Jeff Stelling and Souness leaving Sky
- Thread starter Tombstone
- Start date
I think it will be the end of Soccer Saturday yeah, Stelling has been there since the very first season of the Premier League. The show itself hasnt been as good for a number of years now, mostly down to the newer pundits simply lacking character, all very robotic and dull in their presentation.
I think now that Stelling, Shreeves and Merson are all going, along with those who have already gone previously, any character or charisma on the panel is now gone. I wouldnt be surprised if the show, in its current format, gets completely scrapped and replaced with something a little more "flashy" for the new generation. Sort of in the same way that Miami Vice was heralded as a "cop show for the MTV generation"
, the new Soccer Saturday will be football for the tiktok generation
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Wouldnt surprise me if its announced at the end of the season that Tyler and Keane are also departing Sky. Seems like theres going to be a changing of the guard this summer
When are the next licences up? I'm guessing the Premier League couldnt start up showing live matches while other channels still own the exclusive rights to show those matches as per the last set of rights bidding
I actually think its inevitable. The EFL are already in discussions to start allowing televised 3pm Saturday matches. Once that happens I think its only then a matter of time before some method is looked to facilitate Premier League saturday games. This Saturday of course the 3pm Saturday Man City match is being televised , reasoning being that there are no EFL games on at the same time.
I suspect what will happen in the long run is that the Premier League matches and EFL matches will be juggled in some fashion so that they dont clash on a Saturday and that will then allow both sets of matches to be televised. There's simply too much money involved in televised football for it not to eventually happen IMO.
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Yup, it isnt going to come cheap, cheaper than going to all the games of course but still not cheap.
They dont even have many of those left, they've sacked almost half of their matchday commentators, the likes of Geoff Shreeves, Guy Havord, Dickie Davis, Bianca Westwood, Greg Whelan, Lynsey Hooper and Jaydee Dyer have all gone. Shame about Jaydee Dyer, I really liked him, great presenting skills and very knowledgeable of the game.
I try not to !
Personally I think they've been culled because its my suspicion that Soccer Saturday will be scrapped, I reckon it will be replaced with more of a "sat on a sofa" type of chat show, sort of a cross between Soccer AM and This Morning, with guest stars etc. I think the soccer saturday , panel format with all the matches being reported on by remote reporters style will be history now
At this rate Sky football next season will only have about 2 people left
Happy to say what I mean, I think its really sad that all the "older" people are leaving, admittedly they dont look as good, all haggard and old like but they have a wealth of decades of football knowledge and insight. Well, most of them anyway, plus they are characters and funny/entertaining, sometimes by accident. The younger presenters might well look better on screen but they lack camaraderie and character, they're largely too robotic and "too professional" and not so laid back/relaxed.
Definitely agree that Soccer Saturdays viewership is probably at an all time low, I think it will get even lower yet (same for BT Sports football coverage as well). When Sky first came onto the football coverage scene it pretty much revolutionized the way football was covered, I think we're about to go through another revolution of how football is covered in the next couple of years, whether for the better or the worse remains to be seen.