Martin Tyler has become one of the most legendary voices in modern football commentary, narrating some of the biggest moments in the club game.
So the news on Saturday that he was being axed from Sky Sports for cost-cutting reasons hit home just how important the 77-year-old has been to football. This season was the first in 20 years he had missed a Premier League trophy lift, bowing out of the Manchester City coverage with a sore throat.
Since joining Sky in 1990, his work has been exemplary, remembered by fans and fellow media professionals. He was named Premier League Commentator of The Decade in April 2003 – and he’s added two more decades to his record since.
His importance to football saw him become the default commentator for the FIFA video games from 2005 to 2020, and as a guest role in the 2005 film ‘Goal’.
Mail Sport looks back on ten of the best moments in Tyler’s glistening commentary career:
Legendary television commentator Martin Tyler has had many memorable lines over the years
10 – Tony Yeboah’s thunderbolt at Wimbledon 1995
Leeds United hero Tony Yeboah was known for his great ability to craft beautiful goals, and his thunderbolt against Wimbledon in 1995 is one that is fondly remembered two and a half decades later.
The visitors won 4-2, with Yeboah netting a hat-trick, but it was his second which brought out the best in Tyler. The Ghanaian controlled a clearance with his chest and his thigh before launching a fierce volley into the net off the crossbar.
Silent in the moments up to it, Tyler pipes up ‘Yeboah. On he goes. Oh.
‘Even by his standards, breathtakingly brilliant.’
It is some contrast to Wimbledon goalkeeper Paul Heald on screen, reflecting how that had happened.
Anthony Martial was welcomed to Manchester United by Tyler’s spot-on commentary
9 – Welcome to Man United, Anthony Martial 2015
This one left Liverpool fans fuming, but Tyler had his share of big moments for the Reds too, as we’ll see. In 2015 though, he was on hand to narrate Anthony Martial’s first goal for Manchester United, after a £36m move that made him the most expensive teenager at that point. The Red Devils were 2-1 up at the time.
As the ball falls to Martial’s feet, Tyler notes he is ‘isolated’, but as the player weaves his way past Martin Skrtel and is able to slot it home. It comes with an ‘Oh yes’ – less a reflection of bias, more just an instant reaction to a great finish from a less than promising opening.
‘Welcome to Manchester United, Anthony Martial.’ It’s punctuated in a way that feels alive. ‘He’s put the game to bed.’
After a period of descriptive colour commentary, Tyler is back on hand to add some important points. ‘Forget the second Thierry Henry, this is the first Anthony Martial. Brilliant. Worth every penny.’
A perfect way to celebrate the arrival of a player who has played 298 games for Manchester United and scored 88 goals.
Paolo Di Canio’s ‘sensational’ volley has been called one of the league’s best ever goals
8 – Paolo Di Canio’s sensational volley 2000
Being Sky Sports’ go-to man, he covered some cracking goals, and Paolo Di Canio’s volley for West Ham against Wimbledon is rightly heralded among the very best.
The Dons are not able to clear their lines, and Sinclair has the ability to cross. It’s a deep ball that goes over everyone’s heads, but finds the Italian perfectly, and he is able to strike it crisply into the goal. It was called the Premiership’s goal of the decade by Sky Sports fans in 2009 for a reason.
Tyler spoke: ‘Sinclair’s cross. Overcoming… and Di Canio. Oh. You won’t believe that. That is sensational. Even by his standards.’
After Andy Gray’s colour commentary, including the iconic ‘take a bow son’, Tyler adds ‘a moment of striking perfection from Paolo Di Canio’ as the players make their way back to restart the game.
Tyler’s interactoion with colour comms was as important as his own work narrating the game
7 – Aaron Lennon’s dramatic derby equaliser 2008
Arsenal are ‘trying to run down the clock’, Tyler says, as they lead their North London rivals 4-3 with time quickly evaporating. Tottenham, of course, are not going to let them rest.
Tyler picks up the story from here. ‘Modric. Heck of a hit. Deflection. Hit the post. Lennon. 4-4! Unbelievable.’
There’s something very understandable in the short points, quickly reacting to each moment of the story as it happens, and being able to have the right things to sum up what is happening in a very dramatic moment at the end of a pivotal game for both sides.
The commentator used his trick of lengthening names at points when Sylvain Wiltord scored
6 – Wiltoooord seals the Premiership title 2002
Arsenal in the heart of their Invincibles season – including stars like Sylvain Wiltord and Freddie Ljungberg – can win the title by claiming a point at Old Trafford.
Ten minutes into the second half, it’s still goalless. Then Manchester United lose the ball in the middle of the park, and Wiltord’s in space to play it through to Ljungberg. Then Tyler picks it up. ‘It’s Freddie Ljungberg again, pushed out by Barthez, Wiltoooooooord’.
The moment is such a stunner that it feels like Tyler looses the d at the end of the striker’s name. The lengthening of names was a staple of Tyler’s vocal work – as seen ten years later with his most iconic line.
He adds: ‘Arsenal have scored yet again in the Premiership, and this could be the most crucial goal of all.’
Following Andy Gray’s colour commentary, Tyler returned. ‘The simple fact is, Manchester United have to score twice to stop Arsenal winning the title tonight.’ The Gunners held on – and won the title in front of one of their closest challengers.
Jamie Vardy’s eleven-game streak of scoring in the Premier League was superbly narrated
5 – Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy breaks the record 2015
When Ruud van Nistelrooy scored in ten consecutive Premier League games in 2003, there was never any suggestion that the record might be broken soon – and certainly not by a Leicester City player.
Jamie Vardy is a different beast though, and his ability to find the net at the beginning of the 2015-16 season was exemplary. Tyler was on hand to see him beat the record on November 28 2015 against Manchester United – and had just the right line for the moment.
As the ball falls to the Leicester man in the box, Tyler calls out: ‘Vardy! It’s eleven. It’s heaven for Jamie Vardy. Hold the back page. Hold the front page. A Leicester player has smashed the record.’
While Man United equalised before half-time, the point was a valiant one on Leicester’s way to the Premier League title the following spring.
Tyler led commentary for the big moments for clubs like Arsenal, Liverpool and Leicester City
4 – Steven Gerrard against Olympiacos 2004
A number of Liverpool moments have been soundtracked by Tyler’s words. There could have been any number of picks here – Jamie Carragher was a fan of Divock Origi’s Merseyside derby winner from December 2018, while there was the time John Arne Riise hit an absolute worldie against Manchester United and Tyler said ‘it’s a wonder the goal is still standing’.
But he also was on hand for Liverpool’s game against Olympiacos in the Champions League – which the Reds had to win by two clear goals to go above their Greek opponents and progress, after the visitors had scored at Anfield.
With four minutes to go, and only 2-1 up, it looked dire. The ball was a ‘lovely cushioned header… for Gerrard’. The sheer emotion of the moment was something to behold – as Gray yells ‘what a hit’.
Tyler adds: ‘Well you’d take a tap-in in these circumstances. What you have seen is a Champions League strike as good as anything the competition has produced, in this and many a season’.
‘With one swing of his gifted right foot, Steven Gerrard says Champions League knockout stage, here we come.’ What a way to mark it – and it set Liverpool on their way to the 2005 final, which they won.
Tyler was on hand for two pivotal Steven Gerrard moments including the 2006 FA Cup final
3 – Steven Gerrard’s belter in FA Cup final 2006
Gerrard knew how to get Liverpool out of trouble – and when they were 3-2 down in stoppage time of the FA Cup final in 2006, it was one of those peak moments.
Tyler said, over the top of a tannoy announcement for the length of added time: ‘So Liverpool have got possession. Four added minutes. And Gerrard… Oh… Oh… Stunning.
‘You need someone to stand up and be counted to pull an absolute rabbit from a hat. Steven Gerrard has done just that.’
With the captain pointing to the ‘Gerrard’ on the back of his shirt, Tyler added: ‘We know the name, son.’
It was another huge turning point for Liverpool in a cup competition, as they went on to beat West Ham on penalties in Cardiff to lift the famous trophy.
Stan Collymore’s late winner was probably Tyler’s most iconic line up until the chaos of 2012
2 – ‘Collymore closing in’ 1996
The back-and-forth between Liverpool and Newcastle in April 1996 would have been magical without any commentary. The Magpies went ahead repeatedly, but the Reds pulled them back, and it looked all settled at 3-3 in stoppage time.
But in a moment selected by many to be one of the Premier League’s best moments, Liverpool were pushing forward with the interplay between John Barnes and Ian Rush.
The ball goes to the left-hand side of the goal, to the feet of Stan Collymore, and Tyler yells ‘Collymore closing in’, in one of the most iconic moments in the game, as it dented Newcastle’s hopes of winning the title.
It would go down as one of Tyler’s best moments behind the microphone. For many years, maybe his most famous. Then Manchester City happened…
1 – Aguerooooo 2012
There is no other moment that would top this list – many of the above lines are brilliant, top-quality, but Manchester City’s title winning moment in 2012 will sit alongside Kenneth Wolstenholme’s 1966 moment as one of the best ever.
The Argentinian striker was coming to the end of his first season at the Etihad, and it looked like they were going to just miss out on the title, despite having pole position.
‘Aguerrrooooo… I swear you’ll never see anything like this ever again! So watch it – drink it in…’
Football fans will be hoping that this is not the last time we’ll hear Tyler behind the microphone
But when he netted an injury-time winner against a QPR side that stepped off the gas once their Premier League safety was confirmed, Aguero’s goal was marked by *that* piercing scream from Tyler. There aren’t enough o’s in the world to properly convey it. In a parallel universe, it’s probably still going.
Carragher said: ‘”Aguerooooo” is one of the most iconic commentary lines in the history of the game!’ Many millions would agree with him.
Instead, he followed it up with another iconic line. ‘I swear you’ll never see anything like this ever again! So watch it – drink it in’. A generation of football fans were given one more quote.
Sky Sports’ director of football Gary Hughes referenced both Collymore and Aguero when paying tribute to Tyler in a statement. But for the man behind the microphone, he made the statements with words week in and week out. Football fans are forever grateful. Here’s hoping it’s not the last we’ll see of Martin Tyler.
