Former Soccer AM host John ‘Fenners’ Fendley has revealed that he applied to replace Jeff Stelling on Gillette Soccer Saturday – despite believing a cheeky sketch would jeopardise his chances.
Sky Sports underwent a significant reshuffle last summer, with veteran broadcasters such as Stelling, Martin Tyler and Chris Kamara all leaving their posts. Soccer AM, one of Sky’s most beloved long-standing football programmes, was also axed, leaving Fenners, Jimmy Bullard and Peter ‘Tubes’ Dale jobless.
The sudden cancellation came as a shock to the cast, including Fenners and Tubes, who had been with Sky for over 20 years. Speaking on Tubes and Ange Golf Life, Fenners confessed he was “in a dark place” after being let go.
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“I didn’t [look back at Soccer AM with fond memories] at first, it was quite hard I’ll be honest,” the 56 year old admitted. “I was in a dark place for a bit. I felt a bit humiliated that it ended like it did.”
Following Fenners’ departure, Stelling – who had hosted Sky Sports’ flagship football results show Soccer Saturday since 1994 – also left. The Hartlepool-loving 69-year-old exited as a national treasure, making filling his shoes a daunting task. But Fenners wasn’t deterred, reports the Mirror.
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“I went for Jeff’s job,” he revealed. “I got an interview for it because I was so desperate to show them that I wanted to stay. I knew I was never going to get it, let’s have it right.”
But what didn’t help his case was that in 2019, Soccer AM had taken the mickey out of the Soccer Saturday squad with a sketch dubbed ‘Shocker Saturday’, where a wig-wearing Fenners cheekily impersonated Stelling. Despite the laughs, Fenners sensed this gag might just come back to haunt him.
Doing his best Stelling impression, he quipped: “And there’s been a goal! A late late goal,” and Tubes chimed in: “You can do the voice!” Fenners then confessed: “I think wearing the wig [in that sketch] might have [made getting the Soccer Saturday job] a bridge too far.”
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Fenners, who cut his teeth as a producer on Soccer AM from 1997 to 2007 before stepping up as a presenter with Bullard in 2015, realised a few months before the show got the chop that his long stint at Sky wasn’t a golden ticket to job security.
He said: “Towards the end, I went to my bosses and asked them, ‘Are you happy for me to go? ‘ Bearing in mind I’ve been here all this time, and I can add value to Sky. That’s how I felt… but they didn’t show me that there was anything there.”
Fenners reflected on his Soccer Saturday interview, revealing: “I knew when I went into that interview it was a liberating experience for me. I laid all my cards on the table, exposing myself saying I’m going to do everything I can to stay. Ultimately it didn’t work out and it was really hard.”