Henry Winter is one of Britain’s most respected football journalists and currently works for the Daily Telegraph. His career started at the Independent and he moved to The Telegraph in 1994. A familiar face on Sky’s Sunday Supplement, Henry was been kind enough to have a quick chat with us about himself and football.

Henry has been at the top of British sports writing for over 20 years and alongside his work for both the Daily Telegraph and Telegraph online, he currently writes a column for Four Four Two and can often be heard on Radio Five Live discussing the beautiful game.

EPL Talk: Thank you for taking the time to talk to us today Henry.

Henry Winter: No problem.

EPL Talk: First up, I believe you started your career with the Independent back in the 1980′s when it launched? ( The Independent launched in 1986) How was it starting on a major paper so young? Did you come to the Independent straight from University or did you cut your teeth on a local newspaper first?

Henry Winter: I managed to convince the Independent that they needed to include a sports and schools column when they launched. I’d spent the previous 12 months after graduating from Edinburgh University in 1985 producing a magazine on sport in London.

EPLTalk: You’ve been at the Telegraph since 1994, one of the things I really enjoy about your writing is that you don’t just concentrate on the Premiership. Is it refreshing to have such a variety of football to cover?

Henry Winter: Half of all football attendances in Britain are outside the Premiership, and Leeds United are a bigger club than all of the Premiership sides, with the exception of the top 6 or 7, so it’s very important to go and see them.

EPLTalk: When I was talking to Patrick Barclay, we discussed his appearances on the Sunday Supplement on Sky. Do you enjoy being on the programme as much?

Henry Winter: I love appearing on the programme because it’s a group of friends sitting around and talking football, which tends to be the way I live the rest of my life!

EPLTalk: I first came across you’re writing with the Kenny Dalglish biography which I received as a present when it was released in 1996. Did you know him well before writing it and how difficult was writing the chapter that covered the Hillsborough disaster?

Henry Winter: I didn’t know Dalglish very at all before writing the book, so I was very honoured to be asked to write it with him. The Hillsborough chapter was very difficult.

EPLTalk: I notice your last book was with David Davies, with F.A. Confidential. Was it eye opening to uncover some of the things that were going on?

Henry Winter: Yes it was but nothing surprises me with the English Football Association.

EPLTalk: Do you have any further plans to write anymore books?

Henry Winter: Yes I do, but I have been very spoiled with the subject matter so far, Kenny Dalglish, John Barnes and Steven Gerrard.

EPLTalk: Now, back to your football career. Did you play for Spartans in the East of Scotland League or have I imagined that?

Henry Winter: I played for Edinburgh University first team but as I didn’t stay on, so I unfortunately missed out on the opportunity to play for Spartans.

EPLTalk: Finally Henry, as Arsenal fan, what were your feelings on the move from Highbury and do think Arsene Wenger gets too much criticism?

Henry Winter: I have been accused of being a Manchester United fan by Manchester City fans, a Liverpool fan by Everton fans and a Tottenham fan by Arsenal fans, so I guess I’m pretty neutral. As for Highbury, the club had simply outgrown it and needed to move onwards. The Wenger criticism is ludicrous, do people want Stuart Houston back?

We’d like to thank Henry Winter for his time and you can keep up with his regular column online here:

The Independent newspaper has publicly acknowledged that it got its facts wrong in a story about the future of Bolton manager Gary Megson, which was originally published on April 8, 2008.

The newspaper originally wrote that the club was “planning an overhaul in its management structure and was set to appoint a coach to work with a director of football and that as a result Gary Megson would be sacked.”

But in an interesting turn of events, The Independent admitted on July 17 that the “statements were totally incorrect and that Bolton Wanderers Football Club was not, and is not, considering a change in its management and has not considered changing the manager, far less made such a decision.”

It’s quite common for U.S. newspapers, such as The New York Times, to feature a section for corrections where editors highlight errors that have been featured in the paper. While the practice is commonplace in the United States, it’s quite rare to find in British newspapers.

The biggest news of the past 24 hours is that Manchester United has reportedly tabled an official £20 million bid for Tottenham striker Dimitar Berbatov. Problem is there’s no evidence of an actual bid being made and all we have to go on is a quote from his agent in The Sun newspaper. What is the “money quote” from the agent that “confirms” that the “bid” has happened?

“I cannot make any comment until there is official confirmation from Tottenham or United.”

While the story may be true, it could also be the agent trying to start a price war to raise Berbatov’s price.

What makes the whole affair ludicrous is now the other British tabloids are picking up on the story and regurgitating the news, and all they have to go on is an article from The Sun. Meanwhile, The Daily Mail even had the cheek to call the story an exclusive.

Here’s a breakdown of how the story broke and how the other news organizations rewrote The Sun‘s material without one of them crediting The Sun:

Headline: United’s £20m Berbatov Bid
Newspaper: The Sun
Day/time article appeared in RSS feed: Friday, 8:53pm ET
Number of attributed sources: One
Source: Emil Dantchev, Berbatov’s agent
Number of direct quotes: One (from agent)
Quote from agent: “I cannot make any comment until there is official confirmation from Tottenham or United.”
Article length: 266 words

Headline: Ferguson Turns His Attention To Berbatov
Newspaper: The Independent
Day/time article appeared in RSS feed: Friday, 9:03pm ET
Source: “There are reports” (i.e. The Sun)
Number of direct quotes: Zero
Article length: 965 words (although only 121 words are about the Berba “bid”)

Headline: United Bid For Berbatov
Newspaper: The Guardian
Day/time article appeared in RSS feed: Friday, 10pm ET
Source: “According to reports” (i.e. The Sun)
Number of direct quotes: Zero
Article length: 135 words

Headline: Exclusive: Get Berbatov: Fergie Puts 20m On Table For Spurs Ace
Newspaper: The Daily Mail
Day/time article appeared in RSS feed: Friday, 11:17pm ET
Source: None mentioned in reference to “bid”
Number of direct quotes: Zero
Article length: 628 words (with only 454 about the Berba “bid”)

At 2:48am ET on Saturday, BBC Sport mentioned 20 words about the story and appropriately placed it in their Saturday Gossip Column

Headline: Spurs Striker Dimitar Berbatov Subject Of Bid From Manchester United
Newspaper: The Daily Telegraph
Day/time article appeared in RSS feed: Saturday, 4:06am ET
Source: “According to reports” (i.e. The Sun)
Number of direct quotes: One (the same quote from The Sun)
Article length: 317 words

To me, this is all about selling newspapers. All of these tabloid and broadsheet newspapers want the eyeballs on their website so they can sell more advertising space. And those print newspapers who were able to squeeze the news into their fish wrappers last night will sell more copies today with the headline about Berbatov. As of press time, the only respectable English newspaper that hasn’t written about the story is The Times. That either may be by choice, if they determine the story is to be utter tosh, or they may be trying to write their own version of the story with new facts and quotes. Then again, they may have fallen asleep at the wheel.

And all of this comes from one news story in The Sun which features plenty of hearsay and one innocuous quote.

The British press are quick to criticize football clubs and stars, but isn’t it time that they raise their journalistic standards and refrain from lazy journalism?