Tim Lovejoy admits one Soccer AM feature makes him ‘cringe’ now

Tim Lovejoy and Helen Chamberlain joined talkSPORT to look back on 11 iconic years together at Soccer AM, and one infamous feature.

Chamberlain joined the Saturday football show in 1995 and teamed up on the sofa with Lovejoy a year later as they led it through its peak years.

Starting off as a live broadcast, Soccer AM became a must-watch for football fans ahead of the weekend’s action with features and characters that made it a cultural icon in sporting circles.

“It was the perfect storm, it was the 90s, it was Brit Pop and Oasis,” Lovejoy recalled. “Football was exploding and we were in the right place and the right time, it was just so much fun to do, I absolutely loved it.”

Among the many features that made the show successful was one that hasn’t aged very well – the ‘Soccerettes’, something Lovejoy doesn’t look back on very fondly.

‘Soccerettes’ was a segment that usually featured a young woman wearing a football shirt, walking down a catwalk, and being interviewed.

It was dropped in 2015 due to being seen as outdated and politically incorrect, before the show itself was cancelled last year.

“Don’t bring that up, I cringe about that,” he said honestly when asked about the ‘Soccerette’s. “But it was a different time and we were told to push the boundaries.

“We were just doing different stuff and people had a laugh and a joke with it.”

Some features have aged far better, though, including ‘Showboat’ which Lovejoy remembers fondly.

He explained: “When we started Showboat we loved it but after three or four weeks I got called in by one of the bosses, who was brilliant by the way, but he said a couple of the managers have complained about you putting their players on Showboat. 

“In the 90s it was percentage football, ‘We’re not showboating ponies and we’re here to win a match and be dedicated to the fans’ they hated it for two or three years but every player was trying to get on.

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“One thing that has changed since 1996 is that we used to be able to get players on the show and then by the time I left 11 years later the sport had grown so much that Premier League clubs wouldn’t let players come on. 

“We used to get them when they were suspended or injured on a Saturday and then the clubs started saying no.”

Chamberlain was also keen to credit Lovejoy’s impact on the show, revealing that many of its most famous faces came from his encouragement.

Discussing presenter Tubes, she said: “When he started working on the show he was just 15, him and Rocket were work experience and Tim liked them and they had something about them so he kept them on.

“Tim did that with everyone, all the characters, they were just guys that worked on the show that Tim got to do bits and bobs on a Saturday and they turned into these massive characters that people still remember and quote.”

Chamberlain left the show a decade after Lovejoy in 2017, and after a series of other presenters, including talkSPORT’s Andy Goldstein, it stopped airing in May 2023, much to fans’ disappointment.