Clive Tydesley replaced as main ITV commentator

Liked him during the CL era on ITV but with little football on there and streaming I don't hear him much these days. I'm guessing he just does England matches and some freelance stuff?

Not heard of the name Sam Matterface, been ages since I had talksport on, have to go back to James Whale, Alan Brazil Mike Parry days.
 
I always associate him with Champions League matches on ITV back in the day. His commentary for Rooney’s hat trick goal on his debut is iconic to me.

At 1.25 (excuse the quality)


Great commentating voice and a stark contrast to the horrendous Peter Drury who has somehow become the voice of the Premier League which has to be some sort of joke being played on us all. He should be that bang average commentator who does the games nobody wants to watch.
 
Watch the Bayern match or Chelsea match with different commentary and it not only sounds wrong it feels wrong.

Hopefully he will move to BT although it would be very interesting to hear him on Sky.
 
Liked him during the CL era on ITV but with little football on there and streaming I don't hear him much these days. I'm guessing he just does England matches and some freelance stuff?

Not heard of the name Sam Matterface, been ages since I had talksport on, have to go back to James Whale, Alan Brazil Mike Parry days.

Matterface has actually been on ITV for a decade now I think. Usually been the back up commentator at 2014 and 2018 world cup and the euros inbetween aswell. He did England-Belgium in the 3rd place play off apparently.
 
He's been sycophantic for years now.

Whether it's an ITV directing decision or what I don't know but listening to him commentate on England games is so heroically jingoistic it's tedious in the extreme. Made worse by having Hoddle do the same thing.

Because Sky and BT have had the Champions League too we've not had proper iconic Tyldsley commentary.
 
And Martin Tyler is 74....what about it?? :wenger:

Dunno. Something about broadcasters not being able to let go. Letterman has said several times now how in retrospect he regrets not having quit earlier.
 
He's been sycophantic for years now.

Whether it's an ITV directing decision or what I don't know but listening to him commentate on England games is so heroically jingoistic it's tedious in the extreme. Made worse by having Hoddle do the same thing.

Because Sky and BT have had the Champions League too we've not had proper iconic Tyldsley commentary.

Totally agree with this.
 
Dunno. Something about broadcasters not being able to let go. Letterman has said several times now how in retrospect he regrets not having quit earlier.
Each person is different and shouldn't be let go based on age, that's ageism.
If he is well able to do the job and 65, it shouldn't be used as a reason to let him go.
 
Come on Clive...

Just for a minute I thought something really serious had happened. There was my mate Clive Tyldesley - sitting at what looked like his breakfast table - with a glorious backdrop of green grass and fir trees - full of emotion. What was he about to tell us? Was somebody in the family a Covid victim? Did he have a terminal illness? No. It was worse than that - he was being replaced as ITV’s lead commentator. Not sacked. Replaced. Kept on as No. 2 - a job he’s previously had. No-one was trashing him - his work or his reputation. Replaced. And replaced by a dammed good operator.

Come on Clive. You’ve had a wonderful run. Of course I know how you feel. It hurts. But it happens.

Try leaving a company for good - watching them drip feed nonsense into the media and then calling your prospective employee to a meeting to threaten them with financial penalties if they continued with their plans to employ you. ‘We thought we’d buried them. We don’t want this’ three senior Sky executives told the commercial manager of talkSPORT - summoned to a meeting at Gillette Corner. Oh, there’s so much more, but that’s for another time.

I mention that only because I too was emotional about my decision to leave Sky. It wouldn’t have been such a problem had it been left there - but it wasn’t. So I’ve rattled back at times.

This is different. This is like moving an important piece on the chess board. Not having it taken. Just moving it You’re still on the board Clive.

I’ve known Clove since we were both babies. We grew up together at Radio City in Liverpool. He was a brilliant operator. He was the best. He was better than anything national radio had at the time and he knew it, although it didn’t help that he told the bosses at the BBC that his ‘grandmother was a better commentator’ than they had!! And this was at a job interview!! He returned from London to a Birkenhead pub for drinks with me and Bob Paisley. He never applied to radio sport again!!

But I repeat - he was good. Very good. I had ideas of making it as a commentator as well - but I wasn’t anywhere near as good as he was. After four years working together I left to take charge of the sports dept at Piccadilly Radio in Manchester. I was always going to be No 2 had I stayed. No 2!

Clive is a nice guy. He’s deeply thoughtful and cares. He cares about so many people and he’s always the first to show if you’ve got a problem - although I haven’t heard anything from him these past five years. I don’t know why? ‍♂️ That’s how I know ITV’s decision will have cut him to the core. But it isn’t terminal Clive. It isn’t over. Far from it.

I have to say I’m chuffed to bits for Sam Matterface. Like me and Clive - and so many more down the years - he’s done his time and he deserves his chance. I thoroughly enjoyed working with him at TalkSPORT. He’s a top pro.

Sam took a big risk when he left Sky to join TalkSPORT. His gamble has paid off handsomely.

Clive has years left in him yet. There’s a big world outside the borders of the U.K. Clive. Like me, you could always try you hand on the radio again. You were brilliant on the radio.

At beINSPORTS we’re lucky enough to have Peter Drury and Andy Townsend to listen to. Without question this pair are now the unrivalled kings of the mic. They’re the best in the business. Andy is the rightful successor to Andy Gray. He’s calm. Thoughtful. Doesn’t pretend everything matters - and he’s unique because he tells me something I haven’t seen - just like my mate used to. That’s the art of co-comm - tell me ‘why’. Don’t just talk over pictures that I can see.

So many these days talk for the sake of it and bury you in stats. TV has pictures. Let them tell their own tale - ‘names and numbers’ as I was once told. You don’t have to talk for 90 minutes - or try and work a game out after two.

I digress. It’s not the end of the world Clive, although I know it feels like it right now. It’s the end of an era. Sam is a good call. Enjoy it mate. Oh - watch out Martin!!!!

https://richardajkeys.com/index.php/blog/241-come-on-clive
 
Not sure how Richard Keys is comparing his sky sacking to this. Sky let him go because he was a sexist pig.

I think ITV should have let Clive do the Euro final next year and let him go out that way.
 
High pitch voices like his, Motson, and Jon Champions always seem to be better for tournament football.
SKY and BT in their operations over the years tend to have gone for the drab mono tone voices of Tyler and Fletcher for games week in week out, maybe because the high pitch could be grinding on ears if regularly heard. And yes I know people hate Tyler and Fletcher.
McManaman provides the high pitch screeching.
 
"Quite a few people have been it touch with me asking me to react or comment, I'm not sure that would be a good ides at this time...."

Proceeds to react for 2 minutes. :lol:

Seems weird though, its going to be strange not having him at the helm when watching games. Ill always remember the closing stages of 99.... "They always score.... " :drool:
 
He is MR champions league along with jim Beglin.

as a child I’ve sooo many memories of their commentary on our fantastic champions league nights. Hopefully BT pick him up and take mcmannan/savage/jenas/Owen off commentary.
 
Pathetic, undignified video tbh. He's a 65 year old man, it's only natural he'll get replaced at that age, it's like he thought he had a god given right to the job.

Not for me, boomer.
Complete rubbish. Couldn’t have been more dignified in that video and “it’s only natural he’ll get replaced at that age” what does that mean? He’s said he has no health problems so it’s just ageism? “God given right to the job” he’s had it for 22 years and not put a foot wrong?
 
Sam Matterface is appalling. How he's got the main gig for ITV is beyond me. Not looking forward to him as the main commentator at the Euro's. And to add further insult, the lucky fecker has managed to pull Natalie Sawyer.
 
Can MUTV hire him ? I hate the sound of the commentator's voice on MUTV currently
 
Sam Matterface is appalling. How he's got the main gig for ITV is beyond me. Not looking forward to him as the main commentator at the Euro's. And to add further insult, the lucky fecker has managed to pull Natalie Sawyer.

He's divorced to her
 
If he goes to bein sports and reunites with andy townsend, we could see a return to the glory days of "Not for me, Clive" :drool:
 
All those saying about go to BT, Fletcher is a much better commentator.
 
I think after releasing that he'd be lucky to be #2. It's up to ITV to decide who they want as their #1.

I've never particularly liked his commentary. He doesn't even seem to understand the game very well at times.

This. He was very good in the late 90s for the UCL matches but has become every hard to listen to these days... he also does that kind of 'growl' in his voice way too much, sounds like he majorly needs to clear his throat.
 
"Name On The Trophy"

Will never forget it till the day I die.
See I could have sworn this is how I remembered it too (granted I'm an Arsenal fan), but when I've gone and rewatched it he says "And Solskjær has won it".

When does he say "name in the trophy"?
 
He's a bit of an idiot to be honest. Earlier in the season he managed to criticise other countries for being racist in the exact same sentence as he was racist towards the entire of Italy.

Also I don't care who ITV's main commentator is. Soon the amount of irrelevant nonsense Martin Tyler spouts during a game will reach such a level that it'll be too much for one channel to contain and his voice will begin to appear on every TV channel at once. Telling us all about how good Alan Smith's wife "Penny" is at baking cakes, or some other equally enthralling diatrebe.
 
Soon the amount of irrelevant nonsense Martin Tyler spouts during a game will reach such a level that it'll be too much for one channel to contain and his voice will begin to appear on every TV channel at once. Telling us all about how good Alan Smith's wife "Penny" is at baking cakes, or some other equally enthralling diatrebe.
Sounds like he's ready for Test Match Special.
 
Yet again, Keys is beyond parody.


Not for me, Clove.

The first part, before he gets on to talking about himself (again), he does have a point. Its not nice to see someone who clearly loves their job replaced but it does happen. If anything "Clove" seems in the culture of plenty of older people in that they don't want to step aside for younger people to progress. Commentary and football punditry often seems a bit of an old boys club, I'd think it makes sense for people to be replaced in that industry but when they are people get up in arms.

Carragher, Neville and plenty of other pundits are better than Andy Gray was or is, MOTD has pundits better than Hansen and Lawrenson (which isn't hard I know.)

Looking back at the video he hasn't even done it particularly gracefully he's just moaned he could of praised his replacement or something whos done nothing wrong except try and progress his career and has ended up getting slated for taking a promotion
 
Pathetic, undignified video tbh. He's a 65 year old man, it's only natural he'll get replaced at that age, it's like he thought he had a god given right to the job.

Not for me, boomer.
Have to admit i felt similar. Like the football world will come together and say 'no'
 
Yeah, boo hoo, Clive. Understand him being a bit upset in private, no need at all to make that video and I think he will regret it. Still, it doesn't really matter, face.