Kee Thomas

🐧 That bloke who watches loads of Footy
📧 [email protected]
📧 [email protected]

[Kee Thomas @KeeThomasMDT]

Good lord 😂

[Kee Thomas @KeeThomasMDT]

@AlexClark3 Terribly sorry for your loss, Alex. Danny was a wonderful, respected broadcaster and (having seen the many lovely stories flooding my timeline) by all accounts an incredible bloke, too. Sending love.

[Kee Thomas @KeeThomasMDT]

@MichaelBridge_ What a lovely fella to reach out to you like that. Nothing but kind words from so many.

[Kee Thomas @KeeThomasMDT]

Three Reasons Pochettino WILL Succeed at Man United… And Four That He WON’T!

https://t.co/viIAWbtGSF

[Kee Thomas @KeeThomasMDT]

Beautiful tribute.

[Stan Collymore @StanCollymore]

This morning I was told of the passing of my good friend and colleague, Danny Kelly. The tributes to him in the coming days from those who knew him and worked with him will give you an idea of how much he was loved.

I loved him too. Very much so. A man who I called "Dad" on air because I wished he was. I hope you give me a few minutes to read my thoughts, and I hope they do you justice, Dan.

By 2008 I was a mess. I would sleep 18 hours a day, the other 6 mostly wanting to die. Once or twice a week I would open my laptop, organise football tabs, gossip and news as prep for jobs in broadcasting that I knew would never come, "just in case". When hope dies, we die, after all.

Then Danny Kelly came into my life.

I was driving out of London having been to see a psychiatrist about the state I was in and had BBC London on the radio. Danny was presenting with a guest, reviewing books. My name came up in the conversation, so I called in.

We hit it off straight away, talked about football for what seemed like forever but was probably a standard 10-12 minute section. But for me it sparked a temporary respite from sleep and chronic mental health issues and even for that I was grateful.

A couple of years later Danny joined talkSPORT to do the 7-10pm slot through the week. He told me he was offered a few co-presenters but he remembered that conversation we had and he wanted me to do it.

A lifeline of work, passionately talking about our sport, having fun and feeling a value as a human again. Something lost for 7 long years.

Danny gifted me that. Without that I know I wouldn't be writing this today.

"Always fresh, never frozen" was the tagline in a Domino's read we had to do in the show, something we'd instinctively greet each other with until our last meeting, in a pub, broadcasting for talkSPORT around 3 years ago. I didn't know that time would be the last, but perhaps fittingly we hugged as I left, I'm glad I did.

The shows were loved. They were funny, honest, insightful and I hope, along with Saggers after that, proof that Danny's belief in me was worthy. But to say my love for him was only thanks for a job doesn't even scratch the surface.

His kindness, his phone calls late at night ( Dan was a notorious night owl) of support, his man hugs, his indomitable spirit, his big brain on anything from football to music to geopolitics, his love, as I know many others will testify, came from the biggest of hearts and the biggest of souls housed in a giant of a man in every sense.

Dan, thank you, thank you for the kindness, the fun, the hope, the support and for being someone to look up to and aspire to be.

I love you very much, I know I'll hug you again some day. Thank you for everything.

"I love football Stan, I love it ".

[Kee Thomas @KeeThomasMDT]

Ah, that’s good then.

I’m glad they got there in the end.

[Dale Johnson @DaleJohnsonBBC]

Liverpool should have been awarded a penalty against Arsenal after Alexander Isak was pulled back by Jurrien Timber, the Premier League's KMI Panel has ruled.

The KMI Panel produced a split 3:2 vote that the VAR should have intervened.

👇
https://t.co/br0ZF7Zk6q

[Kee Thomas @KeeThomasMDT]

@AdilLFC_ These numbers don’t show positional discipline.

They probably are inflated by set pieces, too.

[Kee Thomas @KeeThomasMDT]

@Darsenal2k I’m not sure I would consider finishing 2nd to be prime Klopp.

[Kee Thomas @KeeThomasMDT]

Quelle surprise! 😮

[markstats @markrstats]

Once Arsenal go 1-0 up, they attack less than any other title contender of the last 14 years. They create 1.11 non-penalty xG per 90, the lowest figure recorded by any Premier League champion or runner-up since 2012-13 🧵

[Kee Thomas @KeeThomasMDT]

@Darsenal2k I think you’ve misread the graph, mate.

[Kee Thomas @KeeThomasMDT]

@tomrenniesoccer 😂 Brilliant!

[Kee Thomas @KeeThomasMDT]

Genuinely happy for him.

Would be a brilliant story of redemption if it proves to be the case.

Good luck, Loris 💪

[Florian Plettenberg @Plettigoal]

🚨🧤EXCL | Loris Karius now also on FC Bayern’s shortlist due to his experience and performances.

33 y/o also fits the profile Bayern are looking for.

His contract with Schalke 04 expires in 2028. Much will depend on whether Schalke manage to secure promotion or not. #S04

@SkySportDE 🇩🇪

[Kee Thomas @KeeThomasMDT]

Forest can be a tougher game now and the best teams in the league can still be a level below what we had then. Both can be true.

Go back and watch City 2–1 Liverpool at the Etihad in 2019. Look at the speed of the game, the quality of the Football and the level of every single player.

Which two Premier League teams are giving you that standard of football now? It’s not even close.

[Kee Thomas @KeeThomasMDT]

Combined PL Titles & CL Trophies of Premier League Managers

2018/19 - 19 (12 League Titles + 7 CL Trophies across SIX different managers who had won either a PL, a CL or both).

2026/27: 1 (Mikel Arteta. That’s it).

World Class Players In The League:

18/19: Van Dijk, Kane, De Bruyne, Salah, Aguero, Hazard, TAA, D. Silva, Mane, Son, Stones, Pogba, Firmino, Walker, Aubameyang, Robertson, Eriksen, Fernandinho, Vardy, Mahrez, Alisson.

26/27: Haaland, Saliba, Fernandes, Caicedo, Gabriel, Van Dijk, Odegaard, Isak, Rice, Alisson, Timber, Calafiori, Raya

The standard at the top has undeniably fallen.

[Kee Thomas @KeeThomasMDT]

18/19 this happened.

Spurs reached the Champions League final.

Chelsea and Arsenal contested the Europa league final.

By what standard was the league shit? 😂

[Kee Thomas @KeeThomasMDT]

Not a Brentford fan but, while I think Frank deserves huge credit, he certainly wasn’t the architect.

✅ Got Brentford promoted,
✅ Got them as high as 9th with the lowest wage bill in the division.
✅ Kept having to replace some of his best players (Maupay, Watkins, Toney).
✅ Across his four seasons Brentford ranked 1st for expected goals from set pieces.

The club was ahead of the curve on set pieces before Frank arrived. They’d already hired Gianni Vio and Nicolas Jover (who has since helped make Arsenal a force from set pieces).

Same with recruitment. Brentford were running a successful data led approach before Frank joined. That resulted in paying £14m for Wissa & Mbeumo & selling them for almost £130m.

The biggest argument against Frank is that when he stepped away and Brentford lost their best players & captain, the inexperienced Keith Andrews took over finished 9th in his first season. Meanwhile, Frank took 29 points from 26 league games at Spurs.

That’s what would make me think twice if I’m Palace. How much of what made Frank so good at Brentford can he bring with him?

And, a question to you @HLTCO, how much do Palace already have in place to get the best out of him? My confidence in the appointment would depend on the answer to that.

[Kee Thomas @KeeThomasMDT]

@SMavroskoufis Touche 😂

[Kee Thomas @KeeThomasMDT]

Treat it however you wish, that’s entirely your right, it’s simply an observation. You can still enjoy the success.

There is no question Arsenal deserved to win the league and will deservedly win it again this year. But to do so without a single world class attacker would reinforce how the standard has fallen amongst the very best teams and why, purely as entertainment, the league has been much worse value for money in the past couple of years than perhaps ever before.

[Kee Thomas @KeeThomasMDT]

@Harmer82 Yes. I said it then and have said it repeatedly since.

[Kee Thomas @KeeThomasMDT]

@Spynxlove Low blocks aren’t a new thing, in fairness, Patrick. Every other top team faced them in years gone by, too.

[Kee Thomas @KeeThomasMDT]

18/19 this happened.

Spurs reached the Champions League final.

Chelsea and Arsenal contested the Europa league final.

By what standard was the league shit? 😂

[The Football Era @Footballera0]

People haven’t realized that Pep and Klopp doing 95, 97 points just show how bad the general quality of the rest of the premier league was in that era.

There were only two good teams in the league then, everyone else was utter shit.

[Kee Thomas @KeeThomasMDT]

English teams were dominating Europe 5-10 years ago, too.

Chelsea beat Man City in a Champions League final. Liverpool beat Spurs in another (and were beaten finalists in another). Man United won the Europa League and reached another Europa final. Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool reached other Europa finals in that period, too.

[Kee Thomas @KeeThomasMDT]

@AviewofyourArse @Luke_Hughes24 I did say exactly that. And have repeatedly since. But why waste time refuting an allegation that I know is verifiably false. They’ve reached that conclusion because they’re not concerned with evidence. You’re never going to convince a person like that.