Charlie Nicholas still hopes Soccer Saturday crew can reunite six years after Sky axe

Charlie Nicholas says he remains hopeful that the former Soccer Saturday panel could reunite in some form, five years after Sky Sports overhauled the show in 2020 and moved on its long-serving cast.

Nicholas, who spent years alongside host Jeff Stelling and fellow pundits Phil Thompson, Chris Kamara, Paul Merson and Matt Le Tissier on the popular Saturday afternoon programme, admitted he was unhappy with how his time on the show ended. But he says it is the friendships, rather than the format itself, that he misses most.

“What I do is miss doing shows with the guys,” Nicholas said. “We still keep in touch. We’re still hopeful that we would do maybe a wee podcast here and there, but we don’t know.”

Nicholas also singled out Roy Keane as a pundit he believes would have thrived in the Soccer Saturday environment, describing the former Manchester United captain as “unpredictable” and well-suited to the studio’s dynamic. He recalled that guests who appeared on the show invariably enjoyed the experience. “Everybody we invited in always had a great time,” he said. “We always looked after them. But it was like a proper team.”

On Keane specifically, Nicholas acknowledged the pundit’s occasionally combative style but defended his willingness to admit mistakes. “He has to put his hand up a couple of weeks later after he said something about Bruno Fernandes. But he’s man enough to say he got it wrong.”

Nicholas also offered a self-deprecating insight into the panel’s record as football tipsters. The group ran a shared accumulator bet — with Merson excluded from participating — that failed to come in for three and a half years straight. “That’s how good punters we were,” he said.

Nicholas still regularly meets fans of the show through live appearances, supporter events and talks, and says the affection for that era of Soccer Saturday remains strong. “We had so many people come up to us and say: ‘This was the best show ever,’” he added.