Demarai Gray prepared to commit future to Leicester after Claude Puel's arrival

Leicester City attacker and mooted Tottenham Hotspur and Everton target Demarai Gray has told of his desire to remain with the former Premier League champions, but will leave contract talks in the hands of his representatives as he focuses on nailing down a spot in manager Claude Puel's first-team side.

Gray joined the Foxes from Championship outfit Birmingham City in January 2016 but has found regular game-time hard to come by for the majority of his spell at the King Power Stadium. The England Under-21 international was used sporadically by former manager Claudio Ranieri, and was regularly named as a substitute under Craig Shakespeare.

Tottenham and Everton were both monitoring Gray's situation in the summer, while Bournemouth and Crystal Palace saw bids for the £30m-rated ($39.6m) attacker rejected.

Tottenham have been linked with the likes of Gray and Wilfried Zaha in previous seasons, with many believing a player of that ilk would provide Mauricio Pochettino's side with an injection of pace and width which is not abundant in their attacking ranks at present.

New Leicester boss Puel started Gray against reported suitors Everton on Sunday (29 October) and reaped the rewards as the pacey young attacker had a hand in both of his side's goals against the beleaguered Toffees. Gray, who can operate on either flank, revealed the arrival of the former Southampton boss heavily influenced his decision to stay in the Midlands.

"We obviously wanted to see who the new manager was... but I'm happy playing football here and let my representatives deal with that side of it. When they give me the phone call we'll get it sorted," the Leicester star told Sky Sports.

"It's for my representative and the backroom staff to deal with. All I can do is what I've done [against Everton] and when it comes to getting sorted out we'll get to it.

"I've always said I'm ready to play and I've waited a long time. Hopefully now this can be a start of a run of games for me. It's what I need, to get some confidence and momentum myself and most importantly develop as a player.

"As long as I'm working hard I'm sure I can get that under the boss. It's good for me and Ben [Chilwell] there's faith in the younger players. It's good to have that type of manager behind us. I'm feeling good."

Gray's current contract at Leicester expires in 2020, but his comments suggest a move to the likes of Tottenham or Bournemouth is not imminent. Puel handed the England youth star just his second league start of the season against Everton last weekend, and the Frenchman will almost certainly reward him with his third away at Stoke City on Saturday after he cut through David Unsworth's creaking, porous defence with alarming regularity.