Jeff Stelling is stepping away from his duties as the host of Soccer Saturday and the question is who is going to step in and fill his shoes? We take a look at the prices in the Betfred market to see who’ll be fronting the show for the 23/24 season…
It comes as no surprise that Mark Chapman is the favourite for the job. The veteran presenter has all the gravitas and panache that Stelling had and would slip in seamlessly to the top job. Chappers is heavily involved with Match of the Day and works on BBC Radio Five Live. This season in addition to those roles, he joined Sky Sports to front their Carabao Cup coverage, so already has a link with the company. We are odds-on that he gets the gig at 8/11 as of Wednesday lunchtime. If he wants it then he’s sitting in the box seat.
Jules Warren has been Jeff’s understudy for years and is commonly seen on the midweek versions of the show. Sky have long been a company that likes to promote from within, so he must be considered as having a real chance. If he gets overlooked then you’d have to wonder what his next career move is as his obvious promotion has been blocked. We are 7/2.
Laura Woods only left Sky last year when she made the switch to ITV and you can back her at 8/1 to return to Osterley to take up this job. For me it seems unlikely having only recently made the move away to a place where she presents Live Sport and has a good spot for the European Championships next year, where she’ll likely be the number two presenter being Mark Pougatch.
David Jones is the same price but there is little chance he steps away from Sky’s number one Premier League presenter for this job surely?
The third person priced up at 8s is former footballer Alex Scott. The former footballer has been presenting Football Focus since Dan Walker stepped down from the role and would likely earn at least an invitation for a screen test.
If you want to take a punt at a bit of a bigger price then Micah Richards is at 16s with Gabby Logan and Kirsty Gallacher available to back at 50s. That seems a big price but it would be unlikely Logan would want to give up her Six Nations and Olympics gig with the BBC and it seems an awful long time ago that Gallacher was a mainstay on Sky Sports News.
*prices accurate as of Wednesday 3 May, 12:00.
