Jeff Stelling threatened to ‘walk off’ Soccer Saturday this weekend after his croaky voice sparked concerns from viewers watching at home.
To many football fans, Saturday afternoons just wouldn’t be the same without Jeff fronting the Sky show, as the TV legend is joined by pundits like Paul Merson and former Tottenham star Michael Dawson in the studio, to see live scores from across the country and down the leagues comes in.
There wasn’t too much Premier League action for Jeff and his colleagues to oversee on Saturday, with Fulham v Bournemouth and Wolves v Nottingham Forest the only 3pm kick offs in the top tier. But with a full complement of EFL matches, Scottish league fixtures and early FA Cup games, there was still plenty to get stuck into.
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Jeff, who announced his intentions to quit his long held role last year, before reconsidering, immediately promoted a flurry of comments from fans online, due to his strained voice as he kept on top of the scores coming in.
And by the time second halves across the country had got going, his throat started to sound even worse, so much so, that when Soccer Saturday returned from brief ad break, the anchor declared he’d decided to ‘go home early’ and leave Paul Merson, sitting next to him, to read the scores out.
However, it took former Arsenal midfielder to incorrectly pronounce a scorer for Celtic for Jeff to swiftly retract his decision as he announced that he better stay put.
Jeff’s near walk off came after loads of tweets calling on Sky bosses to let him go home and rest up. One viewer posted: “ SkySports @JeffStelling someone send Jeff home… let him rest up… throat is gonna hurt tomorrow,” with a second commenting: “ @JeffStelling you sound desperate. What a trooper working when you are full of cold…You need to get home and have a hot bath.”
Another footy fan tweeted a box of Strepsils, while, praising Jeff for staying put, another wrote: @JeffStelling is a legend.
No other person can pull Saturday Afternoons together like him.A naturally gifted talent with wit and compassion . Jeff you are football and Saturdays“
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