Ironically, Clive Tyldesley’s most iconic moment behind a mic came whilst commentating on the club he followed as a boy. Next time you hear his often repeated line “and Solskjaer’s won it!” screamed during the final seconds of the 1999 Champions League final, listen with the context that the commentator supported Manchester United as a youngster.
But today he admits to FourFourTwo, “I shouldn’t have done”. Not for reasons of impartiality, but because his next-door neighbour as a boy was the then Bury manager – and they probably really did need the support.
“My dad was a United fan,” recalls Tyldesley. “I think the first game I went to was in 1960. When I was 14 or 15, I started to go on the Stretford End, then I started to go home and away when Manchester United had a very average team, slipping into the Second Division. I think I missed only six, seven games that season. If you’d told me then that I would ever have an affection for any other club, we would have got into a very heated argument".
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Tyldesley is adamant that the affiliation with Manchester United has left him. “Who do I support now? I support my friends; the people who have helped me in this business. I want them to succeed. I have no problem commentating on Manchester United.”
More difficult is commentating on a match that features a friend, with England’s embarrassing 2016 European Championships defeat to Iceland identified as a difficult night in his 49-year career.
“Susan and I had gone for meals with Roy [Hodgson] and Sheila, I regarded him as a good friend. When Iceland beat England in 2016, I essentially had to say at the final whistle that Roy Hodgson’s position as manager was untenable. I was calling for him to go in front of 25 million people. But he’d pretty much resigned before I finished the sentence.”
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