Julian Warren Soccer Special

[welsbyswife]

I like watching soccer special but they really need to get a better understudy for Jeff. Warren seems to really struggle to take in the information and put it across in a calm manner. He ends up shouting at the screen and gets really tense. I can feel my blood pressure going up whilst watching. No doubt it's difficult with constant feeds coming into your earpiece but it shows how good Stelling is.

[fidelcastro]

I disagree. Stelling makes crap jokes, usually regarding some tenuous connection to a player's surname, and gets repeatedly over excited.
Whenever I've watched Warren, he seems much calmer.

[claptrappers_union]

Stelling is the best in the business. I love his crap jokes, puns and word play. It’s what makes the show engaging. They are big shoes to fill to be fair.

Watch this clip linked at the bottom - I show to this to my Media Studies students.

Watch how Stelling tells the story about what is happening in front of us. The describes the drama while giving context of the the consequences, the stats, the trivia, the history - he describes scenes unfolding without a stutter, a stumble or a pause. It’s amazing and it’s live - you can’t write or rehearse it, it’s almost lyrical.

No-one else can do this.

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[Hibsclaret]

Jeff Stelling

Legend

[welsbyswife]

Stelling is the best in the business. I love his crap jokes, puns and word play. It’s what makes the show engaging. They are big shoes to fill to be fair.

Watch this clip linked at the bottom - I show to this to my Media Studies students.

Watch how Stelling tells the story about what is happening in front of us. The describes the drama while giving context of the the consequences, the stats, the trivia, the history - he describes scenes unfolding without a stutter, a stumble or a pause. It’s amazing and it’s live - you can’t write or rehearse it, it’s almost lyrical.

No-one else can do this.

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That's brilliant claptrappers! You can't do that without all the background knowledge being in your head. I think that's the difference. He has a real knowledge of the game whereas Warren is just trying to feed through what he is being told in his earpiece and he can't keep up.

[LeadBelly]

By and large, I'm not overly fond of sports media folk/pundits etc but I really admire Stelling.
Obviously he has huge knowledge of the game (clubs/club histories/players/stats etc) and also has a wonderful capacity of balancing excitement/keeping cool amid the many inputs that he's the focus of.
It's a great skill to keep control of all those ex-pros in the studio and keep things flowing smoothly.
I think he really loves the game too and understands how fans feel. He'd be very difficult to replace.

[claptrappers_union]

That's brilliant claptrappers! You can't do that without all the background knowledge being in your head. I think that's the difference. He has a real knowledge of the game whereas Warren is just trying to feed through what he is being told in his earpiece and he can't keep up.

Here is the important information he delivers in that 4 mins clip.

Simon Davies is the Barnsley manager
Rafa Benitez is Liverpool manager
Bryan Howard scores his 11th of the season - he's not scored in previous 8
Liverpool are out of the FA Cup
Liverpool play Inter Milan next week in the Champions League
There are 6000 travelling Barnsley fans
Barnsley haven't won in 12 away league games
Simon Davies was Liverpool supporter and stood on The Kop
No Torres in Liverpool's 16, Gerrard was on the bench
Barnsley into the last 8 with Bristol Rovers, West Brom and Cardiff City - all lower league sides
Havent & Waterlooville scored twice against Liverpool at Anfield in the last round
Goalkeeper Luke Steele made is debut and was astonishing

I know he is fed some information as he presents, but the list above is peripheral stuff that should be just tit-bits of information but its all very important, Stelling is not just describing what he can see. You could show this clip to someone who doesn't follow football, but they will understand everything that has happened, what it means to the fans and players of Liverpool and what means to the fans and players of Barnsley and the competition on a whole.

To cram all that information in and give a natural delivery while describing the scenes we are watching too is just staggering I think... and he does it every week.

Hes much more than bad jokes

[Silkyskills1]

Is there any Liverpool supporter who didn't 'stand on the Kop' as a fan?

[DCWat]

Jeff Stelling is just brilliant at what he does.

The banter, the excitement, the fact and figures, all alongside the live ‘coverage’.

They will do well to find a replacement half as good, when he finally retires.

[claptrappers_union]

Is there any Liverpool supporter who didn't 'stand on the Kop' as a fan?

Ha, Like every Burnley being at the Orient match

[RocketLawnChair]

When Stelling goes the all Soccer Saturday format may have to change he carries the show that much. Some presenters just suit certain output.

Tim Lovejoy for example, not the greatest presenter by any stretch and I do find him quite annoying BUT SoccerAM declined rapidly once he left and it seems has never recovered from the very few bits I catch now.

[claptrappers_union]

I agree, some shows grow with the presenters, they make the show what it is. Top Gear is a good example too.

I've seen the other versions of Soccer Saturday - Final Score, the BT Sports version and even the midweek Sky Soccer Special - they are nowhere near the quality of when Stelling is presenting. But when Stelling presents other Sky Sports shows, where its basically just him reading an autocue and chatting with guests, he's average.

I often wonder why Helen Chamberlain was never promoted to host the flagship Sky Sports Football Shows. She should be anchoring Monday Night Football or Super Sunday. Instead its just some man in a suit. She seems to have wasted her Sky career on Soccer AM

[Dyched]

You cant ignore the fact that on tuesday there was only 4 championship games, League 1 and 2.

Sterling gets half the PL fixtures, full FL and Scottish Leagues, non league. Plus FA cup weekends which are exciting.

Tuesday was a slow football day. Warrens a good presenter and it’s much more exciting when he get the CL latter games, league cup and a full championship fixture list.