£18M Gray to prove his worth
ANDRE GRAY is the £18million striker who was once flogged to pay off the arrears on his £200-a-week wages.
Five years and worlds apart from his roots as a part-timer at Hinckley United, Watford’s record signing will make his debut against Liverpool today, possibly from the bench.
Following the Jamie Vardy pathway from non-league drifter to Premier League striker, Gray insists he is unfazed by the astronomical fee the Hornets have shelled out to lure him from Burnley.
He said: “I’d love to score the 25 goals he did in a season and win the title as well, but every year I hope to get better and score more.
“I’m still learning, I’m still fairly raw and I need to tweak certain things in my game. It’s not going to be easy and the Premier League’s difficult, but everywhere I’ve been in my career I’ve wanted to succeed and I’ve managed.” Gray’s value has doubled since he moved to Turf Moor from Brentford two years ago and fired the Clarets to the Championship title.
And although last season was disrupted by a fourmatch ban for tweets when his career was shrouded in anonymity, he still got nine goals in 26 starts as Burnley stayed up comfortably. Gray said: “The size of the fee doesn’t bother me – people were asking how Burnley had paid £9m for a player in the Championship, and the next thing we knew, I was top scorer, Football League player of the year and won the Championship.
“But I never dreamed of this when I was at Hinckley and they sold me for £30,000 – and some of that went to me because they hadn’t paid my wages.
“They were in a bit of financial trouble at the time, so the fee helped them out.”