Voices of Sport: Clive Tyldesley - The football commentator famous for his telling one liners

In our weekly series, Yahoo Sport’s Nick Metcalfe features a famous voice of sport. On another big Premier League weekend, ITV football commentator Clive Tyldesley is the latest to go under the spotlight.

Like so many broadcasters featured in this series, Clive Tydlesley has been a mainstay in our living rooms for a couple of generations.

There are very good reasons for that longevity. Tyldesley is one of the most authoritative and evocative football commentators we’ve known. He’s a great one for rising to the big occasion, and some of his lines have come to almost symbolise special moments, never more so than on a unforgettable night in Barcelona. More of that later.

Tyldesley always wanted to be a sports commentator, and shortly after doing a degree at Nottingham University, he joined Radio Trent in 1975. He became a regular reporter on Nottingham Forest, at a time when that memorable maverick Brian Clough was manager.

After two years with Trent, Tydlesey switched to Liverpool’s Radio City. He spent 12 happy years at the station, which coincided with the most successful footballing period ever for the city.

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Liverpool were dominant at home and abroad, winning constant league titles and European Cups under Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Kenny Dalglish. Their near neighbours Everton also enjoyed some special success with Howard Kendall in charge, including two league titles.

Tyldesely described some magical moments during that period. But he was also present at the scene at one of the game’s saddest events, the Heysel disaster in 1985, where 39 fans died when a wall collapsed following crowd trouble at the European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus.

Tyldesley succeeded Elton Welsby as sports editor. It wasn’t long before Welsby became a household name, hosting ITV’s live Division One coverage. As for Tyldesley, he regular provided reports for ITV’s World of Sport while at Radio City and began to work on “Sportsweek”, a late night Granada programme that also featured Welsby and future Sky presenter Rob McCaffrey.

Although his formative years were in radio. Tyldesley was getting a taste of TV, where he would go on to spend the vast majority of his working life. He joined Granada full-time in 1989. His first TV commentary was a memorable one, with Manchester City beating neighbours United 5-1 at Maine Road. United boss Alex Ferguson, under real pressure at the time, famously went straight home to bed after the humbling defeat.

Tyldesley also worked on rugby league and cricket. He was becoming an even more familiar voice for people across the north-west and beyond. He was one of ITV’s commentators for the 1992 European Championship in Sweden. Indeed, Tyldesley was making such a name for himself that the BBC came calling and he joined the corporation in 1992.

The Premier League had been formed, and although Sky had all the live matches, the BBC had won the rights to show highlights on Match of the Day, and wanted to expand their commentary roster.

The BBC had some legendary commentators at the time, with their top two John Motson and Barry Davies, both of whom I profiled in this series last year. Although Tyldesley was a regular on Match of the Day and Sportsnight, and worked at both the 1994 World Cup in America and 1996 European Championship in England, his chances of covering live games were limited. Indeed, he only had four in four years.

Shortly after covering the basketball at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Tyldesley went back to ITV. Brian Moore, the subject of our first Voices of Sport feature last May, was very much ITV’s No.1 but was coming to the end of his long run. In fact, Moore retired after commentating on the 1998 World Cup final between France and Brazil in Paris.

Tyldesley had landed himself his biggest ever job, one he’s had ever since. And at the end of his first full season as ITV’s premier football commentator, he produced what must be considered his finest hour.

Manchester United were having an incredible season under Alex Ferguson and had already won the league title and FA Cup when they travelled to Barcelona for a European Cup final clash with Bayern Munich. It was a night for the ages at the Nou Camp and Tyldesley accompanied the remarkable drama with some carefully chosen words..

Bayern went 1-0 ahead early on through Mario Basler and were still leading when the match entered stoppage time. Nearly every word spoken by Tyldesley in those final three minutes remain memorable to United fans as the Reds first equalised through Teddy Sheringham, and then scored an astonishing winner seconds later through Ole Solskjaer. Cue Clive…

“Can Manchester United score? They always score… Sheringham! Name on the trophy… oh Teddy Teddy. Extraordinary climax at the Nou Camp stadium… You have to feel this is their year.

“Is this their moment? Beckham, into Sheringham, and Solskjaer has won it! Manchester United have reached the promised land. Ole Solskjaer. The two substitutes have scored the two goals in stoppage time and the treble looms large… what must Lothar Matthaus be thinking, well, with the greatest respect, who cares?

History is made. Manchester United are the champions of Europe again, and nobody will ever win a European Cup final more dramatically than this. Champions of Europe, champions of England, winners of the FA Cup, everything their hearts desired. Down and out, not a bit of it, they are never out. Memories are made of this for ever and a day, United fans will ask where did you watch the 1999 European Cup final, where did you see Ole Solskjaer win it with virtually the last kick of the final. And 50,000 or so will be able to say I was there. What a party.

It was the night of a lifetime for United supporters, and because of those words Tyldesley became part of the story (it should be noted that the Matthaus line could well have been borrowed from a previously mentioned commentator and a certain Olympic hockey final, but let’s not be nitpickers).

In truth, Tyldesley could nearly always be relied upon to produce a memorable line. I don’t even have to look them up, they’re in my head too. “It’s him again, it’s them again,” he said when Zinedine Zidane scored the goals that saw France beat Portugal to reach the Euro 2000 final. When Papa Boupa Diop scored for Senegal against France in the opening game of the 2002 World Cup finals, he came up with the simple but pitch perfect: “This wasn’t supposed to happen”.

ITV did win Premier League rights back for three seasons, from 2001 to 2004, but otherwise it’s continued to be the Champions League and big international tournaments that provide the bread and butter of Tyldesley’s work on the channel.

English clubs in European Cup finals have continued to provide great theatre. Liverpool produced a remarkable recovery to come back from 3-0 down to beat AC Milan on penalties in the 2005 final in Istanbul.

A titanic 2008 final between Chelsea and Manchester United in Moscow also went to a shoot-out, won by Ferguson’s men. And in 2012, Chelsea found redemption when they beat Bayern Munich on penalties in their own backyard. Huge nights, with enormous TV audiences, and Tyldesley was there for them all.

He has also commentated on the last four World Cup finals, including the 2014 showpiece at Rio’s Maracana, where Germany beat Argentina. There have been plenty of European Championships too, where Tyldesley has been ITV’s main man for the last five. Naturally, England disappointments have never been far away. When Roy Hodgson’s team crashed out to Iceland at Euro 2016, Tyldesley didn’t hold back.

“It’s another wretched night for England at a major tournament. It’s difficult to think of anything quite as humbling as this defeat, certainly in living memory. This is the most abject failure that I can recall.”

Given the size of the events he’s covered, it’s probably fair to consider him as Britain’s premier football commentator. But as far as live football with ITV is concerned, he is currently restricted to England games, with BT taking the live Champions League rights.

There’s no reason to think Tyldesley won’t have many more big tournaments and finals to come. He is only 62 after all. Quite a career he’s had. A real presence in our living rooms for decades. And still one of the very best.