Richard Keys & Andy Gray: first moments on talkSPORT

Here are the first three minutes of Keys and Gray's return to work. Any ship in a storm? certainly not and the disgraced pair can count themselves lucky that talkSPORT wanted them. As one door closes, another opens as my Grandma Estelle always said, and the former Sky Sports duo took to the national speech station like a duck to water.

The dynamic between Keys and Gray will certainly change. The fiery Scot will have to become accustomed to a support pundit role, as Coventry Keys will link at the controls, but I'm sure it'll settle down into a top class show.

Richard's steady style doesn't need much tweaking from his TV demeanour. In any event, he can draw on experience gained at Liverpool's Radio City two decades ago. But Gray needs to inject something into his delivery. That'll come. But he seemed a little miserable on his first day.

talkSPORT acted cannily in signing the pair quickly - and as if to demonstrate the sudden market flurry in radio talent, Mike Parry who quit Hatfields after a decade, pairs up with Robbie Savage to present 6-0-6 this Saturday evening.

A week is a long time in national radio!

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Why should football be about cheating and gamesmanship?

Two telly pundits endorsed cheating in two separate shows on Sunday. In both cases, the reaction of Adrian Chiles and Richard Keys was a rather feeble "fair enough", even though it seemed to offend their sit-on-the-fence sensitivities.

They happened during Andy Gray's Final Word, then MOTD2.

Gray, whose view of the Premier League is now quasireligious, suggested Wayne Rooney's calmish discussion with the ref while walking off at halftime against Fulham, would encourage the man in black to think twice before ruling against him after the break. Another instalment in Manchester United's chipping away at the referee. Sledging, now endorsed by Gray.

Then Neil Warnock explained that Adam Johnson's brilliant equaliser in injury time for Manchester City at Sunderland should've been denied by deliberate handball. 

"The defender would've taken one for the team with a red card and missed a game", but according to Warnock, preferable for Sunderland to test the nerve of a City player taking a last minute penalty then accept a brilliant piece of skill.

That is cheating!

Johnson's winner has put him in Fabio Capello's thoughts on the day David Beckham's England career finished. His exceptional piece of skill would've been buried in that last-minute penalty rather than being enjoyed for a long, long time.

Rooney needed less than two minutes to score the opener for United as the second half resumed. He's got more than enough in his locker not to rely on hounding officials.

If you think I'm being namby pamby - and it should be accepted as "just gamesmanship" it is for me, the slippery slope. Football can't just be about abusing a position of strength over the weak - football matches must be won on merit and brilliance.

Football no longer teaches youngsters about integrity. People like Andy Gray have as much of a responsibility for the game's image as the players out there.

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