Thanks for the memories, Clive – football commentary will never be the same again

Clive Tyldesley's time at ITV is over - PA

Clive Tyldesley’s ITV departure marks not just the end of his own long association with the channel – he had been there since 1996 – but the end of an era. Since the retirement of Martin Tyler, Clive had been the last of the big beasts from the late 20th century of television football commentary, the link to a time of tens of millions gathering round the TV to listen to matches soundtracked by Motson, Davies, or Moore, simply consuming the coverage rather than tweeting, podcasting or otherwise barking about it.

Football commentary will not see another Clive. The routine excellence of Darren Fletcher and Peter Drury is hidden behind the paywalls of TNT and Sky Sports. The BBC’s Guy Mowbray is unobtrusively very good as well but seems too self-effacing a character both on mic and in his public persona ever to become a television personality as Clive has been. The man who replaced him as ITV’s main commentator, Sam Matterface, is unlikely to inspire eulogies if he gets the push. You fear that many viewers would drive him themselves to the airport, or Three Counties Radio.

Saturday’s was an excellent sign-off, full of little Clive signature touches including a semi-obscure pop reference to the song Rip It Up And Start Again by Orange Juice (1982), and an amusingly dry remark about how “reassuring” it was to be surrounded by electrical equipment during a thunderstorm. He did not make a song and dance about his own ending, although Mark Pougatch rightly paid tribute.

Clive Tyldesley's deep experience of football media stretches back to the early 1980s – pictured here with Liverpool goalkeeper Ray Clemence - Popperfoto/Harry Ormesher

No doubt Clive will pop up on commentary for the US or worldwide, should he wish to do that, but he has left his fans very clear that his ending was ITV’s decision, not his. Some might choose to see this as part of a “no country for old white men” narrative but, then again, perhaps it is not totally unreasonable for a TV channel striving for its place in an atomised and fast-moving media landscape to look to the future beyond a guy who is 69. Certainly, Clive had already fired off a volley or three when he got bumped for the man whose face matters back in 2020 and has done so again here. I think it is fair to say that, like many in his line of work, he has the sizeable ego that you need to talk live to millions of people and he has not been shy about taking up the cudgels in defence of his brand. Maybe ITV wanted him to play the good soldier. But why should he not have the hump? He is still as effective as anyone, and people really enjoy him.

That said, I am old enough to remember when Clive was derided by the young as a sort of Partridge-Motty hybrid, all rather cringe, and the fashionable view in the early internet times was that he was something of a prog rocker in a new world of punk, never missing an opportunity to shoehorn a self-referential link to “that night in Barcelona” and generally suck up to Fergie and Manchester United. But there is no question that if you can stay in the game for long enough, public opinion may come back around and you can rediscover your cool, or at least, be held in affection anew: the Paul McCartney arc. He has also benefited from a certain scarcity. If ITV still had the Champions League, Clive would probably be widely mocked.

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One never especially thinks of Barry Davies, or John Motson, or Brian Moore as being part of a duo, but Clive has been a generous and genial contributor to not one but three superb microphone double acts. Ron Atkinson, Andy Townsend and Ally McCoist all worked very well with Clive, creating the priceless feeling of being involved in a chat with some funny, knowledgeable pals. Perhaps it was out of respect for the old ways that McCoist, on Saturday, began down the path of a VAR outrage with a “not for me…” but withdrew just in time, saying “mate” and leaving Townsend’s “not for me, Clive” sacrosanct.

Hopefully we will get to savour Clive’s work in one format or another for many years. He prepares assiduously, he has always avoided the trap of “things ain’t what they used to be”, he can bring the best out of the people he works with, he knows his stuff, chooses his words wisely and wears his erudition lightly. He gives the impression of loving what he does, and we have loved it, too.

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