Inside Sky Sports' Soccer Saturday: How iconic football show has remained a hit 34 years after hitting TV screens

Unpredictable. The word uttered more than any other, as I explored the inner workings of the UK's most iconic football show.

For 34 years, Sky Sports' Soccer Saturday has broadcast from their west London mega-campus, using Britain's deep footballing pyramid as the vehicle for their entertainment show.

The aforementioned unpredictability that makes it what it is. Fun, engaging, frustrating and captivating in equal measure. Because, for a football show to be worth a watch despite showing no football, there must be something that separates it from the crowd.

Sky Sports offered Daily Mail Sport exclusive, behind-the-scenes access to observe the season's first Premier League instalment of Soccer Saturday. What I found was extraordinary.

Inside the studio, hosts have changed, pundits have switched out, and the set has undergone a makeover. Outside of it the teams, managers, owners and stadiums have come and gone, but the show continues with effortless consistency. 

Each day starts the same, a pre-show chat between the pundits and host, led by the producer, Kieran… which gets going as soon as Paul Merson arrives. Alongside him: Clinton Morrison, Tim Sherwood, Kris Boyd and Mike Dean.

Assembling the crew has been an unenviable task, after the likes of Matt le Tissier, Chris Kamara, Charlie Nicholas and Phil Thompson moved on. The group had a certain magic to it. Even the legendary host, Jeff Stelling, called time three years ago. 

Replacing him, veteran broadcaster Simon Thomas. A Sky Sports regular for many years, trusted with replacing the man most synonymous with the show's success. Thomas has an impressive knack for conducting, yet never dominating, the conversation, leading the talent down pathways from where their opinions can flourish.

'There is literally unpredictability everywhere you look and that's the thing I love about it,' said Thomas ahead of the first Saturday of Premier League for this campaign. 

'At first it's quite overwhelming because in life, we all like a little bit of control over things.

'With this show, you have no control. You're basically trying to hold on to a rudder through a very choppy sea. And the thing is to get out the other end at 5 to 6, leaving with the boats intact and me not too wet.'

As someone trying to become a sport presenter myself, I hung onto every word he told me, but it wasn't until I listened in to what he could hear in his ear that I appreciated the challenge involved in maneuvering this particular vessel.

'You've got your stats guy in your ear throughout the show who gives you little nuggets of information, especially on goalscorers, particularly when you get further down the leagues,' Thomas explains. 

'You've got your producer Kieran, you've got your two directors who share the job over the course of the six hours. So there's a lot of different people talking and you've obviously got the pundits next to you.

'You're listening to what's happening in their games because you go, we're about to go to a goal in the Championship.

'But actually something's just happened in Boyd's game today. And actually we're going to go there first because he's live in the studio and update us a lot quicker, or Deano [Mike Dean] is going to look at something VAR-wise as he walks into the studio to get ready.

'So you've got to be ready to very quickly change direction.'

The show has wrestled with societal changes since its 1992 inception, when it was known as Sports Saturday.

Merson is one of the stalwarts who's stood the test of time, and has adapted his broadcasting style with immense class.

'I think at the start I was quite ruthless,' he says. 

'Now you think "something's going on behind the scenes." I mean, when players lose form, they start playing poorly. There's a lot more to it than that.

'With mental health nowadays, I think you just could be a little bit more curious.

'I've rung a couple more players up. I've rung Harry Maguire up and [James] Maddison if I felt like I've said something that was a bit harsh sometimes, if I say something and afterwards, I think, "nah, that wasn't comfortable, that wasn't right."'

Merson's reflections open up broader thoughts about the show. His versatility is a wider theme that the show prides itself on. It is this versatility that is the show's greatest strength. Indeed, it has to be versatile to stay on the screen for 34 years.

The staff that work on this show week in, week out have an immense passion for what they do. They know what works, what doesn't, and how to get the best out of each other.

In an era when everyone complains about how football changes, this show welcomes the adaptability that makes it what it is.