Paddy

Barclay DO NOT SPEAK TO THIS MAN

Paddy Barclay (class of 1965) extended a courtesy to Sir Alex Ferguson, letting him know that he was writing a biography. The result was the text above being sent to Jose Mourinho.

I was doing a book about Alex Ferguson, so I went over to Milan where Mourinho was the manager of Inter to talk about Alex Ferguson. He was delightful, couldn’t give me enough time and as he sits down I say, ‘a little present for you’, and hand over a copy of the Portuguese translation of the book I wrote about him. He sort of waves it way, ‘I’ve read it.’

I had a brother who became a private pilot. One day the driver who was going to take the VIP into London didn’t turn up. My brother was asked to drive, he gets the car and into the back jumps Jose Mourinho. Michael couldn’t contain himself and eventually said, “Mr Mourinho I don’t want to interrupt you, a relative of mine, Patrick Barclay, wrote a book about you.” Mourinho just sort of chucked and Michael said, “Well, I suppose it’s a load of crap.” Mourinho replied “no its not crap”. So, if the book ever gets a reprint…

I took that the book was ok. If he'd got a problem with it, he'd have told me (or Michael).

With Ferguson there was a problem, I'd known him since he was at Aberdeen and I thought I got on alright with him, he was generous with his time, we had a friendly relationship. I got offered the chance to write the book, the most money I ever got for a book, by a long way. I thought if I don't speak to him and I and ask one of his friends like Craig Brown or Andy Roxburgh for an interview, and they ring him as a courtesy I just imagine him feeling let down, that I'd gone behind his back. So I go and speak to him and he explodes, absolutely exploded. “I hate people writing books about me, but it's your choice”, and then he smirks at me and he says, “you do what you like”. He’s very influential in the game, so I wrote to him and said: I think you're being a bit unfair here. You’re supposed to be the champion of the working man, let me be a working man. Two months later I get a reply: ‘Thinking about it – I've no qualms’.

So I went out to Jose Mourinho. And Mourinho is talking and talking and talking, so many wonderful stories about Ferguson, who he loves. He said “Are you staying over in Milan?” I said, “No, I'll get on a plane back tonight.” He asks me which airport I was flying from and when I tell him says “Oh, that's a pity, because I live on the other side, otherwise I'd have dropped you off. But I’ll get the press officer to do it as it he lives near that airport.”

I'm sitting down and waiting for the press officer who comes in, glum faced and he’s holding BlackBerry. “Problem”, he says and hands me the mobile phone. It's Jose Mourinho's and on it is a message from Alex Ferguson saying – ‘Do not speak to this man. He's trying to make money out of my reputation’. And I'm shocked because I got this letter saying ‘I have no qualms’. Mourinho comes back into the room shrugging and saying, “What can I do”. I ask him if I can use the interview, telling him I have got a letter. He tells me that he knows I am telling the truth, “but I don't want to upset Alex.” You can use some of it, but don’t make it look like it came from me. To this day, I think it was very poor behaviour. He's got a very extremist view of intellectual property, or he is mean. The only mistake I made was to try to do things by the book.

Paddy Barclay is one of a select few to have been Chief Football Writer at The Times, Guardian, Observer and Telegraph Additionally, he was a frequent guest and contributor on Sky Sports and the writer of four outstanding books on Ferguson, Mourinho, Busby and Chapman.

I was not particularly good academically. I still have friends that

6th Year, I had six ‘O’ Grades and Higher English. So I literally walked out of the school playground across the road and into a job having I passed a very rigorous whole day interview process. I got a job as an office boy in the Telegraph based in the subeditor’s room. The idea was that I would do menial tasks and learn a bit of sub-editing and then see what happened after that. But after about nine months the editor, a man called Robert Kennedy called me in,

“Have you considered insurance?”

“I don't think it is that dangerous a job Mr. Kennedy all I have to do is make the tea and pin the photographs outside the office.”

“No, no, no, I mean as a career we know that you're trying your best, but we just don't really think you're going to make it. So don't rush, take your time, look around and see if you can find something to suit you better.”

Instead I got a similar job on the Aberdeen Evening Express,

Scared of match reporting

I don't know how I did it, I honestly don't know. All I can remember really is for the first four years I was just winging it night after night, driving home with splitting headaches after matches. Gradually, over the years it got easier but it never got easy. I was scared of match reporting. Even after doing it for 40 years I was always nervous.

Retirement is wonderful. The only thing that spoils it is I have this recurrent nightmare, once it once a month. I'm back writing a feature or doing a match report, but I can't make it work. I wake up sweating because I've finally been found out.

But no, I never got found out!

Paddy wasn’t sent to The European Cup Final in 1985 and so missed the riot that resulted in the deaths of 39 Juventus fans and the pointless football game that followed. He has a guilty feeling of relief that someone else did the reporting that he feels he was untrained for. But he was there in 1989 at the FA Cup semi-final as 96 Liverpool fans died in the crush at the Leppings Lane end of Hillsborough Stadium.

That was a profoundly moving experience. I could talk for an hour about the experience of being on the pitch at Hillsborough after 96 people had died. The memory of that will never leave me. But I had time to observe because my piece didn't come out until Monday. I was good at writing and analysis, but I couldn't do it quickly. The equivalent of a footballer with no pace.

As we watched Brazil v France and Argentina v England at the 1986 World Cup on our tiny TV’s, he was there. As we marvelled at Man Utd’s late, late, show to deny Bayern Munich in 1999 or Michael Thomas wrenching the league title from Liverpool in the last minute of the 1989 season, he was there.

His career allowed him the see the Berlin Wall, the Wailing Wall and Auschwitz in a single year. So for a man with crippling imposter syndrome he did alright.

Messi or Ronaldo?

Not an easy question. I would rather have a season ticket to watch Messi at Barcelona, than a season ticket to watch Ronaldo at Man United, Real Madrid and Juventus combined. However, as manager of Dundee, I would probably take Ronaldo because he would hurt the opposition more. Messi wouldn’t know what to do if he played in the Scottish Premier League because he's never seen anything like it.

Best player you have seen in the flesh?

The easiest question I've ever been asked in my life. Diego Maradona.

Ever cover anything outside football?

I went to a sports editor once and asked if I could become an all-sportswriter. I really admired a sportswriter called Matthew Engle said, you know I'm never going to be Matthew Engle if I just do football. He just looked me in the eye “Buddy, you're no Matthew Engle”.

Best Scottish player?

Kenny Dalglish. But my personal favourite would be Gary McAllister.

Best manager?

It's hard to argue against Ferguson, isn't it? But greatest genius? It was a partnership, Brian Clough and Peter Taylor together. I would put them above Ferguson in terms of genius.

Best stadium?

A toss-up between the Camp Nou (Barcelona) and the Santiago Bernabeu (Real Madrid). I would say that the best fan experience in the world is new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It's difficult to argue against Liverpool or Celtic on European nights as well. I was at Parkhead when they beat Barcelona, sitting next to some Catalan journalists. They were pinching themselves.

The best fan performance I've ever seen was the Koreans in the World Cup semi-final of 2002 against Germany, incredible. Estimated to be 7 million fans in town that night the chanting went on all through the game.

With season tickets for both Fulham and Dundee he is still in love with the game. Nine World Cups, ten European Championships, two African Cup of Nations and countless top end matches. He was in the Azteca Stadium as Maradona punched the ball into the net, just before he scored the greatest goal in football history.

But his humility is most touching. So many years at the top of his game and still feeling like an imposter. He may not have been the Diego Maradona of the football writing world, but for sure he ranks as a Dalgleish or McAllister.

Eilish McColgan

Eilish McColgan has enjoyed an amazing year on the track but there is so much more she wants to share about an initiative close to her heart.

The story of her late flourishing as an athlete is certainly worth telling. Describing the punishing sessions as she strains every sinew time after time. Living out a suitcase for weeks on end as she trains and races in glamourous sounding destinations, though often seeing only airport, taxi, hotel, stadium, hotel, taxi and airport. Tiny adjustments made to wring the last possible benefit from already marginal gains. But above all telling the story of an athlete driven by single minded dedication and commitment.

The result is a career that Eilish (class of 2008) describes as ‘relatively successful’. If there was a gold medal for modesty…

She has represented Great Britain at the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Olympics and Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in 2014, 2018 and 2022. At the 2022 Commonwealth Games she won gold in the 10,000m and silver in the 5,000m. She is a four times European Championships medallist, winning medals outdoors at 5000m and 10,000m and indoors at 3000m. She holds the European record in the 10km road race and British records for the 5000m, 10km road race and half marathon. Throw in the European best for the 10-mile road race and you start to understand that she has a very different understanding of the word ‘relatively’.

But its speaks to her ability to remain grounded in a sport where self-aggrandising can help secure much needed sponsorship and attention, it also signposts her desire to give back to the sport.

Giving Back To Track is a non-profit that she has created along with her partner Michael Rimmer. It aims to ensure that no child is priced out of athletics by providing support to those who need it most, covering training and competition costs and buying kit.

I was very lucky that my parents were able to support me growing up. I was given the opportunity to try loads of different sports and fell in love with athletics. Without their support I wouldn't be where I am today. But my mum has always been very vocal about how different her upbringing was and how as a family, my grandparents really struggled to make ends meet. She relied on the generosity of a coach at Dundee Hawkhill Harriers to enter her into races and to give her trainers etc. My mum has always spoken so fondly of Harry Bennett and what he did for her as a youngster. Sadly he passed away when my mum was a teenager but she still to this day will get emotional when she speaks about him. My partner Michael lost his mother at a young age and his dad did everything he could to channel Michael's energy into sport. Michael was lucky that some generous coaches at his club gave him second hand spikes so he could race and he competed in three Olympic Games and won a record number of British titles. We both wanted to give back to the sport we love so much.

I've had almost a decade in the sport and I know I'm coming towards the latter stages of my career, I think naturally you have a bit of a mind change as to what you want to get out of the sport. I've had a relatively successful career and feel in a comfortable position now where I can afford to give back to the next generation and I have the time to commit to it.

We have five scholarships at present. These include a bursary to Dundee Hawkhill Harriers, some financial aid and a full kit drop

(clothes and shoes) from my sponsor Asics. In addition, we have six travel grants to assist with getting to major competitions, which are often in England. I wanted to support young female athletes because I know first-hand how difficult it is to navigate through your teenage years. It’s tough dealing with puberty, school and moving into further education and that's why we lose a lot of talented young athletes.

The scholarship is something I'm passionate about and it was humbling to meet a few of the girls, they are incredible. They have enjoyed online webinars with professional athletes and discussed issues such as nutrition and menstrual cycles in a closed safe space where they can ask whatever they want.

What is the next for Giving Back to Track?

Dundee’s Active Schools programme identified an area in the city where kids weren’t engaging with sport, so we choose to open an after-school club there. The longer-term plan is to open more of these across the city and then across the country.

To do this, I'll need to find a headline sponsor or some businesses that could help towards the cost of coaching and facility hire. I'd also like to create a Spike Fund, they are very niche shoes, so a platform to donate to kids who don’t have access to them (and possibly also trainers) is something we are thinking of creating, but currently we are trying to resolve the logistics.

I want kids to enjoy athletics, to enjoy being active. I'm not interested in finding the next Usain Bolt. I know sport can change lives.

It is a gold medal aim from our very own, very modest, gold medal winning former pupil.

Donations to Giving Back to Track can be made at the website. www.givingbacktotrack.org