Richard Keys has bizarrely hit out at his former broadcast colleague Jamie Redknapp's for refusing to criticise James Maddison after clashing with Nottingham Forest's Ryan Yates. 

The Tottenham midfielder was at the centre of a major talking point following Sunday's future when he appeared to punch Yates in the stomach during Spurs' 3-1 win over Forest. 

Maddison received no punishment from the referee and the VAR review deemed it not worthy of a red card offence, however, after the game there were questions over whether the 27-year-old should have stayed on the pitch. 

Redknapp said on Sky Sports that Yates had made the most of the contact and the referee had made the right call.

'It's not a lot. Yates is like that, he tries to get into players' faces, a bit like Gascoigne and Vinnie Jones many years ago.'

Roy Keane agreed, saying: 'I worked with Yates at Forest, really nice kid, but every week somebody touches him he goes down. He goes down far too easily. For such a decent lad he needs to cut that out of his game.'

Richard Keys has accused Jamie Redknapp of having a conflict of interests over Tottenham's James Maddison 

But Keys, who currently works for beIN SPORTS in Qatar, targeted Redknapp in the latest instalment of his blog when summing up the weekend's action. 

'Palace should've had a pen v City,' Keys began. 

'And was everybody in the bunker asleep when Maddison punched Ryan Yates off the ball at Spurs? It's not so bad that Simon Hooper missed it – but it was as clear as day for VAR. Maddison should've been sent-off.

'I'm told Jamie Redknapp didn't want to make much of the incident on Sky. I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that Maddison models for Redknapp's clothing company? If that's not a conflict of interest I don't know what is.' 

Keys and Redknapp were colleagues at Sky, until the Keys' departure from the station in 2011 after he was filmed making sexist comments.