Gray expects to sign new Leicester deal

Demarai Gray is ready to end the uncertainty over his Leicester future by signing a new contract.

Gray is expected finally to sign a £50,000-a-week deal following months of negotiations with the Leicester board.

The England Under-21 international has been frustrated for the past year over a lack of first-team opportunities, and made his first Premier League start of the season in Sunday’s 2-0 win over Everton.

Bournemouth had a £25million bid rejected for Gray in the summer and his future appeared up in the air after limited game time under Craig Shakespeare.

But Claude Puel, who replaced Shakespeare last week, watched Gray produce a man-of-the-match performance on Sunday and the contract saga is now drawing to a conclusion.

“We obviously wanted to see who the new manager was and stuff, a bit of stability, but I’m happy playing football here,” said Gray.

“It’s for my representative and the back-room staff to deal with and when they give me the phone call we’ll get it sorted.

“All I can do is what I did against Everton. I’ve always said I’m ready to play and I’ve waited a long time. Hopefully now this can be a start of a run of games for me. It’s what I need, to get some confidence and momentum and most importantly develop as a player. As long as I’m working hard I’m sure I can get that under the boss.”

Puel’s decision to start Gray for the first time in the league since April 4 was rewarded with the 21-year-old’s excellent display. Gray created havoc in the first half and ran almost 75 yards to help create the opener for Jamie Vardy, in one of the goals of the season so far.

“That’s what I can do, I can carry the ball up the pitch and take pressure off the lads at the back. It ended up resulting in a goal and got us off to a strong start,” he said.

“We have a good team and a lot of depth. It’s good for me and Ben [Chilwell] that there’s faith in the younger players. It’s good to have that type of manager behind us.”