“Oh Andy,
You came and you slagged off that Massey,
So you were sent on your way, oh Andy,
You and Keyesy you boys aren't so classy,
But I’ll miss you, you know, oh Andy…”
OH Andy indeed. The now-former Sky Sports pundit is the current hot topic on everyone’s lips at the moment. Although if you tuned in to BBC 5 Live last night after the Blackpool vs. Manchester United game expecting a debate about Gray, you may have been instead enticed by presenter Tony Livesy’s bizarre and less-than-fascinating topic of ‘Where have you been barred from?’
Most of the responses regarding Gray’s dismissal are seemingly ones of joy. Critics, football fans and journalists alike have all rejoiced in Sky’s announcement yesterday. Comments on Twitter and Facebook have been amusing and often cutting. Many have praised Sky for their handling of the situation, although it was understood that if the 3rd video clip, featuring presenter Charlotte Jackson, hadn’t have been found and shown to Sky bosses, then Gray would have remained in his position as he had already been given just a stern warning, just as was then given to his ‘mate’ Richard Keys.
Going back to BBC 5 Live, Gray would have been alarmed at an interview with Ron Atkinson on the situation yesterday evening. Probably the last person Gray would have wanted sticking their noses in was the gold-plated Atkinson, although hats off to the BBC for trying to stick Gray in a corner with a pundit sacked for obscene racist comments in 2004. Unsurprisingly, Atkinson believed the dismissal of Gray was a bit harsh, before probably being interrupted by the BBC reporter as he trailed off whilst talking off about another programme which shows he isn’t racist.
But is Big Ron right about Gray? Possibly, although Gray’s comments were rightly judged to be sexist and derogatory towards women and to that he has no defence. However, Sky has set a dangerous precedent by relieving the former Scottish international of his duties. One must be truly naïve to believe Gray is in a minority within such broadcasting corporations to hold such sexist views. Gray’s sacking will simply make people in broadcasting more careful about what and where they say it, rather than changing attitudes altogether.
Many have already raised the issue on whether Soccer AM’s ‘Soccerette’ feature will continue after what has happened. The Soccerette feature involves an invariably attractive female parading about in a short skirt and football top, whilst being the subject of jokes and innuendoes. Those who argue in defence of the show that such jokes are done in jest, are in danger of being hypocritical. The Soccerette segment of the show has always been a popular one, especially with men, ever since Tim Lovejoy first cat-walked up and down the Soccer AM studio with a female in tow.
So are we to believe that we have all been disgustingly sexist all this time? Maybe we should all write to Sky and apologise, sending in a ‘My Name is Earl’-type list of all the women we have had naughty thoughts about on those hung-over Saturday mornings. In fact, critics would probably like to believe that Gray and Richard Keys would hang around the back of the Soccer AM studios, leering at the Soccerette and presenter Helen Chamberlain, dressed up as milkmen.
Gray was rumoured to be already disliked by a fair few colleagues and journalists within football, with some journalists not sharing the 55-year-old’s view that you have had to have played professional football in order to hold a valid opinion on the sport.( Although to be fair, Gray is probably not the only ex-professional-turned-pundit to share such a belief) Since Gray first boomed onto our screen as the regular pundit/co-commentator alongside Keys and commentator Martin Tyler for Sky Sports in 1992, he has rumoured to have since become big-headed and self-indulgent, again not winning many friends.
Many football fans have also criticised Gray over the years for seemingly hating their team with a passion and that he loves a rival team instead. Listen guys, he’s a critic, he’s supposed to have an opinion, and he can’t hate everyone. I have heard Everton and Manchester United fans say that ex-Everton player Gray favours Liverpool, and more understandably I have heard Liverpool fans say he hates the Anfield outfit and blatantly favours the Toffees.
Despite Gray’s lack of support over this current issue, it mustn’t be forgotten that Gray was well-received in his early years at Sky. I myself always liked Gray as a pundit. For years armchair supporters had been subjected to the likes of Jimmy Hill turning up at the odd BBC FA Cup game. Hill once famously castrated (not physically) Manchester United’s players before an FA Cup Third Round tie away to Nottingham Forest in 1990, claiming their body language during the warm up displayed signs of a team already beaten. United ended up beating Forest 1-0 thanks to a Mark Robins header, and went on to win the Cup, leaving Hill to take the embarrassment firmly on his magnificent specimen of a chin.
Gray was part of a team that revitalised watching top-flight football, and was perfect in transferring over the excitement of the new Premier League to a TV audience. Gray’s powerful, purring, raspy voice relayed the action on the pitch brilliantly when working alongside commentators such as Tyler and Ian Darke. Back in the early-to mid 1990’s, Gray’s acerbic tones made players like Ian Culverhouse, Michel Vonk and Ian Marshall appear to be Gladiator-esquein the fight for the Premiership crown, rather than the absolute donkeys that they were.
Importantly, there is nothing w rong with this type of passion. Liverpool fans have great memories of Steven Gerrard’s strike against Olympiakos at Anfield in 1995, where Gray was assisting Tyler in the commentary box. The Scot’s ear-splitting cries of: ‘Oh You Beauty!’ (Not a comment on any female stewards in the Kop) conveyed the emotion of the moment brilliantly, and made the moment even more memorable for those watching the game in their armchair. It was a great moment that showed you how much Gray loves the game, and at that point, how much he loved his job.
Not that Gray’s excellence was down solely to his sheer passion and love for the game. Gray was also tactically astute, and he is still one of the rare breed of football-analysts that can do the business both in the commentary box and back in the studio. Alan Hansen may sit comfortably in his bland BBC studio in his array of pastel coloured shirts, but he has never been one for venturing into the commentary box to join the likes of John Motson. Mark Lawrenson, who’s head is increasingly looking like a melted pumpkin, has made many ventures into co-commentating, but comes across as a dishevelled, bitter old man who has missed the last bus home, particularly when paired with Motson.
Back in the studio, Gray showed innovation with his ever-evolving gadgetry, usually on ‘Monday Night Football’. Not distracted by Keys’ sporadic and slightly disturbing looks into the camera as he asked Gray a question, Gray would use his equipment to analyse a future game or look back on the weekend’s action. It was fresh, unique and fitted in well with Sky’s insistence to be one step ahead of the competition. Such technical wizardry isn’t all that easy to pull off either, as we all know what happened when Andy Townsend invited ITV bosses into his pimped-up Ford Transit when the channel won the rights to show Premiership Football in 2001. Jamie Redknapp has shown sufficient nouse to be able to replace Gray's piercing views in the Sky Sports studio, but the channel is lacking a co-commentator of decent quality.
With Gray now gone, it is up to the likes of Townsend and co to provide not only insight, but excitement to our screens. But the year is now 2011, and a new breed of respected football journalists has arisen. The likes of Gabrielle Marcotti and James Richardson have both had their names mentioned on Twitter to replace people like Gray, and both been on our screens for a while now, with Richardson in particular having a big following ever since his days presenting Italian football for Channel 4 in the early 1990’s, and Marcotti appearing on ITV’s Champions League highlights programme.
However, despite the intelligent views that these two give on a regular basis, it remains to be seen whether these could do a job like Gray did. Richardson and his clever use of puns have a cult following, and he hosts the fantastic Guardian Football Weekly podcast. His quirky presenting style lends itself brilliantly to the tongue-in cheek style of the show, while remaining thoughtful and insightful.
Indeed it is this style of punditry and analysis that some people wish was more prevalent in the current era of football broadcasting. Whether it is an abundance of statistics, the use of Prozone or more Richardson-style punnery, the market for this style of presentation is there, but whether it is suitable for prime-time football is another question. Italian football may well suit Richardson, but the slow, almost contemplative pace of the Italian game is perfect for Richardson’s musings. But what about Richardson handling a big ‘Premier League Super Sunday’? Would his sudden ramblings about attack strategies in the Battle of Gettysburg really be appropriate during a Merseyside Derby?
Let’s not forget, football is traditionally the working man’s game, evolving from working-class roots. To alienate the working man in favour of a more middle-class and alternative broadcasting style is dangerous. Take ‘Big Jimmy', an oversized lorry driver who follows his beloved Walsall week in, week out. But one particular Sunday afternoon, 'Big Jimmy' has to mind the kids, so he has to watch Sky for live coverage of Walsall’s big FA Cup tie at the Bescott Stadium at home to the rich Manchester City. New presenter Richardson is in his place with his meticulously-grown goatee beard. Now Jimmy likes the opening credits – the montage of giant-killings from over the years, ranging from Sutton United’s victory over Coventry in 1989, and Mickey Thomas’s superb free-kick in Wrexham’s win over Arsenal in 1992. However, big Jimmy is less than impressed when Richardson starts the broadcast looking pensively into the camera, stroking his beard and proceeding with a delicious play-on-words that involves replacing Bescott with Joleon Lescott. All of a sudden, 'Big Jimmy' doesn’t know what the fuck is going on.
If change is managed carefully however, it should be embraced. Match of the Day-bashing is now all too common, but that it is not to say critics of sporting punditry are wrong. On the BBC we have Garth Crooks, who now puts so much emphasis on every word he says, that the significance of each word he does say becomes less and less meaningful. On ITV, Gareth Southgate’s fashion has gone from failed-Dickensian to University student from 2002. The channel’s football coverage hasn’t recovered since the death of Brian Moore, and it certainly wasn’t helped when Steve Ryder resurrected his career on the channel, looking like a cross between a bewildered English sheepdog and actor Ted Danson.
So as the future beckons for football coverage, what does the future hold for Gray? Gray is reportedly furious at the way events have unfolded. Rumours of a stitch-up within Sky are rife, though that doesn’t excuse Gray’s comments. Despite Gray’s critics, he surely had more fans than Keys. If Keys doesn’t get the push today after the latest YouTube video that has been leaked, then you would hope he would show some kind of loyalty towards Gray and do the honourable thing of resigning. The latest video of Keys asking Jamie Redknapp if he would ‘smash it’ is breathtakingly bad. Disturbing even. I wonder if Keys was ever caught ‘hanging out the back’ of Anne Diamond on that TV-am sofa all those years ago?
Since the incident last Saturday, Keys has apparently had the chance to hold up his Teen-Wolf-like hands and apologise to the female assistant referee Sian Massey, though the point of apologising now seems rather pointless. “Sorry for my sexist views and sorry for believing women are completely unable to learn a law like the offside rule, but what are you going to do eh? Get me sacked? Do me a favour love… Oh shit.”
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