The stories behind the headlines

10:23am Friday 28th November 2008

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If I had a pound for every time someone said “yeah, but that’s not a proper job”, I’d be a damn sight richer than your average football scribe.

Getting paid for being at the match has got to be the next best thing to actually appearing on that pitch.

But it’s not all glitz and glamour; far from it. And I’m not just talking as someone who has chronicled Bradford City’s slide from facing Arsenal and Man United to Accrington and Macclesfield.

Former Telegraph & Argus reporter John Wray neatly sums up the life of covering sport in his entertaining new book “Leeds United and a life in the press box”.

Wray, a successful freelance, chronicles his four decades in the trade.

As well as detailing the ups and downs of reporting on Leeds during that time, he also gives an insight into what really goes on before the words appear in print.

It’s the bit of the job that nobody sees. Like the endless hanging around draughty corridors just to glean a non-descript cliche from a player, or the laptop with a mind of its own deciding to go slow (or in Tuesday night’s case, freeze altogether) as the deadline fast approaches.

John’s book, while chiefly focusing on the events and characters at Elland Road, is not just for Leeds fans. Those who have wondered if the reporter is watching the same game get a fascinating behind-the-scenes tour of the football reporting job.

I can appreciate many of his experiences and grievances, particularly the dig at jobsworth stewards.

He asks: “What is it that comes over those perfectly normal people who undergo a metamorphosis as soon as they don a uniform? Mild-mannered librarians and factory workers suddenly become prime candidates for the part of Dracula.”

I’m sure we all know plenty of that breed; fans and reporters alike.

John has been bawled out by the best, getting both barrels from the likes of Brian Clough and Fred Trueman. Don Revie, with whom he clearly got on well, also banned him for a couple of days – just so the manager could cover his own back and avoid another FA charge after one public attack too many about a referee.

That’s part of the territory. But he also earned the confidence and trust of some of the biggest football names of the time – and that’s something which every reporter is ultimately judged on.

The modern journalistic world may be very different in this age of internet message boards, text alerts and phone-ins. A lot of the old characters in the newsroom, referred to fondly in the book, would not have survived.

Whether progress is necessarily always a good thing is debatable. But John’s words prove he clearly still loves the job. As he says, it’s a profession that most sports fans would give their right arm for. That’s as long as they can still bash out a 500-word report on the final whistle with the other...

• ‘Leeds United and a Life in the Press Box’ is published by Vertical.