General Premier League Thread 2020-21 - Mod Notes in 1st post. [Updated 17/12/20]

Richard Hillman · 26-08-2020 05:22PM

Sky have been obviously keeping them apart all last season. There would always be 2 or 3 in the studio plus a randomers. They were teeing it up for over year.

They kept Merson because if he went off the rails they would have gotten blamed for it.

I won't be watching anymore. I have access to the World Feed games that show all of the PL 3pm goals but usually watch Soccer Saturday anyway. Not anymore.

marklazarcovic · 26-08-2020 06:10PM

Will be a woman,a black man,Merse a stupid white dude,and a really intelligent Asian dude . Watch and see.

Corholio · 26-08-2020 06:18PM

They've been on there for ages and gotten progressively worse every year. Thompson stopped bothering knowing players names about 5 or 6 years ago. No harm in changing it up a bit really. Although cue the inevitable moaning if they dare put someone black on there. Their banter got old years ago when it was sort of accidental, it's been very forced for years once 'clicks' became a thing.

'It's this diversity stuff man I tell ya.....'

peejay1986 · 26-08-2020 06:20PM

Just hoping this doesn't mean Clinton Morrison gets more screen time.

yourdeadwright · 26-08-2020 06:20PM

I think Dean Henderson has made an awful decision if he's interested in actually playing football

De Gea isn't being dropped on the wage he is on it just isn't happening and also he won't be sold as who's going to stump up the cash and wages for some one playing so poorly

Henderson will be left on the bench and when he decides he wants to leave after a year or two of not playing regularly who's going to pay him over 100 grand,

I feel he's really shot his himself in the foot, Obviously money aside

sky88 · 26-08-2020 06:30PM

130 million for mcguire and chillwell is some great business by Leicester

j8wk2feszrnpao · 26-08-2020 06:37PM

peejay1986 wrote: »

Just hoping this doesn't mean Clinton Morrison gets more screen time.

Agreed. I like Clinton, and I've seen him in some more relaxed scenarios where it's like listening to one of your mates chatting about football. But as an actual analyst, who's meant to interpret what his watching to an audience, he's not very good.

Soccer Saturday needs a big shake up though. Merson is terrible and the others seemed to lose interest after being there too long.

The worst show they have is Sunday Supplement, just awful.

I don't care about diversity as long as they are good. They've added Michael Richards, who's terrible. They'd be better off adding Liam Rosenior, who's excellent anytime he's been on the debate show, rater than adding a 'name'.

peejay1986 · 26-08-2020 06:41PM

munstermagic11 wrote: »

Agreed. I like Clinton, and I've seen him in some more relaxed scenarios where it's like listening to one of your mates chatting about football. But as an actual analyst, who's meant to interpret what his watching to an audience, he's not very good.

Soccer Saturday needs a big shake up though. Merson is terrible and the others seemed to lose interest after being there too long.

The worst show they have is Sunday Supplement, just awful.

I don't care about diversity as long as they are good. They've added Michael Richards, who's terrible. They'd be better off adding Liam Rosenior, who's excellent anytime he's been on the debate show, rater than adding a 'name'.

Heard the same about Morrison as a person. Meant to be a really decent guy, but as you say, as a pundit he's poor.

Agree, I think Rosenior is very good. He's articulate and can get across points well.

However, for Soccer Saturday I fear it'll be Richards. His personality just lends himself to that kind of thing, similar to Merson - even though it's not what I would want to see at all!

I fear they'll aim for the lowest common denominator in terms of the viewers. Not that Le Tiss, Thompson etc were far above that, but at least they could string sentences together the odd time.

Mr.Nice Guy · 26-08-2020 06:51PM

Some of them were looking jaded. I can't imagine any other channel wanting them, except maybe BT being after Le Tissier for Southampton games. Nicholas I think was there from when Frank McLintock used to be on.

~Rebel~ · 26-08-2020 06:55PM

eigrod wrote: »

Sky shaking things up

https://twitter.com/mirrorfootball/status/1298634218461855744?s=21

Not too surprising really.

I mean, even beyond any thoughts over how good they are versus how good they used to be, the bigger question is that of the current audience.

I mean, we (of a largely 30+ demographic on here) know these guys. We saw them play, or at least saw them soon enough after their careers that it still means something to us. There's some tangible connection between them and football for us.

They mean nothing to the current teens and 20-somethings. They're just old guys who are all decades away from having had anything to do with football in a practical sense.

So it makes total sense that there would be a generational shift to try to get lads in who mean to the current viewers what these auld lads meant to us in the past.

They're nowhere near good/interesting/informative/funny enough to transcend the passing of time and relevance. Except Jeff. I love Jeff.

Speak Now · 26-08-2020 07:09PM

Money decision, the 3 lads were probably on decent money compared to what the new younger presenters will be on!

Sunday supplement got the bullet as well didnt it? Wont miss the Custis brothers anyway especially the Neil fella.

Richard Hillman · 26-08-2020 07:24PM

Yes, the Sunday Supplement got cut. They went down the Woke Route and went broke. Nobody was watching it despite it being on 3 different channels at the same time. The only ads you would ever see on it were from Sky themselves. Which is a surefire sign that advertisers were not pushed in buying advertising slots.

Richard Hillman · 26-08-2020 08:04PM

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Not too surprising really.

I mean, even beyond any thoughts over how good they are versus how good they used to be, the bigger question is that of the current audience.

I mean, we (of a largely 30+ demographic on here) know these guys. We saw them play, or at least saw them soon enough after their careers that it still means something to us. There's some tangible connection between them and football for us.

They mean nothing to the current teens and 20-somethings. They're just old guys who are all decades away from having had anything to do with football in a practical sense.

So it makes total sense that there would be a generational shift to try to get lads in who mean to the current viewers what these auld lads meant to us in the past.

They're nowhere near good/interesting/informative/funny enough to transcend the passing of time and relevance. Except Jeff. I love Jeff.

Their demographic viewers are males that are aged between 30-65. I don't understand trying to alienate their prime demographic to appeal to the under 30s. They could have had the same 4 on that panel for another 10 years. OK Thommo and Charlie are getting older but would have just went in their own time or phased out slowly.

They've gone down a route that possibly appeals to under 30s and people who are into identity politics. I can't see that demographic sitting down in front of Sky Sports News from 12pm-5pm. They had a demographic that will be around for 20-30-40 years and traded it all in for something that people in their 20s may or may not like.

It will all go south very quickly. ESPN/Sports Centre went down that route in America and found out sharply that its probably not a good idea to alienate your prime demographic.

26-08-2020 08:11PM

I'd imagine Sky will go with a more diverse panel.

razorblunt · 26-08-2020 09:29PM

None of that 3 will be missed.

Rosenior is too good for Soccer Saturday he needs to be on the main programs. He’s a cut above everything else they have, I think he’d make a decent prime time co commentator.

CSF · 26-08-2020 09:31PM

Sure we have live 3 PM games over here now anyway so it’s of very little significance to us

~Rebel~ · 26-08-2020 10:10PM

Richard Hillman wrote: »

Their demographic viewers are males that are aged between 30-65. I don't understand trying to alienate their prime demographic to appeal to the under 30s. They could have had the same 4 on that panel for another 10 years. OK Thommo and Charlie are getting older but would have just went in their own time or phased out slowly.

They've gone down a route that possibly appeals to under 30s and people who are into identity politics. I can't see that demographic sitting down in front of Sky Sports News from 12pm-5pm. They had a demographic that will be around for 20-30-40 years and traded it all in for something that people in their 20s may or may not like.

It will all go south very quickly. ESPN/Sports Centre went down that route in America and found out sharply that its probably not a good idea to alienate your prime demographic.

If they were getting solid viewerships, they wouldn't be letting them go. First and foremost they follow the money. I stopped watching SS nearly a decade ago. I enjoyed them in my early 20's but it kinda just got stale.

As for identity politics, bit of a leap you're making there.

TV is evolving, and football coverage is evolving - the odds of things staying the same enough that this would remain working for your named (or, indeed, any) demographic for 20 - 40 years is small to nil.

Speak Now · 26-08-2020 10:26PM

Is Soccer A.M. still a thing, now that's a show that's absolute rubbish.

Agent Coulson · 26-08-2020 11:43PM

I wonder what the chances are that a shed load of players pick up Covid on International duty and the start of the league season is postponed.

ERG89 · 27-08-2020 12:00AM

Agent Coulson wrote: »

I wonder what the chances are that a shed load of players pick up Covid on International duty and the start of the league season is postponed.

Apparently Chelsea have had several players fail covid tests and those players will be going into isolation for 2 weeks now.
Going to take a lot for the Premier League to shut down again though.

y0ssar1an22 · 27-08-2020 12:06AM

munstermagic11 wrote: »

Agreed. I like Clinton, and I've seen him in some more relaxed scenarios where it's like listening to one of your mates chatting about football. But as an actual analyst, who's meant to interpret what his watching to an audience, he's not very good.

Soccer Saturday needs a big shake up though. Merson is terrible and the others seemed to lose interest after being there too long.

The worst show they have is Sunday Supplement, just awful.

I don't care about diversity as long as they are good. They've added Michael Richards, who's terrible. They'd be better off adding Liam Rosenior, who's excellent anytime he's been on the debate show, rater than adding a 'name'.

Sunday supplement got the chop as well, nothing got to do with viewership but 'due to next season's huge Premier League fixture pile-up'. it was on at 10-11.30am on a sunday? cant imagine we'll be seeing games at those times.

y0ssar1an22 · 27-08-2020 12:09AM

ERG89 wrote: »

Apparently Chelsea have had several players fail covid tests and those players will be going into isolation for 2 weeks now.
Going to take a lot for the Premier League to shut down again though.

have the PL stopped reporting this?

they were mad to tell us at the start of project restart

Unearthly · 27-08-2020 07:26AM

Glad to see all 3 go. Very poor standard. They offer 0 insight for a show that lasts about 6 hours

Agent Coulson · 27-08-2020 07:29AM

The show became more about the banter between them than the actual football they were supposed to be watching.

To be honest any show of its kind will always end up the same way when you have people talking about something the viewer can see.

A decade and more of the same gang talking they were just all bantered out. The new recruits will end up the same way by the end of the season.

razorblunt · 27-08-2020 08:27AM

Speak Now wrote: »

Is Soccer A.M. still a thing, now that's a show that's absolute rubbish.

On the rare occasion I've stumbled across it, it seems to be the Fenners (remember him from 20 years ago?) and Bullard show. Fenners who's 50 thinking he's mid 20s and Bullard who runs around like a kid on sugar. Embarrassing stuff.

I think there probably is a market for something at that time but they'd need to ramp up the guests and get footballers back onside.

eigrod · 27-08-2020 08:29AM

razorblunt wrote: »

On the rare occasion I've stumbled across it, it seems to be the Fenners (remember him from 20 years ago?) and Bullard show. Fenners who's 50 thinking he's mid 20s and Bullard who runs around like a kid on sugar. Embarrassing stuff.

I think there probably is a market for something at that time but they'd need to ramp up the guests and get footballers back onside.

It’s really something for Under 15s.

Bridge93 · 27-08-2020 08:57AM

Soccer Am never recovered once the Helen Chamberlain and Tim Lovejoy combo was broken up. Been a steady decline since

rob316 · 27-08-2020 09:08AM

Soccerete was the best on Soccer AM.

j8wk2feszrnpao · 27-08-2020 09:25AM

Richard Hillman wrote: »

Their demographic viewers are males that are aged between 30-65. I don't understand trying to alienate their prime demographic to appeal to the under 30s

I agree to an extent. The under 30's have no interest in SS. They are on the move, not sitting in front of the TV. A few of the younger lads I play football with all watch stuff like The Kickoff on YouTube rather than SS. I think Sky want that audience, whether they get it or not is a different thing.

retalivity · 27-08-2020 09:28AM

Bridge93 wrote: »

Soccer Am never recovered once the Helen Chamberlain and Tim Lovejoy combo was broken up. Been a steady decline since

Lovejoy was a tit but can't disagree with this. Used to watch it religiously 20 years ago, caught up with a few months back and it was woeful ****e.

General Premier League Thread 2020-21 - Mod Notes in 1st post. [Updated 17/12/20]

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