The Overdue Departure of Gray & Keys

Andy Gray has been sacked and following a defiantly phrased apology it looks likely that Richard Keys will be following him out of the Sky Sports Studio. Whether he’s jumped prior to being pushed seems like a moot point.

Their crude dismissal of Sian Massey’s ability to officiate in the Premier League was fatally undermined by her excellent decision making in the match at Molineux and made their comments ludicrous as well as sexist. Further revelations about Gray’s inappropriate remarks to fellow presenter Charlotte Jackson and Keys’ crude quizzing of Jamie Redknapp served only to tighten the noose.

Left-leaning football fans have condemned them for their archaic views, whilst many on the other side of the argument have defended them citing the fact that worse conversations occur in the pub every day, that it was just banter or that the comments were made off-air. None of those arguments really stack up, though. The facts are that the comments were made in a workplace and are, therefore, illegal. The undertones were clearly misogynistic and were witnessed by people who were obviously offended enough to ensure they made it into the public arena. Regardless of whether you sympathise with their views or not, they have transgressed and must be made to pay in the way anyone else who expressed such views in the workplace would.

Apparently since the incident has been made public a surge of interest in becoming a female match official has occurred – presumably that will stick in Andy Gray’s craw particularly. But the best thing to come out of all this should be a re-shuffle of the Sky Sports team. For too long the old-boys act of Keys and Gray has dominated the televisual football landscape – despite them passing their sell-by-date long, long ago.

After twenty years at the helm of Sky’s football coverage their over-familiar routine has become utterly unbearable. Keys continues to play the buffoon, asking over-simplistic questions of his Scottish counterpart with the aim of allowing his sage-like co-presenter the opportunity to expound his tired theories on the game to the home audience. Keys is the ultimate sycophant – his tongue is wedged so securely into the Scotsman’s buttocks that it’s almost incomprehendable that he managed to give a radio interview today on which Gray didn’t appear.

Their utterly myopic view of English football has jarred for quite some time. Their belief that the dawn of the Premiership coincided with the birth of football is cringe-worthy (although all Sky football coverage is guilty of this crime) and needs to stop. But worse still is their insistence that English football is the only ‘brand’ which matters. It seems churlish to report this again, but Andy Gray actually did question whether the world’s greatest player, Lionel Messi, could perform in a wet midweek match at Stoke. Idiocy of the highest order.

There is no doubt that they have been hugely influential in terms of popularising their viewpoint. Their tabloid version of football punditry rarely seeks to criticise the ‘top, top players’. What this means, of course, is a deluded view of how brilliant our Premier League stars are – particularly members of an England squad which has consistently disproved their theory that Steven Gerrard, John Terry and Wayne Rooney are ‘world class’.

Andy Gray has become the standard by which all self-aggrandising pundits should be judged. He’s so conceited as to quote his own (pathetic) catchphrases. Recently he was heard to announce, “that’s worth a ‘take a bow, son’”. What kind of self-important idiot actually does that kind of thing?

Every Sky Sports subscriber should be sat with every one of their digits crossed right now hopping that when Keys finally falls on his sword (or is decapitated with it) he is replaced by someone prepared to ask awkward questions, get off the fence and criticise when criticism is due. Although it’s an obvious choice James Richardson, erstwhile Football Italia and current Guardian Football Weekly presenter, should be signed up immediately. Not only is he an excellent frontman and journalist, he’s also well versed in football from across Europe and the world – not something anyone on the current Sky team can claim.

Alongside him, Sky should be looking to poach Lee Dixon from the Beeb (surely he must be sick of playing second fiddle to one-man charisma vacuum Alan Shearer), Michael Cox of Zonal Marking and any number of excellent football journalists from the likes of the Football Ramble, The Guardian or other similar experts. The tabloidization of Sky Sports (and I include Sky Sports News, the hacks from the Sunday Supplement and various others) needs to end now so that those who pay a premium for it can receive the premium product they deserve.