We at the FWA were desperately sad to learn that our former Chairman, friend and colleague Patrick Barclay passed away earlier this week at the age of 77.
Tributes have been flowing for one of the greatest of all football writers, a man who wrote beautifully for the Guardian, Observer, Independent, Sunday Telegraph, Times and London Evening Standard. He also spoke with authority and became a firm fans’ favourite on Sky’s Hold The Back Page and Sunday Supplement shows, on TalkSport, and more recently on a host of podcasts.
Paddy, as we all knew him, was a prolific author and highly respected by journalists and footballers alike. Among those quick to offer their condolences were Alan Shearer, Robbie Fowler and Chris Sutton, while Gary Lineker wrote: “Paddy Barclay was one of the finest sports writers of the past fifty years, admired and respected by players, managers, and fellow journalists alike. But beyond his immense talent, he was a true football man—warm, charismatic, and universally liked. A gifted storyteller and a captivating presence, he brought the game to life with his words. Football has lost one of its greats, but he leaves behind unforgettable memories and a legacy of brilliant writing. Our thoughts are with his family.”
Many clubs and organisations praised him too, and the Sports Journalists’ Association paid tribute to the man who won their Sports Writer of the Year award in 1993, while on the Observer.
Here are some tributes of our own, from friends and colleagues who knew him well.
Alex Montgomery:
“Paddy was such a pleasure, such a joy to be with. No more, so sad. The memories go back over the decades to the seventies when Paddy was working out of Manchester, and continued with our regular contact either through the demands of the beautiful game, or a highly enjoyable lunch/dinner plus our chats on the phone, usually to arrange a lunch.
“Paddy was a sports writer of the highest order, committed to the reporting of football and interviewing the game’s mighty and not so mighty without favour or fear. He wrote in a way that was both entertaining and informative and singled him out as especially talented. Paddy was certainly not one for hiding his emotions as we learned, particularly in press boxes home and abroad when communications had failed or were about to. That was Paddy – up front.
“His loss is so sudden and so unexpected to friends and colleagues. “
Paddy, as FWA Chairman, presents Wayne Rooney with his Tribute Award
Amy Lawrence:
“The football experience alongside Paddy was enhanced in every way – he brought joyousness, debate, heart, intellect, opinion, curiosity, hilarity and friendship. Paddy went through life with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. That was his ticket to memorable times and my goodness he used it.
“I first met Paddy in the summer of 1994 as a very green rookie in the football writing game, not even a month into the job. Those who knew him well wouldn’t have been surprised that he turned on the charm for a couple of new faces on the scene. Paddy took me under his wing and was a supportive and generous guide. Having such a super talented and fun mentor seemed outrageous luck, and when he left his post at the Observer and was asked to recommend someone with potential, he gave me his blessing to land a promotion I would never have considered myself capable of. Paddy’s conviction was a huge source of confidence, and his loyalty was unyielding.
“Our friendship group at the time made for golden years on the football writing beat – with the much missed Clive White and a younger gent in Ian Hawkey, we formed a quartet bonded by laughter, stories and an appreciation of each other’s sensitivities and sensibilities. Gallivanting around football cities at home and abroad in the name of the Sunday broadsheets, we delighted in each other’s company, gently teased each other’s foibles as often as possible, savoured our football, and helped one another out. We felt as lucky as could be.
“A dazzling writer, who had a long list of legendary players and managers who counted him as a friend and showed him guaranteed respect, it was his blend of wisdom, strong views, and constant questioning of his craft that made him one of the voices of his generation. He was a football romantic but mixed that with unbending principles. Once he began to appear as a regular on TV, travelling to a game with him meant countless fans shouting “Oi Paddy!” and telling him what they thought or asking for a hello. He loved the attention.
“Paddy’s zest was like an electric charge – he could warm a room full of people with it. He lived as if he was decades younger than whatever a birth certificate might say. That twinkle always was, and remains, unforgettable.
“Paddy – I hope Clive has a cold couple of beers waiting for you. As you always used to say with a cracking smile, ‘the first one doesn’t touch the sides’. Thanks for being my mentor and my mate.
“With love, Amy”
Paddy at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea
Mike Collett:
“The phone rang just after lunch one Sunday afternoon about 30 years ago and Paddy was not happy with his story in that morning’s Observer.
“Mike, I heard you subbed my story in the paper today and you’ve changed it. I can’t believe you would have done that … it’s totally altered what I was saying ….” “I only changed one word Paddy, or even just a comma…” I replied and so began the only minor argument I ever had with one of my greatest friends in over 40 years.
“It was such a tiny alteration I started laughing which inflamed his passion even more. Because Paddy was passionate about everything .. football, politics, literature, Dundee FC, food, journalism, life itself. And he gave you his insightful opinions in that wonderfully modulated Scottish accent that I could listen to for hours on end, and often did !
“But what always impressed me most was his incredible knowledge about football. After Dundee’s championship-winning side of 1962, his other favourite all-time team was the Spurs Double-winning team of 1960-61 which he could recite to this day. But he could also recall and relive incidents of matches played long ago he had been to and reported on. He could tell you who played left-wing and right half for Nottingham Forest in 1967 and name all the managers of Leicester City since the year dot.
“He was also fiercely proud of being the only football writer to work for all four quality Fleet Street broadsheets and told wonderful stories about being understudy to the great David Lacey at The Guardian. His copy would go in the paper and take up so much room, mine was cut to fit what was left at the bottom of the page. I had to leave -and try to take him on as his opposition at the Independent. It was an impossible task. But it wasn’t really because Paddy had insight, wrote beautifully and his reports and interviews and features were truly the works of a master.
“More recently his appearances on the Football Ruined My Life podcasts with Jon Holmes and Colin Schindler have been a joy -and an education – to listen to. He was a man who never hid his light under a bushel, but was also so generous of spirit, so warm and embracing of up-and-coming new talent and such a joy to be with it is hard to imagine I’ll never see him again.
“A truly great friend, a truly great journalist and an absolutely first class human being.”
Paddy and Mike Collett receive their FWA Life Memberships from Carrie Brown
Rob Shepherd:
“There was nothing that Patrick Barclay loved more than football. Apart from writing about football.
“He was one of the best football writers that ever lived. The sad story of his death yesterday (February 13th) shocked us all.
“As a football writer Patrick – we all knew him as Paddy – was up there with Pele.
“In fact, once, he outdid Pele.
“Those of us old enough to remember will recall when Pele dummied the goalkeeper in the 1970 World Cup but then failed to score. Well, in a press match playing against an opposition, the enthusiastic striker (Patrick) did the same but put the ball into the net.
“We all dined out on that story for a long time.
“Often, over a cigar, Paddy would talk about his love for Dundee, making it clear that it was not Dundee United; this was a massive point of difference which he was at pains to explain. The attention to detail of his love for football came out in his words. He was very well informed because he respected those of us that were less talented as a writer than he.
“My experience was that I was his ‘junior’ when Today newspaper was formed in 1986. By then we’d had a bond. Why? In the early 80s Patrick Barclay had a column in the Guardian newspaper and it was a must-read. I rang him up once and said: ‘This might make good for your column.’ It was when a keeper called Alex Williams was playing for Manchester City and had been given a standing ovation by fans at West Ham.
“This was a time when racism was rife in football and yet West Ham fans applauded Williams. Patrick made that the lead article of his column. Not surprisingly, for he was one of the main sportswriters to fight against racism and sexism in football.
“I could write so much more, for while I am lost for words, there are so many memories of him. But for now, this obituary will be shorter than a Paddy Barclay intro. Suffice to say, he was a leading light. He was also a very nice person, convivial in company with the looks for television and a beautiful voice for radio.
“He is someone that we will all miss.”
Paddy at the FWA Tribute to Pele with Gordon Banks
Philippe Auclair:
“If life was one big cosmic joke, Paddy once told me, at least it was a good one, one to be savoured. And savour it he did, to the full; but he still took less from it that he gave to others, as if one word defined him, it has to be ‘generosity’. People mattered more than anything to Paddy, not just the people he loved, but also the people who seeked his help and were never disappointed, starting with other journalists. To him, they were not competitors, but similarly-minded and similarly passionate souls. The more there were, the merrier; and things were rarely anything other than merry in Paddy’s company.
“No matter how long you’d known him – close to thirty years in my case -, there was always another story to tell around the lunch table or in the press box, each more outrageous and more outrageously funny than the other, sometimes sharp, but never cruel. Paddy could be incisive, even trenchant, but Paddy didn’t do cruelty. Tellingly, plenty of these stories were at his own expense. With me, a recurring theme was his appalling command of French, even though he’d been spending more and more time in the Aveyron village of Najac every year, leading to some hair-rising (and hilarious) misunderstandings with the local tradespeople who were trying to fix the eternally-leaking roof of his residence there.
“Many of the messages I’ve received since we heard the awful news have come from people I did not know. Football fans who had delighted in his witty, elegant writing for every paper of note in this country, or in his erudite biographies of, among others, Herbert Chapman and Matt Busby; fellow fans of his beloved Dundee and, lately, Fulham, whose ground he visited as often as he could; students looking for advice for their essays and theses, who were amazed when one of England’s – Scotland’s – finest football journalists, a worthy heir to his idol Brian Glanville, took the time to respond to them, even propose to meet and share his extraordinary knowledge of British and world football. No wonder he was one of the great architects of the renewal of our Association, both as a member and as a Chair.
“Yes, Paddy gave others so much more than he took himself. I think he’d have liked this as an epitaph. Farewell, dear friend.”
Paddy paid tribute to Harry Gregg after the Manchester United goalkeeper’s death in 2020
