Patrick Barclay: Premier League and Alan Shearer messages among tributes to celebrated sportswriter | OneFootball

The celebrated sportswriter has died at the age of 77

Tributes have begun pouring in for the celebrated sportswriter Patrick Barclay, who has died at the age of 77.

Barclay, a former Evening Standard columnist, was one of the most respected writers of his generation and worked for numerous publications, including the Guardian, Times, Sunday Telegraph and Independent across the course of his career.

Barclay joined the Guardian in the 1970s, before moving to the Independent as its football correspondent following its launch in 1986.

He then worked for the Observer and Sunday Telegraph, before becoming the Times’s chief football correspondent in 2009.

The Standard was the last newspaper Barclay worked for, writing a regular column, while he also appeared regularly on Sky Sports’s Sunday Supplement.

The Sports Journalists Association expressed its “deepest condolences”, saying: “We share in the sadness of his family, our friends at the FWA, and all who knew Paddy. An SJA Sports Writer of the Year Award winner, he will be greatly missed by us all.”

The Premier League have also issued a statement, saying: “The Premier League is greatly saddened to hear of the passing of the football writer Patrick Barclay.

“Patrick was one of the doyens of football journalism in the UK, writing on the Premier League from its inception in 1992 for The Observer, The Sunday Telegraph and The Times.

“He was also the author of biographies on Sir Alex Ferguson, Herbert Chapman and Jose Mourinho.

“As well as being a former chairman of the Football Writers’ Association, he was a longstanding member of the Premier League’s awards panel.

“He was regarded with great admiration and affection by fellow journalists and by English football.

“The thoughts of everyone at the Premier League are with Patrick’s family at this difficult time.”