| Andy Gray | ||
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| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Andrew Mullen Gray | |
| Date of birth | 30 November 1955 | |
| Place of birth | Glasgow, Scotland | |
| Playing position | Striker | |
| Youth career | ||
| 1970–1973 | Clydebank Strollers | |
| Senior career1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 1973–1975 1975–1979 1979–1983 1983–1985 1985–1987 1987 1987–1988 1988–1989 1989–1990 |
Dundee United Aston Villa Wolverhampton Wanderers Everton Aston Villa → Notts County (loan) West Bromwich Albion Rangers Cheltenham Town Total |
62 (46) 113 (54) 133 (38) 49 (14) 54 (5) 4 (0) 35 (10) 14 (5) 29 (6) 493 (178) |
| National team | ||
| 1975–1985 | Scotland | 20 (7)[1] |
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
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Andrew Mullen Gray (born 30 November 1955 in Glasgow) is a Scottish former football player and is now a football pundit for Sky Sports and ESPN.
Gray was born in Glasgow, but his mother was of a Hebridean background, from the village of Back, near Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis.
Contents |
Playing career
The striker started his professional career with Dundee United where he scored 46 goals in 62 appearances.
In October 1975, he headed south to Aston Villa and won England's golden boot in 1976/77 with his tally of 25 league goals. His 29 goals in the following season earned him the PFA Young Player of the Year and PFA Players' Player of the Year awards (a historic double not repeated until Cristiano Ronaldo won both awards for the 2006-07 season). However, these accolades were not enough to convince Scotland manager Ally MacLeod to select him for the 1978 World Cup squad.
The striker then moved to Wolverhampton Wanderers in September 1979 for a then-British record £1.5m. After scoring the winning goal for Wolves in the 1980 League Cup final, he remained with the club through their relegation in 1982 and promotion a year later.
He moved to Everton in November 1983 for a bargain £250,000. He enjoyed two great seasons with the Merseyside club, winning the FA Cup in 1984 (scoring in the final against Watford), and League Championship and European Cup Winners' Cup medals a year later, also scoring in the final of the latter.
The arrival of Gary Lineker spelled the end of Gray's time with Everton and he returned to Aston Villa for £150,000, where he managed just five goals in 54 games as Villa were relegated in 1987 (five years after winning the European Cup and six years after being league champions) and he left soon after with most fans agreeing that he had been a failure at the club.
Afterwards, he spent a season at West Bromwich Albion before joining Rangers, the team he has supported all his life. After this brief, yet championship-winning spell, at Ibrox, he dropped into non-league football with then Conference club Cheltenham Town before retiring in 1990. After hanging up his boots, he entered coaching as an assistant at Aston Villa, and spent six months at Sheffield Wednesday as reserve team coach under David Pleat before focusing full-time on his television work.
International
Gray won 20 caps for Scotland, scoring 7 goals for his country. He also won four caps at Under-23 level and played at schoolboy level. His full international debut came on 17 December 1975 in a 1–1 draw with Romania. However, he was not selected for any of Scotland's World Cup squads during his playing days.
International Goals Record (NB scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first)
| # | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 September 1976 | Hampden Park, Glasgow |  Finland |
4–0 | 6–0 | Friendly |
| 2 | 8 September 1976 | Hampden Park, Glasgow | Finland |
6–0 | 6–0 | Friendly |
| 3 | 20 September 1978 | Praterstadion, Vienna |  Austria |
2–3 | 2–3 | ECQG2 |
| 4 | 26 March 1980 | Hampden Park, Glasgow |  Portugal |
2–0 | 4–1 | ECQG2 |
| 5 | 28 May 1983 | Ninian Park, Cardiff |  Wales |
1–0 | 2–0 | BHC |
| 6 | 19 June 1983 | Varsity Stadium, Toronto |  Canada |
1–0 | 2–0 | Friendly |
| 7 | 19 June 1983 | Varsity Stadium, Toronto | Canada |
2–0 | 2–0 | Friendly |
Commentator
Gray, hovever, is best known for his work as a Television football pundit, allegedly earning £20,000 per week [2], and can be seen and heard regularly on Sky Sports' Premier League Coverage. He has worked for the broadcaster since 1990, and has therefore been part of every season of their Premiership coverage. He has also worked for BBC Radio 5 Live and talkSPORT and was recognised with the Royal Television Society's Sports Presenter of the Year award in 1996.
He rejected advances from Peter Johnson at Everton to become the new Everton manager. Howard Kendall was named Everton manager for the third time.
He is well known for his trademark phrases. "Right on the money!", "Top drawer!", "Take a bow, son", "You don't save those!", "I'll tell you what the best do, they take their chances", "Easy height for the keeper", "Full marks", "Asking the question" and "What a chance" amongst those often featured. On Soccer AM, they show three great goals of the week, followed by an animated Gray walking along the bottom of the screen before saying "Take a bow, son!" and bowing himself before walking off. The crew then shout the same thing when the programme comes back to the Soccer AM studio. Another of his trademark phrases is "If you don't buy a ticket you don't win the raffle", meaning that you are only going to score if you take a risk and hit a shot. His enthusiastic commentary for Sky Sports on Steven Gerrard's late goal against Olympiacos has gone down as one of the great all-time commentary moments. He has also made semi-regular appearances in Sky One's football drama Dream Team in a typical role as pundit alongside Richard Keys. Andy Gray also played a part in the movie A Shot at Glory, which starred Rangers legend Ally McCoist and Academy Award-winning Robert Duvall.
Gray and ITV's Clive Tyldesley provide commentary in EA Sports' FIFA on current generation consoles, whereas Gray gives commentary alongside Martin Tyler in the FIFA 07, FIFA 08, FIFA 09, and FIFA 10 football video games but only on the next generation consoles. In addition, Gray had already provided comments for FIFA: Road to World Cup 98, which had main commentary provided by John Motson. Gray also commentated on FIFA 2002. Andy Gray also writes for the Irish Daily Star on football.
Most recently, Andy Gray has been hired by American sports network ESPN to provide commentary during the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Football Championship, when he is not contracted to work for Sky.
Personal life
Gray fell for the former Olympic gymnast Suzanne Dando when she landed a job alongside him on Sky Sports in 1999. Gray told tabloid reporters that his womanising days were over: "With age, I hope, comes maturity. I certainly do not see myself with anyone else." [3] Gray and Dando split up shortly afterwards, when he was caught cuddling a blonde in Puerto Banus.
Until recently he was engaged to Rachel Lewis, an ex-model and the former wife of his long-time friend and agent[4] and he wants to return to live in Back, Outer Hebrides on the Isle of Lewis in the near future.
Gray has been married twice before, to Vanessa Taylor and Jacqueline Cherry. He has fathered five children, by four different women - his two ex-wives and former girlfriends Sara Matthews and Janet Trigg.[2]
Recently, Andy Gray has been suffering from back pain and ejection of fluids from both ends, forcing him to pull out from his Sky Sports commentating duties on 22nd November 2009 where he was due to commentate on the Stoke Vs. Portsmouth match. Richard Keys joked, when revealing the news, that he was on a plane to Serbia to receive horse placenta massage treatment, a remark made with regards the innovative treatment some Premiership players have been receiving to speed up their recovery from injury.
References
- ^ National Football Teams Player Profile - Andy Gray at www.national-football-teams.com
- ^ a b The People (02/04/2006) Exclusive: Randy Andy Rat It Again.. With Best Mate's Wife people.co.uk (accessed 4th October 2006)
- ^ Guardian Unlimited (06/02/2005) The ten sporting love matches guardian.co.uk (accessed 4th October 2006)
- ^ The Life Ring (Aug 2006) The Life Ring stars at a glittering celebrity golf day TheLifeRing.com (accessed 4th October 2006)
External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Andy Gray (footballer born 1955) |
- Andy Gray profile at scottishfa.co.uk
- International stats at Londonhearts.com
- Andy Gray career stats at Soccerbase
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