Transfer of the season: How new Soccer Saturday host Simon Thomas scored one of the biggest TV gigs in football

He’s a devout Christian widower who cut his teeth presenting ‘Blue Peter’ – now Simon Thomas is stepping into the shoes of Jeff Stelling, as he takes over Sky’s ‘Soccer Saturday’. Martin Chilton explores why the football TV institution is in safe hands

Simon Thomas said it was an ‘honour’ to replace ‘legend’ Jeff Stelling (Sky)

Alex Ferguson. Magnus Magnusson. Logan Roy. Succession comes with daunting expectations when there is an extraordinarily hard act to follow. Filling the Gillette Soccer Saturday hot seat occupied by Jolly Jeff Stelling for 25 years is about as tough as it gets when it comes to presenting live sport. He became synonymous with a whole style of hosting live sports television and the show even generated popular catchphrases such as “Unbelievable, Jeff,” and “I don’t know what happened, Jeff.”

So, kudos to Sky Sports for appointing Simon Thomas as the anchor of their strangely compulsive football results and chitchat show. By emphasising what “an honour” it was to replace the “legend” Stelling, Thomas made all the right noises before last weekend’s Championship dress rehearsal for the opening Premier League drama this weekend.

Thomas is a good appointment. He’s modest, knowledgeable and has battled his way through some horrendous things in life, challenges far more exacting than trying to draw some decent conversation out of a tedious old football lag.