Andy Gray's fall from Sky tarnishes 40 years at the top

NOTED for both his bravery and use of the head in the penalty box as a player, Andy Gray's lucrative contract with Sky sports has been ripped up for snide, ill-judged comments. They ill-serve the man who Jim McLean, his first manager in senior football, once observed was like a son to him.

If only he had used his head on Saturday, when he and Richard Keys - his long-time companion in Premier League gantries - made repeated sexist comments upon learning that a female assistant referee would be officiating at the game they were covering between Liverpool and hosts Wolverhampton Wanderers, at Molineux. This was the stadium at which Gray arrived in 1979 wearing the tag of Britain's most expensive player, having been transferred from Aston Villa to Wolves for a then record fee of 1.5 million. He turned up at the same football ground on Saturday content in the knowledge he was the nation's most well-paid football pundit.

Perhaps Gray had grown to become just a little too content. After a lifetime in the public eye there were indications that he had grown rather comfortable in his pundit's chair. The only discernible sign that he was making any effort to re-invent himself was in his mastery of ever more up-to-date gadgetry, used to highlight such contentious issues as the off-side rule. This thorny subject helped seal his fate, Gray refusing to believe that a woman could make such a judgment call to the same standard as a man, even though a huge part of his brief has been to analyse the mistakes made by male referees and their assistants. It is something he has done now for 20 years, meaning that, although he made his name as a footballer, it is as a pundit that he has perhaps amassed greater fame and also fortune, with an estimated annual salary of 1.7 million.He made a seamless move into the world of broadcasting after a mostly gilded 17-year stint as a player, which began with Dundee United. It was there that he formed a close bond with Jim McLean, the manager normally cast as a ruthless taskmaster. They still send Christmas cards to each other to this day, with Gray, whose own father walked out of the family home when he was just two, clearly relishing having found a paternal influence in his life.

When Gray left Tannadice, after scoring 46 goals in 62 appearances, McLean noted that the Aston Villa result was the first one he looked for after completing his own managerial duties with United on a Saturday afternoon. If they had won, and if Gray has scored, "then everyone at Tannadice is a little happier". Gray continued grabbing goals, seven in 20 appearances for Scotland. He established a formidable partnership with fellow Scot Graeme Sharp at Everton.Together they helped the club win the First Division title in 1985, but football in England was about to experience its bleakest period. First came the Heysel disaster, and then Hillsborough.

Gray benefitted from what many perceive to be the game's re-birth, with Sky's long-term investment in football secured by the establishment of the Premiership in 1992. Gray has been Sky's main football pundit since then, although he had been paired with Keys as early as 1991 on what was then called the Sports Channel. Gray has worked at hundreds of matches, first establishing himself as one of the nation's foremost football analysts but then, as is ever the case, over-staying his welcome in the eyes of many. To these critics his opinions had become predictable, his manner irritating. But he was as much the face of Sky as anyone on the channel, and no doubt savoured the thought that he was a mainstay. As well as comfortable, he also grew lazy, and, like Ron Atkinson, made the crucial mistake of thinking that his public persona could be switched on and off. The microphone that is the tool of their trade betrayed them both, though it was their distasteful views which truly speared them.

Atkinson, who hired Gray to be his assistant for a brief spell at Villa, has struggled to rehabilitate himself since he was heard making racist comments after the end of a Champions League match he was covering for ITV in 2004. The fear is that Gray has now scored the kind of own goal guaranteed to attach notoriety to his name for evermore. He was never a saint as a player, and was sent off in just his fourth appearance for Scotland against Czechoslavakia. "The old Scottish (red] mist descended," he admitted in 2002. "The guy punched me and when the ball was down the other end I gave it to him back. Unfortunately, I was caught."

The gender of the official involved this time around is, of course, crucially different. Gray, however, has been caught out again.