Yep, I'd be confident in saying that it's all connected.

Here's a whole load of commentary details from recent days. And I'm certain these are mostly correct!!!! Apologies for any duplicated information (and I mean on here, not a certain site which contained a number of errors highlighted by Members on here!!):

Friday 25th November:

Freiburg v Leipzig (BT Sport 1) - Derek Rae and Jim Beglin
Eibar v Real Betis (Sky Sports 5 & MIX) - Kevin Keatings and David Phillips
Barnsley v Nottingham Forest (Sky Sports 1) - Gary Weaver and Andy Hinchcliffe

Saturday 26th November:

Malaga v Deportivo La Coruna (Sky Sports 3) - Dominic Johnson and David Phillips
Partick Thistle v Rangers (Sky Sports 1 & 5) - Ian Crocker and Neil McCann
Burnley v Manchester City (BT Sport 1) - Ian Darke, Robbie Savage and Trevor Francis
Leicester v Middlesbrough (Sky Sports 5 Ireland) - Gary Weaver and Alan Smith
Rotherham v Leeds (Sky Sports 1) - Daniel Mann and Garry Birtles
Chelsea v Tottenham (BT Sport 1) - Darren Fletcher, Steve McManaman and Glenn Hoddle
Bayern Munich v Bayer Leverkusen (BT Sport 2) - Paul Dempsey and Nigel Spackman
Espanyol v Leganes (Sky Sports 4 Red Button) - Paul Giblin
Real Madrid v Sporting Gijon (Sky Sports 4 Delayed Coverage) - Rob Palmer and Terry Gibson
Boavista v Sporting Lisbon (BT Sport 3) - Tim Caple
PSV Eindhoven v ADO Den Haag (Sky Sports 5) - Nigel Adderley and Matt Jackson
Sevilla v Valencia (Sky Sports 4) - Kevin Keatings and Gerry Armstrong
Empoli v AC Milan (BT Sport 2) - Steven Wyeth and Stewart Robson
Belenenses v Porto (BT Sport 3) - Seb Hutchinson

Sunday 27th November:

Villarreal v Alaves (Sky Sports 3) - Dominic Johnson and Garry Birtles
Palermo v Lazio (BT Sport 1) - Dave Farrar
Watford v Stoke (Sky Sports 1) - Bill Leslie and Andy Hinchcliffe
Heerenveen v Ajax (Sky Sports MIX) - Tony Lockwood and Gary Breen
Genoa v Juventus (BT Sport ESPN) - Alistair Mann
Arsenal v Bournemouth (Sky Sports 1) - Rob Hawthorne and Niall Quinn
Schalke v Darmstadt (BT Sport 3) - Paul Dempsey and Stewart Robson
Aberdeen v Celtic (BT Sport 1) - Derek Rae, Chris Sutton and Michael Stewart
Osasuna v Atletico Madrid (Sky Sports 4) - Kevin Keatings and Gerry Armstrong
Utrecht v Feyenoord (Sky Sports MIX) - Richard Connelly and George Boateng
Nice v Bastia (BT Sport ESPN) - Dan Roebuck
Southampton v Everton (Sky Sports 1) - Martin Tyler and Alan Smith
Manchester United v West Ham (Sky Sports Football Special) - Ian Crocker and Andy Walker
Hertha Berlin v Mainz (BT Sport 3) - Jonathan Pearce
Celta Vigo v Granada (Sky Sports 3) - Jon Driscoll (unsure who co-comm was)
Palmeiras v Chapecoense (BT Sport ESPN) - Dan Mason
Real Sociedad v Barcelona (Sky Sports 1) - Rob Palmer and Terry Gibson
Roma v Pescara (BT Sport 3) - John Roder and Adam Virgo
Lyon v Paris Saint-Germain (BT Sport 2) - Adam Summerton and Richard Hughes
Colorado Rapids v Seattle Sounders (Sky Sports 4) - Dan Roebuck (unsure who co-comm was)

Monday 28th November:

Napoli v Sassuolo (BT Sport 1) - Simon Brotherton
Stuttgart v Nuremberg (BT Sport 2) - Dan Mason
Las Palmas v Athletic Bilbao (Sky Sports 2) - Jon Driscoll and Terry Gibson
Huddersfield v Wigan (Sky Sports 1) - Daniel Mann and Andy Hinchcliffe
Inter Milan v Fiorentina (BT Sport 1) - Adam Summerton and Chris Perry

Tuesday 29th November:

Lorient v Rennes (BT Sport 2) - Oliver Wilson
Netherlands Women v England Women (BBC Red Button) - Nigel Adderley and Sue Smith
Liverpool v Leeds (Sky Sports 1) - Rob Hawthorne and Alan Smith
Dijon v Monaco (BT Sport 2) - Jonathan Pearce

David Phillips did co-comms for the Celta-Granada game.

And a shout to George Boateng apparently making his debut as a co-commentator on the Utrecht-Feyenoord match. I thought he was really good. Made some excellent tactical points and also enhanced the overall piece by adding outstanding local knowledge being an ex-Feyenoorder. Hopefully IMG will continue to give him work on the world feed that comes through on Sky for the games they take.

Well, yes, as you say Leicester have already won the group, and Arsenal are already through and have to rely on unlilkely results to win their group, so how more meaningful are they? Man City vs Celtic is a big occasion, I know there's not much riding on it in the grand scheme of things but there'll be a big crowd and a decent atmosphere. And Spurs are out but they still need to get a result to get into the Europa League so it's still got something riding on it. The fact is there's always likely to be dead rubbers at this stage.

And if Darke was put on a meaningful game between foreign teams I assume we would have had "Why is Darke relegated to the red button?" and if he did a Europa League game instead it would have been "Why is Darke only getting one Champions League game?".


There's not much wrong with the League Cup, two nights of Liverpool and Man U in primetime on a freezing cold night is good business for Sky, plus they have another two nights of Liverpool in primetime in January and probably another big team as well, and then probably a decent match-up in the final. The early stages might not be all that but in the latter stages you get big teams, all in primetime in the middle of winter to boot. It was a great deal for the Beeb when they had it, I wish they still had it.

Fifteen minutes build-up is perfectly fine, what else is there to say? We got some analysis, some interviews. Longer doesn't neccessarily mean better. Wouldn't be surprised if these two nights get among Sky's biggest football audiences of the season.

In other news, worth watching Adrian Chiles' documentary on black footballers from the weekend, I think, I found it fascinating. I know Chiles has his radio show and does documentaries like this but I think it's a bit of a shame he's not broadcasting regularly on football these days, he is good at it. Might be nice for him to make contributions to The Premier League Show, perhaps?

I'm pretty sure I heard Joe Speight's voice on Hull City v Newcastle when they showed the goals on SSN(HQ HD OMG) last night, but it was only small snippets so can't be 100% sure.

^ Legendary post.

Last night's jokers will do well to note the details for the two Ligue 1 games yesterday, as it doesn't match up with the BS that was entered into the hub. Even the world feed data was incorrect. If you don't know the answers, for heaven sake don't add a load of rubbish - leave it for someone else to come along who actually does know who commentated.

Have you tried checking "The Hub" for up to date factual information?

On ratings, none of BT's CL shows rated in the top ten digital shows for Tues/Weds which is pretty poor. Thursday's game from Old Trafford was 2nd or 3rd for that day so not too bad.

Just under 1 million for the latter 2 Super Sunday games, helped by shorter program times & later time slot. Maybe 4:30 kick offs will be pushed for more if in the darker nights it helps viewing figures? The next few Sundays look decent too although everyone is awaiting the big game on 12th December as we take on the mighty Gillingham on Sky

Charles Sale is claiming that 4 senior SSN reporters are being sacked. Nick Collins is one of them

https://t.co/aPgQu4nBWi

On reflection, I was wrong to bring up the subject of ratings for this particular game because any game involving Liverpool or Leeds is always going to draw an audience no matter who they are playing, yet alone when they play each other.

You say there's not much wrong with the competition, I happen to think a lot is wrong with it. From managers' attitudes towards it, players not really giving a damn either (from the bigger clubs) and I'm sure some teams would happily pull out of participating if they could. Indeed, a lot effectively do just that by some of the team selections they put out. As you alluded to, any big clubs that happen to find themselves in the latter stages only then start to "get interested" with the final within touching distance. Whoever wins the thing then has their glory dismissed as them only having won a "Mickey Mouse" competition.

I absolutely agree that longer coverage doesn't necessarily mean better, and indeed I would like to see the "less is more" approach used more frequently, yet I believe in this instance it is an indicator that the League Cup is way down on the agenda. What else is given just 15 mins prior to kick-off on Sky these days?

884,000 (4.0%) for the League Cup game for those who were interested to know. Most watched multichannel programme of the day.

172,000 programme average (0.77%), peaking at 270,000.

One of only two programmes on Sky Sports on Monday to register 6 figures (the other being the cricket).

Shame if so but not a surprise if Sale is right (always good to add that disclaimer with any Sale article) as given the cutbacks over at Sky News, something similar was always likely over at SSN and at Sky Sports.

The reporters mentioned are all very good in their roles too - Collins and Abraham in particular - so it's a shame if they are got rid of. Experienced, intelligent, professional reporters.
Any channel or broadcaster could do far worse than employing Collins.

There are definitely some of their 'star' reporters on there that I'm not a fan of.

Tim Abraham has been responding to a few media colleagues wishing him well so looks like he is definitely on his way out of the 'Sky Sports News HQ' HQ.

Arsenal v Soton- Paul Walker

Just to point out, none of them are being "sacked", they're being made redundant. A different thing.


Could apply most of that to the FA Cup.

Cheers wal28! Missed this game, and only heard JD on one of the Celta Vigo goals. I had a feeling it may have been David Phillips alongside him, but it could have been Efan Ekoku. Confirmed as DP, so thanks!

And, yeah, recorded the Utrecht v Feyenoord game, and was surprised to hear RC announce George Boateng as co-commentator, but I feel he had a good debut as well. Hopefully more Eredivisie matches for him in future.


Sam Matterface was on the World Feed for the EFL Cup Quarter Final, Hull v Newcastle.


No probs at all, here to help. Hopefully, loads more accurate details posted, in both places!

Jon Champion did world feed of Liverpool v Leeds game

Speaking of Feyenoord, Wal - I heard Garry Breen on co-comms for the first time the weekend before last in the game against Zwolle. I'm guessing he's just starting out, as he needs to learn when to stop talking. He was rambling on before one of the goals and continued as Feyenoord went forward and only stopped in his tracks when the ball had actually hit the net.


It has been a Mickey Mouse competition every year except for 1978.

To be fair to Garry we'd been so poor up until that point that Garry probably thought the chances of us creating a decent goal scoring chance were so slim there was hardly any point interrupting himself!

I have to say knowing when to let the pictures speak for themselves was one of the hardest things for me when I switched from radio to telly as there's this overwhelming urge to fill in every gap. And when you've done 12 hours or sometimes more research you naturally want to share this all with the viewer when in reality the majority of it will go unused.

Indeed one of my best ever comms (so I was informed) was of Montenegro-Albania when I got asked to come in about 4 hours before kick-off and still had to take a train between Northamptonshire and Feltham to do the work. With fewer notes and having to rely on knowledge I already had in my mind, I was obliged to talk less and that in its own way was actually better...It's a learning process for sure!

The article suggests Nick Collins won't be at the Southgate first presser... However he is on SSN this afo right now.


To be honest before the big PL spend I was always confused to why SSN needed a seperate reporter. Likes of F1 they have Ted Kravitz and Natalie Pinkham or Rachel Brookes doing interviews in the paddock or pen... Why do they need to have Craig Slater doing the same interview effectively 'solely' for SSN?

Both Abraham & Phil Edwards will proberly get jobs at BT

Toronto v Montreal- Callum Williams and Stewart Robson

EFL Cup - Manchester United Vs West Ham - Sky Sports 1

Simon Thomas is with Phil Neville and Dean Ashton at Old Trafford.

Guy Havord is pitchside.

Andy Hinchcliffe is the co-commentator, earlier shown invision giving the team news and tactical set up of both sides.

I couldn't quite work out who was on the world feed of Hull City Vs Newcastle last night but it did sound like Sam Matterface (note: the sound was a little muffled so I'm not posting this as fact ).

Bill Leslie is alongside Andy Hinchcliffe on commentary again.