Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
FourFourTwo
FourFourTwo
Sport
Matthew Ketchell

‘I started to go home and away when they had a very average team, I missed only six, seven games’ commentator Clive Tyldesley on the football team he ‘shouldn’t have' supported

Clive Tyldesley, the football commentator, poses for a portrait in the garden of his home near Reading on April 29th 2021 in Berkshire.

Ironically, Clive Tyldesley’s most iconic moment behind a mic came whilst commentating on the club he followed as a boy. Next time you hear his often repeated line “and Solskjaer’s won it!” screamed during the final seconds of the 1999 Champions League final, listen with the context that the commentator supported Manchester United as a youngster.

But today he admits to FourFourTwo, “I shouldn’t have done”. Not for reasons of impartiality, but because his next-door neighbour as a boy was the then Bury manager – and they probably really did need the support.

“My dad was a United fan,” recalls Tyldesley. “I think the first game I went to was in 1960. When I was 14 or 15, I started to go on the Stretford End, then I started to go home and away when Manchester United had a very average team, slipping into the Second Division. I think I missed only six, seven games that season. If you’d told me then that I would ever have an affection for any other club, we would have got into a very heated argument".

Video: How Lee Carsley Has ALREADY Fixed England

Tyldesley is adamant that the affiliation with Manchester United has left him. “Who do I support now? I support my friends; the people who have helped me in this business. I want them to succeed. I have no problem commentating on Manchester United.”

More difficult is commentating on a match that features a friend, with England’s embarrassing 2016 European Championships defeat to Iceland identified as a difficult night in his 49-year career.

“Susan and I had gone for meals with Roy [Hodgson] and Sheila, I regarded him as a good friend. When Iceland beat England in 2016, I essentially had to say at the final whistle that Roy Hodgson’s position as manager was untenable. I was calling for him to go in front of 25 million people. But he’d pretty much resigned before I finished the sentence.”

More England stories

Ben White's England stance revealed, following latest omission

Is Lee Carsley
being soft-launched as permanent England boss?

Quiz! Can you
name England's all-time appearance makers since 1990?

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.