- Winter’s departure reflects football media’s changing landscape
- Thirty-five-year career ends with Winter’s unexpected dismissal
- Football media evolution: from traditional gatekeepers to digital fragmentation
The English football media was a winter idyll for over three decades—a perpetual winter. Winter exerts a grasp of ice on the landscape. However, even the winter season can become icy. They were rewarded with a chilly shoulder. At this juncture, the narrative of Winter has come to a close with its final chapter.
That, with apologies, was the introductory paragraph of a Times column written in the style of Henry Winter for the Times and discussing his dismissal. Although you may be completely unaware of the subject matter or individuals I am referring to, That is the objective, albeit indirectly and potentially against one’s interests.
Winter was the Times’s principal football writer until he was unexpectedly laid off last week. The dismissal was widely disseminated globally, specifically within WhatsApp groups comprised of sports correspondents from newspapers. Furthermore, this manoeuvre reveals a considerable amount regarding how we currently consume football and the individuals who facilitate it, albeit in a low-key, reflective manner.
During his thirty-five years at the Independent, the Telegraph, and the Times, Winter likely came to represent football journalism at its most intimate level ever. Players are familiar with him. Managers are acquainted with him. Respected and ubiquitous, he was virtually unassailable. The hiring was publicised by the Times through an opulent television advertising campaign. His stance on issues such as the Hillsborough survivors’ quest for justice or his objection to the cross on the most recent England uniform consistently garnered support despite his lack of intention to stir controversy.
Although we worked together for seven years at the Telegraph, our interactions were relatively infrequent. We constantly traveled, accumulating thousands of miles, hundreds of games per season, match reports by the kilogramme, interviews by the ream, preseason tours, under-21 tournaments, and Friday night Championship games—every moment of every waking moment was devoted to this existence, which evolved into a career and vice versa.
One could even characterise him as a personal inspiration in writing, as a constant reminder of the enduring merits of straightforward, sophisticated prose. Slenderly constructed sentences. Comparable to these. Absence of superfluous adjectives, unwarranted subtleties, and excruciating puns. As the saying goes, “the Catalans among the London pigeons” describes Barcelona versus Chelsea. Birmingham 7 to 0 “Seven-up for Liverpool, the wrath of grapes for Steve Bruce” describes the situation at Liverpool. The 2014 World Cup final-winning goal scored by Mario Gotze is dubbed “Mario de Janeiro.” Consistently described as “wonderful” or “magnificent” are the admirers.
What did this existence consist of? Possibly the most intriguing aspect of Winter’s career from a non-industry standpoint is how it symbolises one of the last concerted efforts by the media to exemplify what one might call “the authentic voice of football”: one that is authoritative, omniscient, unaffiliated, and gospel-like. Shakespeare on the linens and Ultra on the streets. Moreover, there is a notion that this athletic activity constitutes both a shared and exclusive sphere. Collectively, we are fundamentally observing the same thing whenever we watch football.
This notion, should you have failed to notice, has been experiencing a significant decline, a progression that largely parallels the development of the football media in its entirety. However, this remained the method by which we all obtained the game for decades: via television and radio titans, Fleet Street doyens, and camel-coated men whose contributions were more of assessments than opinions. The veracity of statements made by Alan Hansen on Match of the Day or Brian Woolnough in the Sun was established simply by their utterance due to the lack of opposing or dissenting viewpoints.
Recently, Twitter has taken on this function; according to a friend’s memorable description, it was a website where journalists and personalities could impersonate one another. Winter, who boasts an extensive following of over a million, naturally led the migration, maintaining his position in the digital town square, road-testing puns and toasting his magnificent admirers.
However, beneath the surface, the terrain has been fracturing for years: not only traditional publications but everyone is experiencing a loss of influence and attention. Even television has ceased to be a unifying force:
- Its live programming is now almost exclusively paywalled.
- Its analysts are invariably partisan.
- Its content is disposable.
The domain that was formerly our collective football space has fragmented into a million galaxies: specialised websites and blogs, podcasts and YouTube channels, forums and fan media, Reddit and TikTok, and curated feeds that enable us to view a game through any lens we prefer—tribal, social, banter, or fantasy team—have been added.
The previous era has ended, characterised by conventional gatekeepers, newspaper dukes, and tepid Gareth Southgate quotations with embargoed information until 10.30 pm on Friday. And perhaps the dwindling few who remain within it are the last to observe.
“Unlock your financial potential with free Webull shares in the UK.”
In 2024, what might the phrase “authentic voice of football” entail? Which type of correspondent would be capable of effectively communicating with the sport’s diverse silos? In addition to a great deal more, they would be required to have extensive knowledge of the social and historical context of men’s and women’s football, geopolitics and finance, transfers and tactics, analytics and sports science, banter and rage, and all the leading European leagues. Furthermore, they would undoubtedly be well-versed in the bewilderingly complex languages of visual media, encompassing every conceivable format and platform. To clear your confusion, that individual does not exist. Everything is football. But it is becoming progressively too vast for a single entity to consider, much less encompass.
Furthermore, to be clear, not all of this is inherently negative. Despite its inherent inequities and inefficiencies, the football media landscape is more expansive and diverse. The Stadio podcast covers the global game, Fabrizio Romano covers transfers and tactics, Grace Robertson discusses tactics, Versus covers football culture, Mark Goldbridge delivers performative outbursts about Erik ten Hag, and the Guardian publishes chin-stroke think-pieces written by the individuals selected last in physical education. Now is a more favourable time to consume football. The garden is in a state of blossom. But for spring to commence, which you know is approaching, Winter must first pass.
