Michael Gray (born 3 August 1974) is an English former professional footballer who played as a left-back or left winger for 18 years.
He is mostly remembered for his 12-year stay with his hometown club Sunderland, where he made 363 league appearances between 1992 and 2004. While with Sunderland, he spent a brief loan spell with Scottish side Celtic. In 2004, he moved to Blackburn Rovers and later had spells with Leeds United, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Sheffield Wednesday. In 1999, Gray earned three caps for England.
Club career
Sunderland
While at school, Gray had trials with Manchester United and signed schoolboy forms, but decided against signing a contract at Old Trafford and continued playing for Fatfield Juniors F.C. in the Hetton Youth League. After 18 months he signed, as an apprentice, with Sunderland. He broke into the Sunderland first team shortly after his 18th birthday, at the beginning of the 1992–93 season. He made his senior debut on 21 November 1992 in a 1–0 win at Derby County in Division One (the first season after the creation of the new Premier League).
He played in various positions, including as a striker, left winger and left back before fading slightly from first team affairs. It was not until 1995–96 that he came to the fore, starting every game for Sunderland, invariably on the left side of midfield, as the team won promotion to the Premier League as Division One champions. Gray was also the scorer of their first Premier League goal, scoring the seventh-minute opener in a 4–1 win over Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on 21 August 1996.
Gray continued to be a regular in the side in 1996–97, but the club was relegated after just one year in the top flight. Gray gained unwanted attention a year later, in May 1998, when he missed the decisive penalty during a shoot-out in the First Division playoff final after a 4–4 draw with Charlton Athletic, which could have taken Sunderland back into the Premier League.
Sunderland finished first in Division One the following season and won promotion to the Premiership, with Gray an ever-present for the campaign. As a First Division player, he was picked by Kevin Keegan to make his international debut for England as a substitute in the match against Hungary on 28 April 1999. In June 1999, he also played for England against Sweden and started the match against Bulgaria. He was the last outfield player from outside of the English top-flight to appear for England until David Nugent in 2007 (goalkeeper David James played for England in 2003 whilst playing for West Ham in the First Division).
However, he failed to make the England squad for Euro 2000. This did not affect his domestic team's form, however, as they finished in seventh place in the Premiership, a feat repeated in 2000–01.
In the 2001–02 season, Sunderland struggled, and with their dip in form came a dip in form for Gray, and for the next two seasons, he was constantly rumoured to be moving elsewhere including to arch-rivals Newcastle United. Relegation came for Sunderland at the end of the 2002–03 season, and two games into the 2003–04 season Gray finally left, joining Celtic on 1 September 2003, on a four-month loan. However, having failed to make an impact, and generally finding himself out of the team, he moved to Blackburn Rovers on a free transfer on 1 January 2004.
Following Sunderland's relegation from the Premier League in 2003, Gray was fined two weeks' wages and stripped of the captaincy by Mick McCarthy after Gray turned up to training in a new Ferrari. McCarthy viewed Gray's actions as insensitive due to the fact a number of club staff could potentially be made redundant following relegation.
Celtic
Gray had a loan spell in 2003 where he appeared 7 times in the green and white of Celtic.
Blackburn Rovers
Gray made his Blackburn Rovers debut against Chelsea in a 3–2 defeat, but constantly performed well for the team as they avoided relegation. In February 2005, he joined Leeds United on loan until the season's end. He then returned to Blackburn and in his first season back there he helped them qualify for the UEFA Cup, having established himself as a first-team regular. He later rejoined Leeds United for a second loan spell in a bid to save them from relegation, which ultimately failed as the club plunged into the third tier in 2007.