THERE’S A KNIFE CRIME EPIDEMIC BUT WE MISS THE REAL ISSUE
Andre Gray’s face was slashed at 20. Now the Watford striker has strong views on the scourge of our streets
Andre Gray talks honestly from personal experience about carrying a knife, being in gangs, and the problems of social neglect in the inner- cities.
He talks of mentors and role models; and an education system which wastes time on the Tudors and puts out the entrepreneurial flame of a child who makes money selling doughnuts in school.
But Gray starts with the Fa Cup, because his remarkable journey to the Premier League and Watford’s quarter- final against Crystal Palace today has its roots in the less fashionable end of the world’s oldest football competition.
‘The Fa Cup was a big part of it all,’ said the 27-year- old, looking back to two goals for Hinckley United in a 3-1 win at Matlock Town in the second qualifying round in 2011, before a crowd of just 411. ‘It’s a chance to prove yourself against the bigger teams and that’s when people started to take notice.’
Victory at Matlock launched the sixth-tier team on a memorable run, beating Leek Town and darlington in replays to reach the first round proper where they lost at Tamworth, in another replay. ‘Tamworth wanted to sign me, but it didn’t really materialise,’ he said. ‘ and then we got Luton in the Fa Trophy and took them to a replay.’
By the end of the season Gray was a Luton player, scoring as they lost the Conference play-off final at Wembley. One year later, his goals fuelled promotion back into the Football League, and earned him recognition with england’s non-League team.
Brentford signed him for £500,000 and Burnley for £9million. He won promotion to the top flight and, at the start of last season, joined Watford for £18.5m. days when he was released by Wolves and Shrewsbury are distant memories.
‘Luckily, I took my chance,’ he said. ‘I got my break, to move away and change my life. I moved to Luton where I became a man and that was the best thing that happened to me.
‘ I kept my head down and worked hard, got the big leap into the Championship and haven’t
looked back. It was completely life changing.’
Gray refuses to hide from his past. He was brought up in Wolverhampton by his mother Joanna and was 20 years old, playing for Hinckley, when his face was slashed by a knife during a fight on a night out with friends.
Fifteen stitches were needed to close the wound and the scar remains clear across his left cheek, a reminder of the past he escaped with the help of football.
He has strong views on the knife- crime epidemic and fears Britain has spent too long failing to address the real issues. He bemoans cuts to policing and disappearing youth facilities; he is critical of the education system, the prison system and the media.
‘It’s been like this since I was a teenager,’ said Gray. ‘I carried a knife at one time, it was the thing to do. you felt you needed some sort of weapon. But there are many sides to it. egos and fashion play a part. It seems to be the in-thing. There are kids not even involved in gangs who feel like they need to protect themselves.
‘It’s only now that people want to come out and speak about it, and acknowledge something needs to be done. It seems to be an agenda against a black culture for some reason but it is all races.
‘and it’s not just teenagers. There’s all sorts of knife crime going on and there are people 40 and 50 years old doing it. They’re not trying to get to the root of the problem.’
Watford, like so many other clubs, devote time to their communities, trying to connect with young people and promote positive messages.
‘It’s easy to say we’re role models,’ said Gray. ‘We can be role models for kids who love football. I can go into a school with Troy deeney and talk to the footballers and I think they’d listen, but try to talk to the boys who aren’t and they’re just going to look at me and go: “Well, you’ve got football, it’s easy for you to say that,” and they’re right, not all kids have that.
‘I feel like I can influence people close to me, family members who know the route I’ve taken, but when I was at school I didn’t want to listen to anybody. It didn’t matter who walked in. Teenagers can be hard of hearing.
‘There was a boy at Brentford in a bit of trouble. We knew his talent, and we tried to bring him into the first team dressing room to listen to the older heads, but he would go home, be around his friends and just switch off. We couldn’t get him in and his
‘We got taught about Henry VIII at school and never once in my life has it been useful to me’
career just fizzled out. He doesn’t play any more.’ Gray will always be grateful to his PE teacher Lloyd Stobart for taking the time to understand him. ‘He mentored us more than taught us, that’s what helped,’ he said. ‘Then you end up respecting him and then you listen, and that’s where discipline comes from. That’s what needs to change. That’s a big root of it. ‘You’ve got to find out what their passion is. What do they want to do in life? I knew a girl at school, her grandad used to buy doughnuts from Costco for 50p each and she sold them at school for a pound. She was making £50-£100 a week and they stopped her from doing it. Why? It’s not illegal. She might go selling drugs.’ When Gray landed his first big contract at Brentford he bought a new house for his mum and younger brother Cody and gave her the keys on Mother’s Day 2015. ‘These kids want to earn money,’ he said. ‘ They probably come from broken homes and want to provide for their families. You’re never going to lead them down a route to university where four years later you come out with a £30,000 debt and a £15,000 job. ‘The idea of earning a good wage at 40 is too late for them; too late for their parents. ‘ If they’re interested in business, teach them about business. How to find a loan, start your business. We got taught about Henry VIII and never once in my life has it been useful to me and I don’t think it ever will.
‘When you come from certain backgrounds, it’s difficult when you have to find a way to make money and it leads you down the wrong paths.’
Gray made his mistakes, but he found the right path with help from others and plenty of his own talent and determination.
He is a Premier League star with a big contract, a fast car and a pop-star girlfriend — Leigh-Anne Pinnock of Little Mix — and, today, another date with the FA Cup, this time with Wembley beckoning.
In his story there are lessons, if anyone is listening.