Could big West Ham fan James Corden replace Gary Lineker on BBC’s Match of the Day after links as ex striker steps back?
West Ham might soon find themselves up first on Match of the Day every week if one of the club’s celebrity fans gets a new gig.
Amid a dismal Premier League season, the Hammers find themselves last on MOTD most weeks.
But one of West Ham’s super fans could be in line to step into the shoes of longstanding host Lineker.
Many West Ham fans struggle to bring themselves to watch MOTD when the Hammers lose. So it has been a rare watch for many of them this season.
You would had to have been living under a rock not to know about the controversy swirling around Lineker this week.
Now the former Spurs, Leicester and England striker is taking a step back from presenting Match of the Day until an agreement is reached on his social media use, the BBC has said.
It follows an impartiality row over comments he made criticising the government’s new asylum policy.
The BBC said it considered Lineker’s “recent social media activity to be a breach of our guidelines”.
It added he should “keep well away from taking sides on party political issues or political controversies”.
The BBC said it had been in “extensive discussions with Gary and team in recent days” and “has decided that he will step back from presenting Match of the Day until we’ve got an agreed and clear position on his use of social media”.
So could big West Ham fan Corden replace Lineker on Match of the Day after previous links as the ex striker steps back?
Last summer West Ham nut Corden was described as “the favourite” to replace Lineker as Match of the Day host after he revealed that he was stepping down as presenter of US show The Late Late Show (Daily Record).
Corden is close friends with West Ham sporting director Mark Noble and skipper Declan Rice.
And he has vast experience hosting a sports-related show following more than a decade fronting the hugely popular Sky program A League of their Own.
Corden made almost weekly West Ham references on that show. And you can expect more of the same if he does replace Lineker, who regularly talks about his allegiances to Leicester and Spurs on MOTD.
After Corden’s links to being Lineker’s replacement on MOTD emerged last year, the pundit told viewers ‘you’re stuck with me for a while’.
Well perhaps not as long as he imagined it seems if this “break” becomes a permanent split.
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