Obituary
One of the best and, at 93, one of the longest-lived football writers of them all.
Given the number of obituaries on which his byline appears, he’ll be with us for
A good few years yet
Brian Glanville
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As far as I’m aware, my only knowledge of his work comes from reading one of his books about the 1978 (or maybe 1982) World Cup, which kept me very entertained while on a beachside holiday. He really knew his football.
RIP.
Fabulous story about him and George Graham whose Arsenal team BG had criticised for lacking quality during a pre-season tournament.
A pissed-off GG concluded the press conference by telling BG he looked forward to seeing some quality writing from him in the season ahead and headed for the exit.
BG waited til GG reached the door before saying “don’t worry George, if I see Arsenal produce any quality on the pitch, I’ll write about it.”
Glanville was a bit full of himself I think. Decent writer back in the day.
Doesn’t come across as any kind of Big I Am in the tributes written by the young journos he helped and often befriended at the very start of their careers
Up there with McIlvanney and the recently deceased Patrick Barclay as one of the all time great sportswriters of his generation
Given newspapers’ declining sales and readerships, doesn’t look like anyone will be another
Henry Winter – a name who could’ve assumed the mantle, but as said above with reducing sales of papers and so many other outlet for opinion and thought * meant Winter does not perhaps have the opportunity the McIllvanney, Barclay, and Glanville were able to command.
His published writing and opinion on the subject was always worth a read
* and let us not forget the often ferociously insightful critiques delivered by the many ex-pros sitting in TV studios
McIlvanney is the one for me – his books On Football and On Boxing are brilliant. The piece about poor Johnny Owen following his death in a Las Vegas ring is incredibly poignant
https://www.sportsjournalists.co.uk/sja-news/sja-1948-2008/when-johnny-owen-s-courage-let-him-down/
I read Goalkeepers Are Different while in middle school. I can still remember quite a bit of it; the keeper protagonist played for a fictional club called Borough and was terrorized by the very non-fictional Jeff Astle.