Someone will follow Martin Tyler but no one can replace him!
JOE BERNSTEIN: Martin Tyler was Sky’s voice of the Premier League for 30 years and his deep love of football shone through… someone will follow, but no one can replace him
- Martin Tyler’s departure from Sky Sports was confirmed on Saturday morning
- He has been the lead commentator on the Premier League for over 30 years
- He brought the Premier League its authenticity, and will be irreplaceable
TV commentator Martin Tyler, whose departure from Sky Sports was announced on Saturday, has been a continuous thread in English football since its biggest revolution in 1992.
Already in his mid-forties, Tyler knew football existed before the Premier League but, like Sir Alex Ferguson, embraced progress and new ways without sacrificing his values, either as a broadcaster or lover of the game.
‘Someone will follow Martin but nobody can replace him. He is the best ever by some distance,’ said former Sky presenter Richard Keys warmly about his colleague. ‘He started out wanting to be mentioned in the same breath as Brian Moore, David Coleman, John Motson. He turned out better, better, better.
‘He did live matches week in, week out for more than 30 years when there was no place for errors.’
Tyler, now 77, will be best remembered for his immortal yell of ‘Aguerooooo..’ after the striker’s injury-time winner against QPR earned Manchester City their first Premier League title in 2012.
Martin Tyler is leaving Sky Sports after commentating on the Premier League for over 30 years
He will be most fondly remembered for commentating on Sergio Aguero’s title-winning goal for Man City against QPR in 2012
Tyler’s emphasis on ‘Aguerooooo’ has become legendary, as he then told fans to ‘drink it in’ with Aguero wheeling away to celebrate the dramatic late goal with his team-mates
It was followed by a rather long pause that he later explained had more to do with the noise in the stadium than for emphasis.
‘If I’d said anything after the oooos, no-one would have heard it,’ he admitted.
‘The reaction ever since has been humbling. It was Sergio’s moment, I just hung on to it by its coat-tails.
‘As one ex-manager said to me, ‘At least you didn’t mess it up!’ All commentators are terrified of getting it wrong on the big moment, and it was OK.’
Tyler rarely, if ever, messed it up. He had served a long apprenticeship with ITV and BSkyB before becoming ‘The Voice of the Premier League’, building great partnerships with co-commentators Andy Gray, Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher.
Sky invested millions in their glitzy Super Sunday offering and Tyler nailed it from week one — Nottingham Forest v Liverpool and an historic first strike from Teddy Sheringham.
‘Sheringham goes for goal…Ohhh, the first Premier League goal for Nottingham Forest.. and it’s a peach,’ is how he called it.
Sky were accused of bringing in an obscene amount of money into football, making it sometimes feel like a business rather than sport.
Tyler has always had a warm rapport with his colleagues, including Gary Neville (left)
Yet Tyler, a lifelong Woking fan and former player with amateur club Corinthian Casuals, stayed in place throughout as a reassuring presence to those rooted in the game.
‘He eats, sleeps, lives, breathes and dreams football,’ added Keys. When we travelled to matches he’d spend his time attending to notes or updating records. A social outing for him would be going to watch Woking play.
His on-air partnership with Andy Gray will never be bettered. Martin would take a more dignified line towards law-makers if Andy as a former player wanted to have a go at the ref!
My favourite commentary line was Tony Adams’ goal for Arsenal against Everton. Tony had been encouraged to play football by Arsene Wenger and when the ball hit the net and Adams raised his arms aloft, Martin’s phrase ‘That sums it all up’ captured the moment perfectly.’
Tyler always tried to keep moving with the times. He tried to computerise the thick volume of notes he kept and when laptops became the norm, he made sure his children taught him how to use one.
He even came up with his own catchphrase: ‘And it’s live!’ But old-fashioned habits also remained. He would hang around the tunnel area to bump into managers to find out what was happening.
‘The world has moved on but the job is still the same. Give information at the relevant times,’ he explained. ‘And it’s not just a job for me. It is a pleasure to interact with football people. Football is a force for good in a world where there are so many differences.’
His first co-commentator, Jack Charlton at the 1982 World Cup, provided great insight and some unwitting lighter moments when he referred to the Spanish goalkeeper Luis Arconada as Anaconda.
His partnership with Gray in the early Sky years became legendary. ‘Instead of waiting to dissect the goal, Andy would often shout out ‘You Beauty’ as soon as the goal went in — and it worked. It is one of my great strengths, shutting up!’ he recalls.
Tyler’s on-air partnership with Andy Gray for the first 19 years of the Premier League became legendary, with the two feeding off one another seamlessly
‘At Sky, we had to bring the public with us. It had to make economic sense. At the start, travelling to games on the train, we used to look out the window and count the number of satellite dishes on houses.
‘At ITV we had camera crew who might have been working on Coronation Street all week. One of them asked me to point out who Kenny Dalglish was! But at Sky it was different, we were all fully engaged. It was a team effort.’
Now that Sky team effort won’t include Tyler though, he will still be in stadiums next season working for Premier League Productions as part of their world feed.
One of his PLP co-commentators is former Liverpool and Republic of Ireland star Jim Beglin, who acknowledges: ‘When I first came into broadcasting, Martin was the king and I still look up to him.
‘He has a lovely, natural way of delivering what he wants and getting the information across. ‘He is a protector of the game. He loves football and is clued up on everything. He will always want to make sure the game is not harmed.’
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