It may be seven years since Andy Gray and Richard Keys ignominious departure from Sky Sports, but the manner of their departure still rankles with Andy Gray.
The pairs' off the air comments on lineswoman Sian Massey proved to be the straw that broke the camel's back for the broadcaster, with video of Gray and Keys' conversation leaking online and sealing their fate.
In an interview with the Scottish Sun, Gray recounted his feelings around his sacking at Sky, revealing that he still harbours resentment for the manner of his departure from the broadcaster:
I’m not bitter because that would mean I think about it every day. I don’t,
But I am still angry about what happened.
You know what? Eight years ago, I was at the side of a football pitch and I made a comment. It was probably what 90 per cent of the supporters who walked into the stadium that day were saying when they saw Sian was running the line. A cheap, throwaway line.
Should I have said it? No. Do I regret saying it? Of course I do. But from that moment on, everything just snowballed.
I thought that after 20 years-plus doing what I had done for the company, I deserved some support. What I got was assassinated by everybody, particularly the Murdoch press. I don’t forgive them for that.
Listen, a lot of people will say, ‘It’s your own fault, you shouldn’t have said it’. But we were in an environment like a dressing room. If I told you half the things that were said by other players and managers, it would make what I said about Sian pale into insignificance.
So I was staggered when I got no support from Sky. All I got was sacked and thrown in the bin.
What Gray forgets to acknowledge in his interview is the several other instances where he and Keys made inappropriate comments about the opposite sex, their behaviour wasn't exactly an isolated incident, and in the end it was not a case of if but when the pair would get their marching orders.
Seven years on both Gray and Keys are still on our TV screens, working for Qatar broadcaster beIN Sports where they are more infamous for their shite analysis than anything else.
