Danny Murphy picks ‘apparent’ candidate to grow to be the brand new host of Match of the Day after Gary Lineker leaves on the finish of the season
- Gary Lineker will be leaving Match of the Day at the end of the current campaign
- He has presented the BBC’s flagship football highlights programme for 25 years
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Danny Murphy has revealed who he thinks is the ‘obvious’ choice to inherit the Match of the Day reins from Gary Lineker at the end of the season.
Lineker will depart the BBC Premier League match highlights programme at the end of the current campaign after 25 years heading up the broadcaster’s flagship football show since 1999.
Given the landmark news, there has naturally been plenty of attention and intrigue surrounding who might be the next host as a result of the status it holds in British society.
Match of the Day pundit Murphy, however, believes he knows who is the outstanding candidate to takeover from stalwart Lineker, who will continue to host BBC coverage of the World Cup in 2026.
‘The obvious candidate to replace Gary Lineker on Match of the Day for me is Mark Chapman,” Murphy said to BetBrain.
‘He’s worked on Match of the Day 2 for a long time and he’s brilliant at his job.
Danny Murphy has picked his ideal cadidate to take over as lead presenter on Match of the Day
Gary Lineker will leave Match of the Day at the end of the season after 25 years of hosting it
Mark Chapman is the favourite to succeed Lineker on MOTD – but did have an ‘awkward’ moment with David Moyes
‘Working with Gary has been an absolute pleasure and he’s outstanding at what he does. Working with Chappers is also a huge pleasure – he’s so calm and comfortable in the seat and he’s incredibly knowledgeable about football.
‘Presenting is a job that is more difficult than people think – my attempt at reading autocues and presenting the shows off-camera have been horrendous!
‘With that in mind, I really admire anyone who has the ability and the confidence to sit in that seat, and I think Chapman is the standout candidate. He’s a wonderful presenter and very popular.’
Chapman was caught in an awkward on-air moment with David Moyes when he appeared to suggest that the Europa Conference League is a somewhat easy ride for Chelsea – promoting Moyes to cry out: ‘What’s wrong with the Conference League?’
Moyes won the competition with West Ham in 2023 and his interjection had Chapman and Alan Shearer in stitches.
Chapman playfully slapped Moyes on the leg in apology and admitted ‘that was a bit awkward!’, although there appeared to be no bad blood between them.
Chapman, who has frequently appeared on Match of the Day 2 on a Sunday evening is considered to be the bookies’ favourite to inherit the role, with Sky Bet pricing him at 5/4.
He is closely followed by Kelly Cates, Reshmin Chowdhury, Alex Scott and Gabby Logan.
