The Gooner Forum

Many people who read this column will know Brian Woolnough as the presenter of a programme called The Sunday Supplement, in which journalists talk football, eat croissants and, during the interval, swap the stuff we can't say on air. That's why we're always laughing when the show comes back after the break. Sorry.

Brian died yesterday, after a long illness, and already we miss that infectiously easy laughter. He presented a weekend breakfast show on talkSport for a while, too. I was an occasional guest.

Him, me, what appeared to be a 12-year-old producer and whoever else was up at 6am on a Saturday morning. Nutters, mostly. Brilliant nutters like the Arsenal fan who phoned in whispering because he was still in bed with his sleeping wife, and wished to agree with a previous caller's statement that seeing his team score was better than sex.

Brian was incredulous. 'So you'd rather watch Arsenal than have sex with your missus?' 'Mate,' he said darkly, after a pause, 'I'd rather watch Tottenham than have sex with my missus.'

Brian was a brilliant journalist who always asked the toughest question and as good as patented the idea that there was invariably a news story worth telling at every game, beyond the straightforward confines of the match report.

Every football reporter has been asked to do that job at some time in his career. None of us ever did it as well as Brian. He nailed great stories in the days when there wasn't a live event to fill the back page each day and, despite everything, remained great company on the road.

On behalf of his many friends at the Daily Mail sports desk, our thoughts are with his family, while sparing room for some memories of a much- admired man.

skizz_b wrote:Martin Samuel wrote a little snippet about him...quite funny story in there too. Cancer is horrible stuff, my old dear's suffering with it at the moment. RIP

Many people who read this column will know Brian Woolnough as the presenter of a programme called The Sunday Supplement, in which journalists talk football, eat croissants and, during the interval, swap the stuff we can't say on air. That's why we're always laughing when the show comes back after the break. Sorry.

Brian died yesterday, after a long illness, and already we miss that infectiously easy laughter. He presented a weekend breakfast show on talkSport for a while, too. I was an occasional guest.

Him, me, what appeared to be a 12-year-old producer and whoever else was up at 6am on a Saturday morning. Nutters, mostly. Brilliant nutters like the Arsenal fan who phoned in whispering because he was still in bed with his sleeping wife, and wished to agree with a previous caller's statement that seeing his team score was better than sex.

Brian was incredulous. 'So you'd rather watch Arsenal than have sex with your missus?' 'Mate,' he said darkly, after a pause, 'I'd rather watch Tottenham than have sex with my missus.'

Brian was a brilliant journalist who always asked the toughest question and as good as patented the idea that there was invariably a news story worth telling at every game, beyond the straightforward confines of the match report.

Every football reporter has been asked to do that job at some time in his career. None of us ever did it as well as Brian. He nailed great stories in the days when there wasn't a live event to fill the back page each day and, despite everything, remained great company on the road.

On behalf of his many friends at the Daily Mail sports desk, our thoughts are with his family, while sparing room for some memories of a much- admired man.

flash gunner wrote:R.I.P. to my wifes aunt who died last night. She was massive Arsenal fan having grown up in Islington. She was old and recently became unwell but im sure she is in the Northbank in the sky with all the other Gooners now

DB10GOONER wrote:

flash gunner wrote:R.I.P. to my wifes aunt who died last night. She was massive Arsenal fan having grown up in Islington. She was old and recently became unwell but im sure she is in the Northbank in the sky with all the other Gooners now

Sorry to hear that, mate.

RIP.

flash gunner wrote:R.I.P. to my wifes aunt who died last night. She was massive Arsenal fan having grown up in Islington. She was old and recently became unwell but im sure she is in the Northbank in the sky with all the other Gooners now

QuartzGooner wrote:

DB10GOONER wrote:

flash gunner wrote:R.I.P. to my wifes aunt who died last night. She was massive Arsenal fan having grown up in Islington. She was old and recently became unwell but im sure she is in the Northbank in the sky with all the other Gooners now

Sorry to hear that, mate.

RIP.

Me too.

flash gunner wrote:R.I.P. to my wifes aunt who died last night. She was massive Arsenal fan having grown up in Islington. She was old and recently became unwell but im sure she is in the Northbank in the sky with all the other Gooners now

cusamano wrote:Guys, I can´t keep you updated this week...
I´m at the Oktoberfest and drunk all week
I don´t know who died, and don´t know if I will survive...