Cronky

I don't want to see him go, but every player has his price, and £40m is a very good one. It's a figure based on the player he might become, not the player he is now. It really all depends on whether and who we bring in to replace him.

There seems to be some pretty crazy bids going in. Are clubs eager to blow the cash before the financial fair play rules kick in?

I'd agree. His career hasn't exactly been stellar since he left either. He was skilful but not strong enough or quick enough.

Abdoulaye Faye was a big loss. Bellamy going was a killer blow, though I think we all knew his quality at the time.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/news/a300468/andy-gray-will-sue-sky-sports-for-gbp3m.html Haha Good luck with that Andy! He obviously thinks he works in football, where you get sacked on a whim and receive a pay-off. Unfortunately, you work[ed] in the media Andy, which is part of the real world and in the real world when you get sacked it's for a reason and you get jack shit. In fact the best you can hope for is that your previous employer won't poison the well for you with subsequent employers and if you can get away with never having to mention it again you thank your lucky stars! They'll have sacked him for gross misconduct and he won't have a hope in hell of getting a judgement against them, he'll have signed a contract that says he agrees to abide by the company's equality and diversity policies and he clearly hasn't done that, meaning they're entirely within their rights to get rid of him. Apart from anything, just how stupid does he think they are? They'll have had their lawyers on this and will have been certain they had a watertight case before they did it and I'd bet my arse that Sky's lawyers are fucking dinosaur! I wouldn't be so sure. Were any disciplinary procedures followed? Did he get the chance to state his case? Why did Sky take no action after that previous incident? Considering his comments were not made in a public (ie broadcast) context, were his comments sufficiently serious to warrant dismissal without due procedure? Were other sexist comments made off air by other presenters / producers / cameramen on a regular basis with no action taken?

This kind of hysteria-driven witch hunt is a feature of public life which seems to be on the increase. I find it very depressing. The main difficulty is that no-one with a strong public voice can speak up for leniency or moderation, because they get branded as an apologist for sexist behaviour. Effectively, they stand and watch for fear of becoming a victim of the mob themselves.

1) 1996 - Losing to Blackburn 2-1 after being 1-0 up with 10 minutes left. Threw away the game, and the Premiership, in a way that felt sadly inevitable. 2) 1974 - England 1, Poland 1. Failing to qualify for the World Cup, which at the time seemed unthinkable. On pressure, England should have won by six. 3) 1980ish - Exeter 4, Newcastle 0. A cold night, a long journey, a horrible little ground, getting hammered by a team from D3. Nuff said.

I couldn't see Gray just going to ground and taking it tbh. Nor should he. That's a risky move for Gray as Sky TV will no doubt dig out every previously unbroadcast clip they've got of him being a twat. To which his response will be - why didn't you sack me at the time?

I couldn't see Gray just going to ground and taking it tbh. Nor should he.

Just seen that Kakuta is having a medical at Fulham, which suggests that SWP won't be going there, contrary to what had been rumoured. I'd rather SWP than Ireland. We need someone who can play on the right wing now Routledge is gone, and I think Ireland's better more central.

Andy Gray can be very irritating, particularly with his constant criticism of referees, but he'd be a very hard act to follow. In fact, he has no equivilent, as a pundit with an ex-pro's knowledge, who can put it across with such clarity and flair.

What Holloway's demanding is more attention. I'm getting a bit fed up with the media circus around him.

That would explain the deafening silence from the presenters at this time. And the leak of the other clip of Andy Gray commenting on the lineswoman's attractiveness.

You're right there. But these guys weren't joking. They were genuinely angry about it. Confirmed in the vid of AG. He's livid. If he was laughing when saying it I reckon it would have been viewed far less seriously. Imagine them saying it and laughing...it has much different overtones. You can't tell just from that tape how serious they were. And do you really think that Andy Gray believes that a female assistant, who has climbed the way all the way up the ladder to Premiership status, doesn't understand the offside rule? On the private / public issue, they were in the workplace, within which a certain amount of trust is necessary. Breaching that trust should only be done in cases of sufficient seriousness. And it's hard to believe that whoever did it was motivated by outrage at the presenters' behaviour. The whole thing just reeks of hypocrisy.

i think you have a point to the extent that this wasn't intended for broadcast. on the other hand, they're still saying that stuff "at work", and in the case with the tv cameras gray is saying it in front of multiple people/colleagues. Well I guess it would depend on what "at work" means. Normally you would have a code of conduct for as long as you are in your company's office/building. But with tv personalities/pundits, I get a feeling that they are 'off work' once the show is over and cameras stop rolling. Have no idea whether they said it in front of other colleagues, or was just a private banter. But if the BNP can have a political public platform to air their borderline racist views in public, I'm struggling to see why what Keys and Gray did were wrong when they never meant it for public consumption. In fact if anything they should be suing whoever it was who taped them for breach of privacy. I'd agree that it's a different issue when the comments are made in private, and that's what's been lost in the general reaction. And yeah, the behaviour of whoever leaked the comments is very questionable, to say the least. I suspect that, behind the scenes, there's quite a row going on between Sky and Gray / Keys, who will feel they've been hung out to dry. It's interesting that, as far as I know, there's been no official, public apology from the two men. There's a report of a private apology from Keys, and nothing at all from Gray. I reckon there's a dispute going on about the wording of any apology, and about any future action that needs to be taken.

Way out of proportion.

Why does it matter that it was a private conversation? There's a balance to be struck between people's right of privacy and the public's right to know. That should only be crossed if the private comments are sufficiently important.

I get very uncomfortable when the media broadcast a private conversation and then express outrage as though the comments had been made in public.

I still think the current team has a good tournament left in them. The last World Cup was a disaster, for various reasons, but we do have real quality in Ferdinand, Terry, Cole, Gerrard, and Rooney. We've had real problems at keeper (which may be sorted with Hart) and at target man (which may be sorted with Carroll)

Sums it up. Adam might sink without trace at a bigger club, but he's the reason Blackpool are in the Premiership.

I think Simpson got his body position slightly wrong, but only slightly. He was trying to show him down the outside, but perhaps could have got closer and positioned himself further to Lennon's right foot. The bigger picture is that we were left with a 2 on 2 at the edge of our area, during stoppage time.

You have the most hypnotic avatar I have ever seen.

We've got a good bunch of players, but we lost our way when Rooney lost his way. He added that essential spark and it's gone, hopefully just temporarily.

Simpson looks tentative, in both attack and defence. He seems too scared of making a mistake.

I think we can all see how good he could be, with that pace and power. It's so frustrating. He's only 19 FFS. Regardless of that, he shouldn't be behind Best and Lovenkrands in the pecking order. Not with that talent. You don't often see a player of that size and strength showing so much pace. He has the raw material to get to the very top of the professional game.