I can do a Vardy, says Clarets ace
BURNLEY striker Andre Gray believes he has the hunger to follow the Jamie Vardy path to success.
Just like Leicester’s title-winning forward, Gray fought his way up from the non-league scene to the Premier League after a troubled past.
They even faced each other in National League days – when Vardy was at Fleetwood and the Clarets forward was at Luton.
This season, they meet in the Premier League, after Burnley’s promotion in May, and Gray believes that their success is down to desire as much as talent.
“I think a lot of it stems from hard work and hunger,” said Gray, 25. “It’s hard to find. You watch a lot of games and you don’t really see too many people that are hungry.
“Look, if you stop aspiring to something, then you’re going to get nowhere near it. If you just think that’s not possible, or you don’t even want it, then you’re not going to get it.”
Five years ago, Gray’s dreams of success seemed to be slipping away.
His career had gone off the rails after being released by Shrewsbury, he was struggling in the sixth tier with Hinckley United, and getting into trouble with gangs in his home city of Wolverhampton.
At Christmas 2011, he was slashed in the face with a knife outside a nightclub and was left with a four-inch scar.
But Gray managed to turn his life around, just like Vardy, who had to play matches for non-league Stocksbridge Park Steels with an electronic tag in his early 20s after being convicted of assault.
Gray won a route back into the full-time game when he joined Luton in 2012. A £300,000 move to the Championship with Brentford came two years later, then a club-record £6m transfer to Burnley last August, where he ended his debut season as the second tier’s top scorer.
Quite a journey for Gray in the four years since he faced Vardy in non-league.
“For him to go from that to playing for England shows anything can happen,” added Gray.