Brian Glanville obituary: Legendary football writer dies aged 93 – he was arguably the most esteemed ever and a generous man, writes IAN LADYMAN

• Legendary football writer Brian Glanville has passed away aged 93 
• He wrote for the Sunday Times and World Soccer Magazine among others

By IAN LADYMAN

Brian Glanville, who has died at the age of 93, was arguably the most esteemed and influential football writer of his and perhaps any generation.

Glanville spent 30 years as the football correspondent of the Sunday Times while also writing for the Guardian and World Soccer Magazine.

As a writer he could be as coruscating as he could be warm. As an authority of English and in particular European football, he was without peer.

To sit with Glanville – as I was lucky to do on occasion over the last 25 years – was always an opportunity to listen and to learn. Being the conversationalist that he was, that wasn’t always the way it went.

Glanville, like all the truly great journalists and reporters, always saw the company others as an opportunity to broaden and deepen his own terms of reference. There was no hierarchy inside this writer’s head.

When I first came across him in London at the turn of the millennium, he would often travel from his Holland Park home to places like Highbury and Stamford Bridge on his pushbike. You would always know Glanville was in the house simply by the sight of the bicycle leaning against the wall in the foyer.

Legendary football writer Brian Glanville has died aged 93, having left an immense mark on the game and generations of journalists and readers

Glanville pictured at Stamford Bridge blowing out candles on a birthday cake in 2011 

He was already approaching 70 by then but along with his bicycle clips he would never travel without an enthusiasm for football that, despite some of the changes that angered him, remained undimmed until his final days.

Often we would hear Glanville before we saw him, too. He liked to laugh and it was often loud and usually at his own jokes, which weren’t always terribly good.

His writing was often to the point and based on experience, confidence and understanding while his press conference routines were similarly straight forward.

Glanville, often sitting on the front row, had a priceless ability to view football managers as equals and would address them as such. It’s harder than it sounds.

Frankly, he could be blunt and, on the back of that, questions would often lead to longer exchanges. Had he been an opening batsman, he would not have spent an awful lot of time on the back foot.

Glanville’s prominence came in the days before social media, of course. It was harder to become a name in this business back then.

TV and radio appearances and Twitter profiles were not there to do your heavy lifting. Notoriety, respect and standing only came on the back of your work.

And that was how it was with Glanville. He was also a playwright, novelist and screenwriter. But football was his church and he understood it and those who played it in a way that it’s impossible to teach.

He was generous with it all, too, and his passing will not have gone unnoticed in all the corners of our game that matter.

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Brian Glanville obituary: Legendary football writer dies aged 93 – he was arguably the most esteemed ever and a generous man, writes IAN LADYMAN

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