Trio of glorious farewells welcome respite from Gary Lineker's excruciating goodbye
A weekend of farewells and retirement parties – for Danny Care, Jamie Vardy and Goodison Park. It is too soon to say if Gary Lineker will get a lovingly engraved carriage clock or an unceremonious ejection at the hands of a burly BBC security guard, but it was nice to have almost one full day without the former Queen Mum of Football monopolising the sports news headlines.
If that wretched row has encapsulated so much that is depressing about modern media and sport, a very welcome antidote arrived on Sunday as TNT Sports covered the stirring and often moving final act at Everton's stadium.
Southampton were the perfect guests, the sun was out, and the stars also: Martin Tyler, Andy Gray and Richard Keys reunited on the Goodison pitch, and an opportunity for Keys to try his hand as a post-match interviewer for current employer BeIN Sports. David Moyes, his subject, joked: 'Is this your first time doing this?'
"English football will have lost a little piece of its soul."
The last ever men's match at Goodison Park today. Richard Keys & Andy Gray are there to witness history. #EVESOUT #EndOfAnEra #Goodison pic.twitter.com/lX8Ezi8Nib
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS_EN) May 18, 2025
There were legends everywhere you looked, and fair play to the TNT broadcast team for taking a deep breath and leaning into the happy chaos inevitably wreaked by a gaggle of men in late middle age let loose for a weekend without their handlers. Peter Reid, in shades, had started early. 'I've had a few shandies,' confirmed The Blue Monkey, to the surprise of nobody. 'Apologies for the sunglasses, but I was on the lash last night,' he expanded, and said sorry in advance if he swore.
Another Everton great who knows the importance of keeping your fluid intake up on a sunny day, Duncan Ferguson, turned the air fittingly blue, as did the crowd as they accompanied Ellis Murphy, an Evertonian singer-songwriter, for a naughty-bits-included rendition of It's A Grand Old Team To Play For that had some choice words for Liverpool FC.
"UP THE TOFFEES!!" 🔵
Duncan Ferguson and Wayne Rooney say their goodbyes to Goodison Park 👋
📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/JskiWdOcxS
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 18, 2025
Ally McCoist, on co-commentary, rightly made the point about the links between his own Rangers FC and the Goodison club: Gary Stevens, Trevor Steven, Richard Gough, Duncan Disorderly and Gray as aforementioned, Gazza of course, and Walter Smith to name but a few. There could be no better companion for this sort of affair, McCoist's boundless enthusiasm and jocularity to the fore as he and Darren Fletcher grabbed quick words with the great and the good. What a superb assemblage of thirsty Scotsmen it all sounded. Thoughts and prayers are with the bar staff of Merseyside, some shift they will have put in this weekend.
🎶 D̶a̶d̶d̶y̶ ̶C̶o̶o̶l̶ Danny Care rings round Twickenham Stoop, but a spelling error needs some correction in the crowd 😅
Watch live on TNT Sports & Discovery+ pic.twitter.com/qIqB9qZOaS
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) May 18, 2025
A couple of hundred miles or so south, another send-off was soon under way as Harlequins said goodbye to their greatest player, Danny Care. This was altogether a more family occasion, and not because the scrum-half brought his kids out onto the pitch both before and after the match in the modern way. For a while, it looked like Exeter Chiefs might spoil the party, but Care came on and his side did just about enough to ensure that he signed off with a win.
Nick Mullins, as he always does, hit the spot with his commentary: 'It's more than the tries he has scored, it is what he has brought to the game on and off the pitch,' he said. Some hardcore fans in the crowd were so into it that they got their placard order wrong. All hail, 'Danny Crae'.
It is testament to the esteem in which second-half replacement 'Mr Crae' is held that the man who started in his position, Will Porter, wore number 21 on his back, a highly unusual dispensation that allowed Care to wear the nine.
Leicester City fans organized an incredible send-off for Jamie Vardy in his final match at the King Power Stadium. 👏🦊 pic.twitter.com/PNy0Zy3SDi
— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) May 18, 2025
Another modern-day club great associated with that number, Jamie Vardy, also bade farewell this afternoon but sadly there did not appear to be any live TV coverage of his 200th goal in his 500th Leicester City game. Care says in his book that he was a Sheffield Wednesday kid in the same cohort as Vardy, but he got cut because he was too small. Both of them have had magnificent careers in any event, although you suspect that the Vardy party on Sunday would have been the livelier affair.
It was a pleasure to spend a Sunday with these well-earned celebratory send-offs, some uncomplicated and joyful respite before another former Leicester City striker no doubt dominates the sporting news agenda for the next few days.
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