Richard Keys has attracted controversy throughout his career as a football TV host. Now working for Bein Sports, he earned a reputation for his ridiculous takes on the sport and for making comments that often leg him with eggs on his face.
Keys was forced to resign from Sky Sports in 2021 after his ridiculously sexist comments were caught on record. After female referee Sian Massey made a tight offside decision in Liverpool’s 3-0 win over Wolves in the Premier League, he was heard saying: “Somebody better get down there and explain offside to her Massey.”
Not just that, but Keys also made a ridiculous comment on West Ham United vice-chair Karen Brady, in which she called out sexism in football. He remarked on that: “The game’s gone mad. See charming Karren Brady this morning complaining about sexism? Yeah. Do me a favour, love.”
The Englishman has gone on to move to the job of a TV host at Bein Sports, which is a Qatari sports channel. Keys has gone even more off-the-rails at Bein, constantly trying to hog the spotlight with disrespectful comments. He recently made a comment on the Chelsea managerial situation that shocked many fans.
What did Richard Keys say about Chelsea?
The Blues are having a very disappointing season and there is a lot of uncertainty over their manager role. Frank Lampard will see out his stint as interim manager until the end of the campaign, with a new manager coming in next season.
Former Bayern Munich boss Julian Nagelsmann is a favorite to become the next Chelsea manager. The Blues like him for his innovative coaching style, exciting attacking football, and ability to help young players improve too.
However, Keys believes that Lampard should be given the job permanently instead of appointing Nagelsmann. He tweeted: “I fail to see what Julian Nagelsmann knows that Frank Lampard doesn’t. If it’s a straight choice between the two I’d go with the legend that knows Chelsea inside out – not someone who might have a more impressive power-point display but knows nothing about the club or our league.”
Fans hit out at Keys for awful Lampard vs Nagelsmann comparisons
Keys’ reasoning for choosing Lampard over Nagelsmann makes very little sense and fans have called him out on that. The example that ‘Lampard knows Chelsea inside out’ doesn’t make much sense considering that he only managed a handful of the current squad players in his previous stint. Moreover, Lampard earned a bad reputation with his boring football at Everton – which ultimately got him sacked in January.
Nagelsmann is definitely more than a manager with an ‘impressive power-point display’ – as he earned a reputation for making his teams play entertaining attacking football and being tactically much more innovative than Lampard.
Some supporters just can’t believe how Keys can be a major TV host with opinions like these, with a few claiming that they’d do a better job than him in his role. He was also been mocked for being the stereotypical English TV host that favors his fellow Englishman over more logical options.
Some even wondered if the tweet was written by an AI trying to impersonate Keys.
One fan has also indicated how Keys really shouldn’t be taken seriously, pointing at a recent example where the host believed that Sam Allardyce could fix Manchester City’s defensive problems over Pep Guardiola.
It’s good for Chelsea that someone like Keys isn’t making the key decisions within the club, with Todd Boehly & co now focused on holding proper interviews with new managerial options and undergoing a thorough test to ensure the next manager doesn’t fail like Graham Potter.