Leeds United manager Daniel Farke putting side before self-improvement with Archie Gray

The 17-year-old grandson of two-time European Cup finalist Frank, brother of Elland Road legend Eddie, is one of England's most exciting young talents.

His first season of senior football began with regular appearances in holding midfield and occasionally behind the centre-forward but this month Gray, inset, has also been preferred to Luke Ayling at right-back.

Seeing the game from a different angle should do wonders for Gray’s development, but Farke is too single-minded to think about that.

"Although we love Archie and want to develop him and perhaps I have a reputation for bringing young players through, the main thing is always that Leeds United want to be successful," he insisted.

"If we then can develop and help not just the young players but all the players in our squad, that's always quite beneficial.

"Midfielders are often football-intelligent and capable of adapting to tactical necessities so often they can play different positions.

"He can play in the full-back position. I think his natural position is in midfield but we'll see how his position develops over the next months and years.

"To play different positions always helps but it's not the perfect solution for every player. I'm not sure if it would have benefitted Diego Maradona, Paul Gascoigne or Zinedine Zidane to play in the full-back position but for Archie's it's definitely not a bad choice.

"But we don't play him there just to develop him, it's because we needed a player capable of handling the pace, speed and mobility of the opposition players and to play more like an inverted full-back, an additional midfield player (when Leeds have the ball).

"Thank God he's repaid my trust."

It is en vogue for full-backs to step into midfield but Farke wants to set, not follow, trends.

"In my early days at Norwich or even before I played with inverted full-backs so my feeling is it's now developing in a different direction for managers who want to be ahead of the wave," he said.

"We will try to be ahead of the wave and not copy everyone."