Recently redundant Times chief football writer Henry Winter has joined Glasgow-based daily The Herald to cover this weekend’s Glasgow derby between Celtic and Rangers.
Henry, a multiple winner of the SJA’s Football Writer of the Year award, including in 2023, revealed last month he was being made redundant from his role of chief football writer at The Times after nine years of covering the game for the title. He has also previously covered the Beautiful Game for The Telegraph and The Independent in his three-decade-plus career.
Winter, who studied in Edinburgh, told The Herald: “Having done my student years in Edinburgh, you were the big sponsors and judges of the student awards then, so we’d traipse across respectfully and pray that we won something.
“I remember when we won the sports side of it in the 1980s. One of the treats, as well as a night out in Glasgow, was being shown around the offices and the print side as well. I’ve always had ink in the veins and that only added to the desire to have a career in football journalism.”
Winter will write three pieces on this weekend’s clash, which won’t be his first rodeo: “My first one was 1993,” he told The Herald. “It wasn’t a classic game, it was 0-0 at the end, but just to feel that energy and passion, the urgency and feeling of walking into Parkhead and that sense that nothing else in the world mattered, that everyone who was inside the stadium just assumed that everyone who was outside the stadium, six or seven billion people would just be focused on that and that was all that mattered. And that every corner, every little nutmeg, every tackle was more important than life itself.”
Herald head of sport Jonny McFarlane told Hold The Front Page: “We are delighted to have Henry in Glasgow to cover this momentous clash between Celtic and Rangers. The Herald is always looking for ways to delight and surprise our valued and highly engaged subscribers and judging by the feedback so far, we have achieved just that.”
