.png)
Beloved Soccer AM host Fenners has revealed he was left in 'a dark place' after the show was axed.
Fenners, John Fendley to his mum, was a producer on Soccer AM from 1997 to 2007, returning in 2015 as a co-presenter until the show's demise in 2023.
Sky Sports ended its broadcast of the Saturday morning football show after almost 30 years, replacing it with Saturday Social, focusing more on the social media side of the game, and is hosted by influencers.
Fans of the show were not pleased with the broadcaster's decision, but those involved with the programme were hit even harder as their careers were effectively left up in the air.
Advert
One of these was Fenners, with the former co-presenter recently opening up about his mental state after being 'humiliated' following the end of the weekend show, when he reunited with ex-Soccer AM colleagues Jimmy Bullard and Tubes on YouTube channel Golf Life.
The 56-year-old revealed that he was 'in a dark place' when he was asked if he happily looks back on his time on the ever-loved football show.
"I didn’t at first, it was quite hard to be honest. Just in a dark place for a bit I’ll be honest with you," he explained.
"Felt a bit, not let down, just a bit humiliated that it had ended like it did.
Advert
"Everyone says to you ‘you’ll be fine, you’ll get work’. I did believe that initially."
He continued: "I wanted to hit the ground running, I wasn’t sitting there going ‘I’m just gonna kick back a bit and wait until I get a job’. I was on the phone, ringing up people and having meetings and having coffees."
The ex-presenter stated that he could tell 'within 10 seconds' that a lot of these meetings were 'a waste of time', saying that he knew it would be hard to find a job similar to the one he had at Soccer AM, where he was a producer and a presenter.
Advert
Despite admitting that he saw the show ending a few years before it did, he said that efforts to stay on at Sky were rebuffed, even applying to replace the legendary Jeff Stelling on Soccer Saturday when he knew he 'was never going to get that job'.
Fenners was 'desperate to stay', but has admitted that it was the right call to leave the broadcaster, while feeling that Sky made the wrong choice when axing Soccer AM.
He said: "It was really hard, first Saturday of the season, I was on holiday with the family, and my head was so f***ing gone, I came back. I said to Kate and the girls ‘I’m coming back’, I was not good to be around at all."
Advert
Fenners continued: "I sat and I watched Sky all day. It was weird. After a while I got to [a place where I was] not missing it. It was so entrenched in me, that way of working. Don’t get me wrong, it was the best job in the world, but it was relentless."
Saying that he was 'worn out' and exhausted after leaving the show, he knew the right decision was to leave the show for good.
He does look back fondly at his days on the silver screen, and has said that he can see Soccer AM returning in the future, saying it's ultimately up to the fans.
Since his departure from the show last summer though, he has started a football podcast with none other than former colleague Jimmy Bullard, called FC Bullard, where the two interview various figures in the game, with the aim of starting a club of the same name one day.
Topics: Soccer AM, Mental Health, YouTube, Football, Social Media
Joshua Nair