Andre Gray is excited about the return of club captain Troy Deeney and hopes they can team up together at some stage and deliver on a partnership that has promised so much.
The club captain charged onto the field with 16 minutes remaining of the Championship game against Coventry and helped see the team over the line in another five-goal thriller at Vicarage Road. Deeney replaced his mate Gray, who is regaining full match fitness himself after injury, but Gray is hoping they can play together more rather than be ships in the night.
The Birmingham-born pair have only started 13 games together since Gray joined three-and-a-bit seasons ago, including just once in that first season, and the team boast nearly a 50 per cent win ratio when they are paired together from the off – and those games came in the top tier.
“Me and Troy have spoken about it [how we should play together more] a million times,” said Gray. “We know exactly what we are going to give if we play together. It's out of our hands, though.
“I felt the season before last [the start of the 2018/19 season under Javi Gracia] proved what we could do [with four straight Premier League wins], how effective we were, how well we worked together. We know what we are about, what we are capable of and I believe if me and Troy started the rest of the season together, we'd guarantee a lot of goals. We are both proven in this league. It's down to the manager, though, and what is best for the team.”
Gray made his first league start in nearly a year on Saturday and staked his claim for a permanent starting spot amid some pretty fierce competition with a goal. Head Coach Vladimir Ivić is in the enviable position of having to choose from Gray, the Championship Player of the Year in 2015/16, the club's fourth highest scorer in Deeney, teenage top-scorer João Pedro, club-record signing Ismaïla Sarr, Stipe Perica, who has scored against AC Milan, Juventus, Napoli and Roma, and the 2012/13 Championship leading goal-getter in Glenn Murray.
“It's great competition to have,” said Gray. “We've got experience, we've got youth, we've got legs. We've got everything in abundance, especially in this league. It's quite overwhelming. The competition has to be there and we've all got different roles to play. It's a 46-game season and not everyone is going to be fit in every game. There are going to be knocks and niggles and it's going to be a team game. We all need to be ready as it's the manager's decision.”
