Daily Mail: Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher admit fears of the axe at Sky Sports

Story from Daily Mail:

Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher have admitted concerns over their future at Sky Sports after the broadcaster's recent presenter exodus.

In June, Sky axed half of their football reporting team in a brutal cost-cutting exercise which included the exit of veteran interviewer Geoff Shreeves.

It was a shake-up that came amid big changes to the broadcasting industry, such as the acquisition of Laura Woods to TNT Sports as part of an all-new re-branding.

And now, Sky Sports' most iconic presenting duo have voiced their concerns over their future as they admitted that they're aware 'demands are high'.

Neville told FourFourTwo: 'I don't really think about how long it's been. But it is hard, you know. It's not playing football, it's not being a manager, but anyone who looks at it and thinks, 'Oh, they're just on television, talking about football'... well, yeah, OK.

'But there are thousands of jobs all over the world now doing this, so to stay at Sky, the Premier League rights-holders in this country, and on shows like Super Sunday and Monday Night Football, the demands are high.

'To stay there for several years is an achievement, because it's probably a gig that most people would want. If you think of the top gigs in football punditry, there's only three or four.

'Working on major tournaments, Match of the Day, Monday Night Football – they're the pinnacle of football broadcasting.

'We know it will be taken away from us the minute it doesn't work any more, so we're very conscious of making sure we change things all of the time.'

Neville - who made his name during his playing career at Manchester United - joined Sky in 2011 before Carragher joined him two years later.

Together, the duo have become two of the channel's most iconic faces after countless passionate debates on Premier League matches.

Carragher added to Neville's comments: 'Yeah, we know what viewers think because we're viewers ourselves, and you don't want to watch exactly the same thing every single season.

'I don't want to do that and I don't think Gary does. We always want new ideas, different guests, different formats.

'Friday Night Football, which we've done for the last three or four years, was a good example: the format was completely different to the other shows that we do.'

The comments come after a plethora of changes at Sky, after lead commentator Martin Tyler, Graeme Souness and Jeff Stelling all left the company.

Former Blue Peter presenter Simon Thomas won the race to replace Stelling as host of Sky Sport’s iconic results service Soccer Saturday.

Thomas has big shoes to fill in replacing Stelling, who fronted Soccer Saturday for 25 years before quitting at the end of last season, but will be a popular appointment with viewers and colleagues.