Crystal Palace in for Archie Gray

Gray has made a tremendous comeback this season. Farke has showed a lot of faith in Gray, and he has certainly returned that faith with some impressive performances.

He’s displaying incredible maturity and skill, and at 17 years old, he’ll undoubtedly have a lot of space for progress, so it’s no wonder that Premier League clubs such as Crystal Palace are already interested.

However, the Leeds academy graduate is only under contract until 2025, which could cause problems for the Whites in the next transfer windows.

If his excellent run continues, Premier League clubs will be connected to him. And if Leeds cannot reach an agreement on a new contract, they may be compelled to sell him sooner rather than later.

Gray, on the other hand, is a very inexperienced player who will be purely focused on playing regular Championship games for Leeds, who appear to be finding their feet under Farke.

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Roy Hodgson ‘feels sorry’ for referees as Palace boss questions new directives

Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson said he “feels sorry” for referees who have had to adapt to a slew of new Premier League rules and regulations that went into effect before the start of the season.

The 76-year-old returned to the Selhurst Park dugout after missing last weekend’s trip to Villa Park due to sickness, and he disputed with Fulham manager Marco Silva that the Cottagers were the superior side in Saturday’s goalless draw.

This season’s modifications include a ban on having more than one coach within the technical area, which Hodgson will need to be persuaded to accept.

The former England coach said: “I feel so sorry for the referees. All these new directives, which to most of us who have been in football for a long time can’t really make an awful lot of sense, but they feel obliged to follow it through.

“Little things annoy you. Why can’t somebody from the bench, one of the coaches, come and stand by me for 30 seconds to shout instructions with you before being told immediately you’ve got to go back to the bench?

“It’s our job to do that, our job is to coach the players, work with the plan. I can understand if people are crowding in the bench in that area and making a nuisance of it.

“But if you’re talking about someone who comes out from time to time to say a couple of words, where is the problem? How does football benefit from that?”

The two London sides entered Saturday’s contest with almost identical records to start their season, Hodgson’s men having scored just one more goal than Silva’s to separate them in the table.

Both teams had chances, Eberechi Eze firing just wide late in the first half of his 100th appearance for Palace while both Raul Jimenez and Willian were denied by Eagles keeper Sam Johnstone.

Fulham squandered a second-half chance with an overpowered pass, while Hodgson’s introduction of Jean-Philippe Mateta to play up front alongside Odsonne Edouard failed to break the deadlock.

“I’ve seen many games like today lost by just one goal,” Hodgson remarked. We didn’t do that, therefore the good is that we can and will improve, and we gained one more point in our effort to rise up the table.”

Fulham manager Silva, on the other hand, felt his team deserved more.

“I think overall during the game, we were the team that created more chances to win,” he remarked. I’m delighted with the performance; we simply need to be more effective in attack when we’re in specific areas of the field.

“I believe we were strong enough due to good organization and excellent work from our two midfielders and two central defenders.” Our two full-backs also performed admirably.

“I think we were the best team on the pitch overall and deserved three points, even if the game was balanced, of course, but the team that created more was ourselves.”