Mastermind of football

Know-it-all broadcaster Jeff Stelling says he suffers memory lapses. Really? He also discusses the sacking of Rodney Marsh, the death of George Best, why he hates the transfer window and why he’d love to add Roy Keane to his Soccer Saturday team, writes Liam Mackey.

HE IS the oracle, the font of all knowledge, the Human Google. As the presenter of Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday programme, he is expected to keep on tops of scores, scorers and sendings-off in dozens of games the length and breadth of Britain, fleshing out the breaking news with rapid fire references to previous results, player biographies, impact on standings and one hundred and one other statistics.

At the same time, he has to orchestrate the contributions of a sometimes uproarious cast of grizzled ex-pros, while keeping one eye on the screen, one eye on the vidi-printer and both ears alert to the babble of voices from his production team. And as full time approaches, he has to do it all at top speed, facts piling upon facts at a rate which would surely cause information overload in your average computer, before the final whistle signals the end of another Saturday afternoon of football and, with it, a marathon six hours of live television.