This season, talkSPORT Live broadcast live commentary on all 380 Premier League games, 187 of which were featured games broadcast on their numerous international radio partners as well as on talkSPORT.com. They also broadcast commentary on 19 other English club matches: 10 from the FA Cup, 8 from the Capital One Cup and the FA Community Shield. Only one of these cup matches - the Hull City v Sheffield United FA Cup Semi-Final, commentated on by Rob Daly - was not a featured game and was only available on talkSPORT.com. Here are the final numbers as to who did what on talkSPORT Live in 2013/14:
Commentators - all matches (games airing both on international radio stations and on talkSPORT.com only)
Tom Rennie - 48 games
Alex Crook - 43
Adam Bridge - 34
Phil Blacker - 27
Kevin Hatchard - 27
Toby Gilles - 26
Richard Connelly - 25
John Anderson - 24
Dan Wheeler - 23
Tim Long - 22
James Fielden - 20
Keith Hall - 19
Piers Edwards - 13
Mark Tompkins - 10
Dan Windle - 10
Russell Hargreaves - 6
Will Gavin - 4
Tom Macleod - 4
Andrew McKenna - 4
Charlie Brougham - 2
Rob Daly - 2
Ian Danter - 2
Chris Parrott - 2
Philip Barker - 1
Simon Watts - 1
Commentators - featured matches (games that were broadcast on talkSPORT Live's international radio partners as a main commentary game)
Tom Rennie - 48
Alex Crook - 33
Adam Bridge - 31
Phil Blacker - 26
Richard Connelly - 24
Kevin Hatchard - 16
John Anderson - 11
Toby Gilles - 9
Ian Danter - 2
Andrew McKenna - 2
Mark Tompkins - 2
Dan Wheeler - 1
Philip Barker, Charlie Brougham, Rob Daly, Piers Edwards, James Fielden, Will Gavin, Keith Hall, Russell Hargreaves, Tim Long, Tom Macleod, Chris Parrott, Simon Watts and Dan Windle only commentated on games that aired solely on talkSPORT.com. In contrast, all of Tom Rennie and Ian Danter's commentaries were carried by talkSPORT Live's international radio service as well as talkSPORT.com, with the vast majority of Adam Bridge, Phil Blacker and Richard Connelly's games being featured matches.
Co-Commentators (only used on featured games broadcast by talkSPORT Live's international radio partners)
Paul Mortimer - 29
Paul McVeigh - 27
Matt Lawrence - 26
Darren Eadie - 25
Bobby Gould - 15
Jason Euell - 13
Alan McLoughlin - 13
Clive Walker - 12
Adrian Clarke - 10
David Armstrong - 9
Kevin Watson - 8
Sean Davis - 5
Paul Hall - 3
Chris Perry - 3
Michael Duberry - 2
Neil Mellor - 2
David Lee - 1
Alvin Martin - 1
Gary O'Reilly - 1
NB: Russell Hargreaves was scheduled to commentate on Everton v Crystal Palace and Toby Gilles was down to do Manchester City v Sunderland on Wednesday 12th February before both games were postponed that evening. Neither match was due to be the featured game that night and neither has been included in my statistics.
I've not included details of talkSPORT Live's Bundesliga coverage in the above statistics because a) I'm not confident that I possess fully accurate numbers of the commentators used and b) more pertinently, the games were broadcast on a different platform - the Bundesliga English TuneIn radio channel - away from talkSPORT.com and talkSPORT Live's international radio partners.
For the record, their Bundesliga coverage began after the league restarted from its winter break in late January and included one featured match from each of the 17 matchrounds in the second half of the season plus both legs of the Bundesliga Promotion/Relegation Play-Off. The commentaries were all done by a solo commentator, these being: Kevin Hatchard (12 games), Tim Long (6 games I think - 2 being both legs of the Play-Off, although I'm only certain that he did two regular season matches) and Toby Gilles (1 game).
talkSPORT Live's commentary teams for major "showpiece" games were:
Manchester United v Wigan Athletic (FA Community Shield) - Tom Rennie and Matt Lawrence
Manchester City v Sunderland (Capital One Cup Final) - Tom Rennie and Matt Lawrence
Manchester City v West Ham United (Premier League - featured game on the final day) - Richard Connelly and Paul McVeigh
Arsenal v Hull City (FA Cup Final) - Tom Rennie and Paul McVeigh
While I'm here, I also have commentary statistics from Absolute Radio now that their coverage of the Premier League is over for another season.
In 2013/14, Absolute Radio did 32 full match commentaries on 3pm Saturday afternoon kick-offs, with them then doing first half commentary on Liverpool v Newcastle United and second half commentary on Manchester City v West Ham United on the final Sunday of the Premier League season.
Russ Williams presented all 33 editions of Rock 'N' Roll Football Live from the studio, with Jim Proudfoot doing 32 and a half commentaries (he was at the Etihad Stadium on the final day) in his last season with Absolute. Mikey Burrows (normally of Free Radio 80s and Sky Sports News Radio) was their commentator on the first half at Anfield on the final day of the season. Their co-commentary numbers are as follows:
Clarke Carlisle - 22 games (including Manchester City v West Ham United on the final day)
Tony Dorigo - 3
Kevin Gallacher - 2
Craig Levein - 2
Clive Allen - 1
Mark Bright - 1
Ray Houghton - 1
Tim Flowers - 1 (Liverpool v Newcastle United on the final day)
Additionally, there was one game - West Bromwich Albion v West Ham United on 26th April - where they did not have a co-commentator meaning that Jim had to fly solo. Clarke Carlisle was originally advertised to co-commentate on the game, but didn't do so for whatever reason. Clarke started being billed as their "regular co-commentator" during the second half of the season and was only absent on that Saturday from the 8th February onwards.
With Perry Groves, their regular studio co-host for the previous three seasons of Rock 'N' Roll Football Live, moving on to become a talkSPORT regular last summer, Absolute Radio began to call upon different pundits to join Russ Williams in the studio this season. They were as follows:
Tony Dorigo - 11
Mark Bright - 5
Clive Allen - 4
Darren Anderton - 4
Ray Houghton - 3
Stewart Robson - 2
Martin Allen - 1
Alan Curbishley - 1
Absolute didn't use a studio pundit for their coverage of West Ham United v Fulham on 30th November - I think Tony Dorigo was originally down to do so, but a change of plans saw him do co-commentary on that game instead - or on the final day of the season.
I have similar statistics for talkSPORT UK's football commentaries throughout 2013/14, which I will post on here after their coverage of the Football League Play-Off Finals has concluded on Bank Holiday Monday.