I am sure by now you will have seen or heard the unbelievable rant from Sky Sports presenter Jeff Stelling, calling for the sacking on live TV, of Dave Jones, manager of his beloved Hartlepool. At the time of his rant, Stelling was President of Hartlepool, but has since resigned in protest over the clubs drop into the bottom two of Division 2, and looking likely to drop out of the Football League. Earlier today, Jones was sacked. What do we think about this ? Is Jeff Stelling right in using live TV as a platform to voice his personal view, or is he a passionate fan who has allowed the emotions of the occasion to get the better of him and therefore it's ok ! Or is he totally out of order ?
He had no right to use his job to promote his views. He can have a rant in his private capacity on any media he wants, but as part of his presenting role. No. I would go as far as to sack him for it.
I don't have access to Sky but am I right that he has done similar things like this before? On topic - blowing up on live TV is very unprofessional put Jones in a terrible position and the club more so.
I would go with this but definitely not ok. Like RDBD said, very unprofessional and will possibly cost him his job.
It's a shame stelling went on a rant. I actually find him quite funny and think he's quite a good presenter. However, in the capacity he was in, he should not have been airing his personal view and gone off the remit of his job.
It's probably harsh for me to really judge as I'm in a period where I'm absolutely loving watching my team play and the only thing we have to really worry about is if we sell Dele Alli for a world record fee (judging by claims in the BBC gossip column today). In general, fans of Premier League sides (with the exceptions of perhaps the bottom five who are worried about relegation) are extremely fortunate, many of us moan at things such as not winning trophies, not finishing in European places, not comfortably beating a weaker side, not signing that £30m player we all wanted etc yet fans of clubs lower down the tiers are the ones who have genuine reasons to be worried and unhappy. Orient fans are facing the prospect of their club ceasing to exist, they also just suffered relegation from Football League over the weekend. THAT's a reason to moan at, just as Stelling somewhat rightfully did as his club is facing the similar prospect of being relegated to the conference. It's unprofessional of him but I also don't blame him for having a go, he's a passionate fan, I reckon if everyone of us were in his position we'd have done the exact same if it were Spurs in that situation.
Stelling blatantly abusing his position on this one - but what else are we to expect from the Murdoch Empire?
He's made Soccer Saturday become too much of The Jeff Stelling Show - and part of that involves him going on about Hartlepool increasingly often. This seems to be part of it. He is a presenter first. I don't mind him showing his interest in Hartlepool occasionally - or acting like a fan when there's a score involving his team - but using his role as a platform for expressing his very forthright views about the management of the club in this way is a step too far.
It's very unprofessional, particularly as he has influence and a role at the club so if he wants to flex that he should do it in private conversation, not on TV. It's just general decency not to call for another person to lose their job over something like this too. Stelling wouldn't have done it for anyother manager, he lost control there and I hope he's reigned in. Soccer Saturday has been going downhill for a while, Thomo and Nicholas are rubbish while Stelling is heading the sameway as Kammy with his ego. I disagree with pretty much every word out of Merson's mouth but he's still decent and Le Tiss is a class above the lot. It was the same with Match of the Day when Lawro and Hansen were starting to wear thin, get some fresh faces in there and get rid of the deadwood.(edit: see, I'm allowed to say this cos I'm not on ****ing TV )
The annoying thing about Stelling is that he is a superb presenter. Six hours of talking about football and reporting scores without any action being shown really shouldn't work. But his his wit,charm and enthusiasm combined with an anorak knowledge of the game and/or excellent research and briefing make it a great show to watch. However, allowing his ego to take over and reducing the show to what he wants to talk about detract from that massively. He is as enthusiastic about League Two or Scottish League Two as he is about the PL - that is great until it becomes self indulgent. Accrington, Stranraer and Barnet fans want the same attention as Hartlepool. He used to deliver. Now he doesn't.
Hopefully the reaction that he's had to this will be a kick up the arse. Sky need to consider a long-term replacement for him anyway, because of his age. Might be time to introduce some candidates.
