Simon Thomas has landed a role that will strike fear into many broadcasters
Emperor Tiberius, the unworthy successor of Augustus. Queen + Adam Lambert. Andrew Johnson becomes president after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Ronnie Irani, «New Botham» from England. Moyesi. All the people who have taken on the mantle of the great man of all time, and all the people who have found it difficult to walk, are doomed to unfavorable comparison with the person they have replaced. And none of them had to reason with good old Paul Merson.
Simon Thomas, who took over from Jeff Stelling as host of Football Saturday this weekend, is unlikely to put off the Roman Senate on its way to isolating itself in debauchery on Capri before he is possibly killed by Caligula or impeached for agitating the Civil War. war, or being knocked out of the third round of the FA Cup by Swansea City, or batting 1 and 9 against New Zealand in his third and final Test match in a team performance so dismal that the then England captain was booed on the oval dressing room balcony. But the presenter, who has taken on what is by far the most difficult task in British sports broadcasting, has his own pitfalls.
Thomas began his job on Saturday, addressing Sky Sports viewers, saying: «It is an absolute honor to host this is a brilliant show. If I can do even half of the work that the legend Jeff Stelling has done over the past 25 years, then I have done something right.”
Half as good would still be damn good, and the first indications are that Thomas, a great TV presenter and by all accounts, a great guy, will have to work hard to reach this mark. And perhaps the creators of the program are not making the success of their new frontman as achievable as it could be.
Of course, there was a change of host at the opening of Saturday's season, but the choice of pundits didn't change: Merson, Clinton Morrison, Michael Dawson and the slightly less visible Neil Lennon, all lingered and hid like untouched leftovers in a room-temperature buffet. coleslaw and lettuce, already tired and starting to smell. On the other hand, Sue Smith joined them: the woman with the best football hair was persuaded to leave her stronghold of Wilmslow and join The Boys™in a West London studio, rather than contribute, as she often did. the wonders of videoconferencing. But even so far. This team urgently needs a shake-up.
Would an attempt to replace the irreplaceable be more successful if the show went into a new format, or at least new blood? Instead, they changed the moderator and fiddled with the furniture, which looked like a symbolic gesture, but everything else remained the same.
Each expert, installed on a neon blue pulpit podium, looked like a group of struggling participants in «The Weakest link», everyone seemed aloof and aloof both literally and figuratively, which meant that the new host had even more hard work to do during a long day of entertainment and billing.< /p>
Saturday featured a vibrant game show
The fact that Saturday wasn't the start of the Premier League means there's still time to get things right, a soft launch as it was, and a few technical misunderstandings can be forgiven by the fact that it was still a settler at the start of the season. Only a rotten one wouldn't wish well on Thomas, but the unpleasant impression should have reminded that the long-term success of the show stems not from pundits or format, but from Stelling's unique gifts, so agile, warm and self-confident. .
After his retirement announcement, or at least the final announcement of his retirement, one wondered if it would be better to leave the format that Jeff created for himself with him. It wasn't, and while comparisons may not be fair, if the recipe stays the same, you'll always find it hard to recreate a delicious meal without one main ingredient.
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