Long-serving talkSPORT football reporter Andy Clarke made his commentary debut on Sky Sports 4's Spanish Football coverage last night. Andy has done plenty of fixtures for Sky's Football First through doing commentaries on 3pm Premier League matches for Premier League Productions, but I believe this was the first live game he has covered specifically for a Sky Sports channel.
Clarkey covered Real Mallorca v Sevilla alongside former Century East Midlands co-commentator Garry Birtles. He wasn't the only commentator with talkSPORT links working on Sky Sports' coverage last night, as Jon Driscoll, who was talkSPORT's Chief Football Correspondent between 2000 and 2002, commentated on the earlier Barcelona v Almeria match.
Presuming Jim Proudfoot doesn't return and TV commitments mean Nigel Pearson won't travel to Poland and Ukraine, I think Clarkey would be a good shout to be talkSPORT's number three commentator at Euro 2012 behind Sam Matterface and Ian Danter.
Due to his work for British bookmakers websites through Watch&Bet, where he regularly covers matches from some of Europe's less high profiled leagues (Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Poland and Portugal), Andy would be well qualified to talk about the players and teams involved in the kind of matches a third choice commentator would be cover at a European Championships.
Not only that, but as he's been usurped by John Anderson as talkSPORT's man in the England camp under Moz Dee's management, he'd be available for a role elsewhere in their coverage. And not only is he qualified, but he's a voice known to talkSPORT listeners too. To me, calling upon Clarkey as a commentator would make much more sense than bringing in a new voice like John Rawling, who IMO had a good World Cup but hasn't been heard on the station since the summer, which makes me question what the point was in getting him involved back then.