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Brian Glanville RIP


The only football journalist I ever learned from. I adored his style.

He had the most acidic turn of phrase I have ever read.

“Sepp Blatter has 50 new ideas every day - and 51 of them are bad.”

“Bert, the Inert, Millichip.”

I ended up in a career where writing is central. He was a good reason why.

He had enough respect for his readers to force them into a dictionary. He elevated our interest.
 
Drico said:
The only football journalist I ever learned from. I adored his style.

He had the most acidic turn of phrase I have ever read.

“Sepp Blatter has 50 new ideas every day - and 51 of them are bad.”

“Bert, the Inert, Millichip.”

I ended up in a career where writing is central. He was a good reason why.

He had enough respect for his readers to force them into a dictionary. He elevated our interest.
Click to expand...
An acerbic wit.

Do you have any best ofs? Articles, interviews or similar?
 
I too remember Brian Glanville a terrific writer— I remember him writing an article about Alex Young in which he praised Alex not for just being an exceptional footballer but for his intelligence as a person.

I’d say Brian was as good as Peter Wilson at the Daily Mirror and I mean that as a compliment because Peter was brilliant with his reports on boxing and tennis.
 

Drico said:
Well, allowing for the fact that my 25 years worth of World Soccer editions are somewhere in my parents' attic about 1,700km from here, this from Kevin Mitchell is serviceable:

www.theguardian.com

Brian Glanville was fearless, witty and hovered in the press box like Banquo’s ghost

Brian Glanville, who has died aged 93, loved football but detested much about the modern game
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
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Anyone so keen on Groucho Marx has got to be alright. Having a journalist report in the far away dark days of unprepared and often dodgy footballers and sides seems romantically apt. We didn't know what we had, it often deserved derision, but it was fun, and it's that fun that has been crushed by the boa constrictor of commercialism and hyper monies flooding the game by sports washers and dictators and murderers.
 

Another original phrase of perfectly-apt comtempt was his early 1990s description of the Premier League as "The Greed Is Good League."

His favourite word was surely "egregious" - which he regularly employed in his descriptions of the Premier League, Havelange, Blatter, and sundry other targets.

He contined to contribute to World Soccer a good ten years longer than he should have. His previously immaculate articles became festooned with typos and factual errors. That could have been the sub editor, of course, and cutbacks at World Soccer, most likely. But I suspect they were afraid to tell him it was time to go. And, let's face it, a World Soccer without even a declining Glanville simply wasn't worth the price of purchase.

That magazine died, for me, when Keir Radnedge handed over the editorialiship.
 
A decent and eloquent man who loved the game. A student of foreign football when it was sneered at by some other British journalists of the day.
My favourite story; He covered an Arsenal pre season game and was very disparaging about Arsenal. He took a public chastising from George Graham who told him; “Let’s have some quality writing this season Brian” and went to walk out. Just as he reached the door Glanville replied “ Don’t worry George, if I see any quality, I’ll write about it.”🤣
RIP and thank you Brian Glanville, erudite gentleman of the game.
 

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