We were absolutely devastated to learn of the passing of our friend, supporter and mentor Paddy Barclay earlier this week, aged 77.
No prose of mine will do justice to Paddy’s teriffic talent as a wordsmith, class as a football correspondent, compassion as a colleague and his ceaseless commitment to opening up journalism to working class and female voices. I first met Paddy Barclay aged twelve at television centre and met him again as a teenager in the company of our much-missed fellow Fulham fanatic Danny Fullbrook. He was one of the strongest supporters of Hammyend.com and through his chairmanship of the fantastic Football Writers’ Association sought to widen participation in an industry that remains too white, male and stale.
Paddy truly became a friend after he had retired from daily columns with the sub-Standard and bought a Fulham season ticket. Craven Cottage was a twenty minute walk – he reckoned – from his home in Barnes, but there were a number of watering holes, including his cherised White Hart, along the way. He took up residence in Block C of the Johnny Haynes Upper and marvelled at the enduring excellence of Tom Cairney’s left foot and loved the football played by Marco Silva’s stylish side.
Others will be able to do far greater justice to Paddy’s career in journalism that took him from the Dundee Evening Telegraph, where he had moved with his mother Patricia as a young boy and developed a love for Dundee (not United, he’d want me to assure you). He loved Dens Park and Dundee and often mused aloud about the terrible problems he’d have if Dundee and Fulham met in the Champions’ League final. Some of my most cherished memories of Paddy were watching the Dee win promotion at the Gunnersbury pub in west London alongside the members of the Dees in the South. Dundee might have been first, but he came to love Fulham.
Paddy worked as a sub-editor on the Guardian in Manchester and longed for an opportunity to write about the beautiful game but his first chance only came in 1971 when covered Matt Busby’s side losing to Derby County. He was promoted to northern football correspondent in 1976, but he was number two on the paper to the great David Lacey. After nine years, he joined the Independent as their football correspondent and his passion for the game was given a proper outlet. He moved to the Observer in 1991, memorably being the only British reporter at the 1992 African Nations’ Cup, having written a brilliant account of Cameroon’s progress at the 1990 World Cup in Italy. Of the famous quarter-final were England were rescued by two Gary Lineker penalties in extra time, he wrote: “Cameroon treated England like a chainsaw would a balsa canoe.” The lyricism of his prose was magnificent.
Paddy served as the Sunday Telegraph’s football correspondent for twelve years from 1996, writing objectively about several Scottish defeats by England – including in 1996 and 2000. He wrote about the Scottish glory days, when they regularly vanquished the auld enemy in the nineteenth century, in the paper:
“That was an era in which Scots took the role filled today by the wily continentals; they administered lessons in technique, and that was why English clubs started to lure them south. They could pass and dribble. The English seemed to treat football as just another reason to crash into each other.”
But he also loved Johnny Haynes and enjoyed the fact that whenever he bought an extra ticket for a friend from the Stevenage Road ticket office he was confronted by the Maestro’s England shirt from the 9-3 demolition at Wembley in 1961. Paddy had the joy of covering Roy Hodgson’s resurgence in English football, including the remarkable run to the Europa League final as chief football correspondent of the Times.
He was revered as a writer – having authored several outstanding books including biographies of Jose Mourinho, Herbert Chapman, Sir Alex Ferguson and a brilliant book on Sir Matt Busby, but Paddy became even more well known as a regular contributor to Sky Sports’ Sunday Supplement and several outstanding documentaries. That made him a favourite with the match-going fans and he never forgot how fortunate he was to have so long to write and talk about the game he loved.
Paddy was a guest on our The Green Pole podcast as well as Fulhamish, taking particular delight in being asked to participate in Fulhamish Live. I did my best to pay tribute to him during last week’s Fulhamish Thursday Club alongside Sammy James and Jack Collins. His Football Ruined My Life podcast with Jon Holmes and Colin Schlinder was a work of art.
Paddy’s family have advised us that a memorial service will be arranged in due course. We’ve been inundated with messages from Fulham fans eager to ensure Paddy’s generosity of spirit and championing of journalism goes on. We will set up a Paddy Barclay award for young journalists to run in conjunction with our Fullbrook Fund, which has helped 41 Fulham fans into full-time journalism, but we wanted to leave the comments open here for people to leave their own memories of a magnificent man.
I was never happier than when my phone buzzed with either an email or a message from Paddy. It was usually something simple, like, ‘Do you want a pint, pal?’
Dens Park and Craven Cottage won’t ever feel the same again. But we’re lucky to have read, loved and known the one and only Paddy Barclay: the very greatest football writer Britain has ever produced. I’m sure the heavenly commentary on Fulham’s fixtures is lively as duties as shared between Barclay and Fullbrook, with no microphones needed.
