'We want to entertain people rather than make headlines,' Jeff Stelling said on Newstalk's Off The Ball on Monday night. He was talking about how his Soccer Saturday show contrasts with BT's version, BT Sport Score.
Stelling and Chris Kamara were in Dublin as part of their 'Road to Croker' series with AIB.
Initially, when the topic of BT Sport came up, Kamara responded 'Don't swear at us'. It was a joke, but also one which suggested a little bit of underlying enmity towards what Stelling later labeled 'the opposition'.
Stelling then went on to pick some holes in BT Sport Score saying, 'I'm not one to have a got at the opposition but I will. Let's have a go at the opposition just for a minute.'
Stelling suggested that there is something contrived about BT's show whereas, with the Sky Sports version, he feels like it's just some friends sitting around watching football.
BT's Score, I don't really see it very much but I know full well that they put Robbie Savage in there and Chris Sutton in there so they can have an argument.
They tried to put Joey Barton between the two of them and Joey wasn't having it because he knew what he was being put there for - light the blue touch paper and have a furious argument between all three.
That doesn't work, there's got to be some sort of connection between them; there's got to be some chemistry between them. You can't just sit people in because they're opinionated and say 'off you go, be controversial.' People are brighter than that, they suss it out.
One of the great viral moments in Soccer Saturday history was seven years ago when Kamara missed the sending off of Portsmouth's Anthony Vanden Borre during a game against Blackburn.
Kamara said that if they ever tried to manufacture such moments, it just would not work.
It just grew and grew and became a defining moment. If you ever try and contrive anything... If I look at a piece of paper and think right, 'Jeff will say that and hopefully I will say that.' one: I'd get it wrong and two: it just wouldn't work.
