Patrick Barclay (15 August 1947 – 12 February 2025) was a British journalist and sportswriter.

Early life

Barclay was born on 15 August 1947, in London; his father was Hungarian-born actor

Guy Deghy Guy Deghy (born Gedeon Aladar Istvan Deghy; 11 October 1912 – 25 February 1992), was a Hungarian-born actor who appeared largely in British films and television. Career He appeared in the 5th episode of the first season of'' The Saint'' dep ...

. He moved to

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

at the age of 4, where he was raised by his mother. Barclay was educated at the

High School of Dundee The High School of Dundee is a private, co-educational, day school in Dundee, Scotland, which provides nursery, primary and secondary education to just over one thousand pupils. Its foundation has been dated to 1239, and it is the only private sc ...

Career

Barclay started his reporting career with ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' in the early 1970s. When the newspaper ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' was launched in 1986, he was appointed its first football correspondent. He joined ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'' in 1991, and became football correspondent of ''

The Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, first published on 5 February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Tele ...

'' in 1996. He held the post for 12 years. Barclay joined ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' in February 2009 as its Chief Football Correspondent to replace

Martin Samuel Martin Samuel (born 25 July 1964) is an English sports columnist for News UK and has previously worked for the ''Daily Mail, The Times, News of the World, GQ, The Tortoise, Jewish Chronicle, Daily Express, The Sun (United Kingdom), The Sun'' an ...

, who was joining the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

''.Football writer Patrick Barclay leaves Sunday Telegraph to join Times
The Guardian. 5 December 2008. Thus, Barclay became one of the few journalists to be the main writer for his discipline for all four quality newspaper groups in England: Times, Guardian-Observer, Telegraph, and Independent. Barclay left ''The Times'' in December 2011 due to cost-cutting measures. In January 2012, he started writing for the ''

London Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free of charge in London, England. It is print ...

''. Barclay was a regular guest on the

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

programme ''

Sunday Supplement ''Sunday Supplement'' (formerly ''Jimmy Hill's Sunday Supplement'') is a Sunday morning television programme in the United Kingdom about football which was broadcast between 1999 and 2020. The programme aired on Sunday mornings on Sky Sports Pr ...

'', and LBC 97.3's Saturday sports show "Scores".

Books

Barclay wrote a biography of the

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

manager

Alex Ferguson Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson (born 31 December 1941) is a Scottish former professional football manager and player, best known for managing Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. He is widely regarded as the greatest manager of all time and ...

, entitled ''Football – Bloody Hell!''.Football – Bloody Hell! The Biography of Alex Ferguson by Patrick Barclay – review
The Guardian. 16 October 2010.
The Independent. 31 October 2010. The book was published in October 2010. He also wrote a biography of the former

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

manager

Herbert Chapman Herbert Chapman (19 January 1878 – 6 January 1934) was an English Association football, football player and manager. Though he had an undistinguished playing career, he went on to become one of the most influential and successful manage ...

entitled ''The Life and Times of Herbert Chapman: The Story of One of Football's Most Influential Figures'' and a biography of

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix (; born 26 January 1963) is a Portuguese professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player, who is currently the head coach of Süper Lig club Fenerba ...

Personal life and death

Barclay had two children. He died on 12 February 2025 at the age of 77.

List of publications

*''Mourinho: Anatomy of a Winner'' (2005) *''Football-Bloody Hell!: The Biography of Alex Ferguson'' (2010) *''The Life and Times of Herbert Chapman'' (2014) *''Sir Matt Busby: The Definitive Biography'' (2017)

References

External links

*
Patrick Barclay's column
at The Times
Patrick Barclay
on X {{DEFAULTSORT:Barclay, Patrick 1947 births 2025 deaths British people of Hungarian descent Journalists from Dundee Journalists from London London Evening Standard people People educated at the High School of Dundee Scottish sportswriters The Daily Telegraph people The Guardian journalists The Independent people The Observer people The Times journalists Writers from Dundee Writers from London