Andy Gray: The View from the Sports Desk

After expressing some doubt yesterday that Andy Gray was as wicked or the journalists denouncing him were as virtuous as the media were claiming, I received the following email from a British football correspondent based in Europe.

‘Hi Nick, Just wanted to say spot on with the Spectator blog on Andy Gray and the media. There is also something very unpleasant about the mob justice element of it all that seems to be intensified by cretins on twitter calling for heads. The sports press has plenty of previous on this – Glen Hoddle’s hounding from his job for silly comments about reincarnation being one. You usually find the victim has slighted the written press in some way as well – Gray is well known for his disdain for football writers who have never played the game.  Hoddle let it be known at the World Cup that he was keeping his best quotes back for his book. As a pack I usually see them on their ‘school trips’ abroad when they can be at their worst. I love the way the chief football writers describe themselves collectively as “the number ones”. Impressive how feminist they have become however….’