Graygate

So with all the hype surrounding this topic at the moment here's my perspective on it all.

To start off, what he said was as many people have said from the 1950's, it is so stereotypical and I have to say quite piggish. The game is advancing in many different ways now and having female officials is one, after all there are male officials and managers in women's football so it is only right that they come over into the men's game. What Andy Gray has been accused of saying and doing is damn right wrong, asking a woman to put his microphone in his trousers, that is wrong on so many levels, especially considering that he has a wife of his own !

All three of them, Andy Gray, Richard Keys and Andy Burton, the later not so much are in the wrong here. You simply cannot go around saying these kind of things in this day and age, their views are their views, you cannot change that, but they should at least have the sense to not say them when there are tens of people and cameras around, any of which could be mistakenly rolling. Just because they are women does not mean that they are inferior to men in terms of seeing something, we all have eyesight and are capable of seeing things. Now we all may joke about this, but at the end of the day what is said and recorded is what matters, unfortunately for this trio the "banter" they were sharing has been exposed to the public. You would have thought however that a professional such as Andy Gray could've seen something like this coming after what happened with Ron Atkinson a few seasons back which there was NO excuse what so ever for. What they have said is unfortunately just plain sexism and this will always be a part of football for some fans and pundits alike. Gray grew up in the era of rough footballing men when women were barely involved at all and he has not in my opinion advanced from that.

However, what they said may well have been banter between the two of them, a private joke after all, most of us share in a private joke once in a while, yet we all realise that there is a line to be drawn and saying something like "I bet she doesn't understand the offside rule" is absolute tosh ! The seriousness he showed when he said this was just sheer stupidity, surely a professional like Gray should have been more professional than he was. It was so stereotypical and simply wrong.

At the end he was rightfully sacked by SkySports after another tape was leaked. This was the correct decision as he would not have been respected again by football fans watching the TV, by these three stupid comments he has thrown his career away and be all means he deserves it. The other two however, Richard Keys, Andy Grays lap dog in my opinion, always seems to agree and nod his head when asked just went along with it, agreeing that there should be no place for woman in football. The worst thing about the whole incident that he had to phone the official Sian Massey up on the Sunday ! Whilst ok he probably had to apologise it was clearly forced because you would not apologise for your views if you actually believed in them. Keys was a stupid boy and is lucky to escape with a slap on the wrist, just about hanging on to his SkySports career. Andy Burton the smallest culprit in here, just saying she was a looker. I suppose that he was treating her as an object which is wrong in today's game, unsurprisingly Gray disagreed and said no. Burton will escape I should think with just a small ban and a little fine.

It will be a shame to see Gray leave SkySports, for all that has happened in the last few days he was a great commentator for them. At the end of the day, it was his own fault, there was no way that he could stay after that, it says all for his pride that he is letting his wife answer the door at his mansion. There is NO room for this in the modern game and he got exactly what he deserved, the sack.

Hope you enjoyed the blog and my views on Graygate.