet, in the long-term, Leeds will hope that this bright young star – who has already taken the first team by storm this campaign – can become the next Dallas with time.
The next Stuart Dallas
Dallas might well now pass the baton on for Archie Gray to star for Leeds in a similar fashion, with the departing number 15 adept at playing both in midfield and at the back which Gray has also shown he's capable of doing this season.
Gray has been an absolute revelation for the West Yorkshire titans in the second tier, having accumulated 45 appearances this season with 40 of those coming in the Championship at just 18 years of age.
He hasn't looked like a deer in the headlights when he's been thrown into the thick of the action either, Farke trusting Gray to be his starting right-back for the majority of the season despite a midfield role being his preferred position from his youth days.
28 of those appearances Gray has made this campaign have come from this now familiar right-back role, with Dallas equally as adaptable when called upon to play at both full-back positions if a midfield spot wasn't needing to be plugged.
The Northern Irish star would line up in the back four 101 times for Leeds throughout his celebrated stay at Elland Road, with the Whites now hoping Gray can go down as a club legend in the same vein.
This has led to many waxing lyrical about Gray and how far he could go in the game, described as being "unbelievable" by Not the Top 20 podcast Ali Maxwell earlier this campaign, having also been dubbed "outstanding" by that man Farke.
The 18-year-old could well have his head turned by the likes of Liverpool swooping for his services again potentially this summer, but the Championship promotion hopefuls will attempt to bat away any clubs circling for their homegrown talent in a bid to make him an eventual hall-of-famer.
Transfer interest in Gray
Wild rumours coming out of West Yorkshire indicate that interested parties for Gray now also include Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, with a sizeable price tag of £50m now being slapped above his head.
This shows you how much Leeds want to keep a firm grip on their breakout teenage sensation, already rating him as being worth more than the £45m they sold Kalvin Phillips for at the peak of his Whites career.
With Leeds running in Gray's blood – the 18-year-old being the great nephew of Whites icon Eddie Gray – there will be a temptation on the flexible number 22's mind to stay put at Elland Road and insert himself into the history books like Dallas managed before an abrupt injury stopped it all.
There's no doubt a very real tinge of sadness about how Dallas' decorated time with the Whites has ended, but with emerging talents such as Gray attempting to lead Leeds back to the Premier League where the club legend managed to excel in the past, the future looks bright regardless of this bleak development.
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ByKelan SarsonApr 11, 2024