Departing Match of the Day host Gary Lineker has revealed the colleague he’ll miss most when he finally steps down from the iconic show.
And it’s only talkSPORT’s very own Danny Murphy – hailing the former Liverpool midfielder as an ‘underrated pundit’.
Lineker has entered his final weeks in charge of BBC’s flagship football show, as he prepares to step down from his role at the end of the current season.
The former England, Tottenham, Leicester and Barcelona striker announced in November that he would be leaving after nearly 26 years at the helm.
His replacements have already been confirmed, with Kelly Cates, Mark Chapman and Gabby Logan to split presenting duties between them every Saturday and Sunday.
Lineker will still be around for now. He is set to host next season’s FA Cup coverage and the 2026 World Cup for the BBC before leaving the national broadcaster for good.
He will also continue to work on the Rest is Football podcast, alongside MOTD pundits Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, which is owned by the striker’s aptly-named Goalhanger production company.
But when asked which colleague he would miss working with the most, he didn’t name any of his podcast collaborators or football superstars he has hosted alongside in the past – just a humble man from Chester.
Lineker told FourFourTwo: “There’s no point saying Alan or Micah, as I’ll still be working with them. I don’t like any of the others!
“That’s a joke… I’ll miss Danny Murphy, a really underrated pundit, analytically good, and always fun to be around.”
Murphy made his first MOTD appearance in 2013 shortly after hanging up his boots as a player.
The England international made his first talkSPORT appearance around the same time, and has since become a regular MOTD pundit and much-loved member of the talkSPORT family.
The 48-year-old recently opened up to talkSPORT over his anxiety about his first MOTD gig.
And he revealed the tremendous impact Lineker had on him from his very first day on the famous sofa.
“Gary’s a friend of mine and he’s been phenomenal to me since the day I walked in the building,” he told White and Jordan.
“A warm, charismatic, intelligent man who knows his football and has become part of everybody’s furniture, if you like, on a Saturday evening.
“I’d done a few shows and he was always great. In my first tournament I was thrust into the World Cup in Brazil really quickly and it was quite daunting as Alan Hansen was there, Alan Shearer, you know, a lot of these people who I’d looked up to.
“Between Gary and Alan, and Gary especially was the first one to always – even if I wasn’t working on the same show as him – leave me a message.
“He’d say, ‘We’re going to be eating here, we’re going to be in this bar, we’re going to be in this hotel. Come and meet us, get a cab to there, we’ll be there’.
“You know, all those types of little things that brought me in. I’ll never forget how he treated me and how welcome he made me, how good he made me feel.
“He’s just a very intelligent football man, loves his football. You know, him and his sons, they all love the football as well. And he’s doing so many good things.
“He’s getting on a bit, just because he looks good for his age doesn’t mean he isn’t old. He’s getting tired in his old age, probably wants to just cook his Sunday roast.
“I didn’t know [he was leaving], I was a little bit surprised, but Kelly Cates sharing it with Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman? That sounds like a plan. They’re all very good.”
Murphy has since made over 170 appearances on Match of the Day.
You can hear him every Wednesday on talkSPORT with Jim White and Simon Jordan, as well as on co-commentary duty for our live football coverage.
