INTERVIEW WITH TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR JOURNALIST AND IMPACT ALUMNI CHARLIE ECCLESHARE

Charlie Eccleshare is a high-level English sport journalist, currently covering Tottenham Hotspur for The Athletic.

Charlie is also an Impact alumni, so we were keen to find out all about his time in Nottingham, his journey since, and what advice he has for student journalists. Rhys interviews Charlie to discover all of the above, his career path, the dynamic nature of his work, and his favourite place for a night out in Nottingham (you might be able to guess where).

Kindly sparing us 25 minutes from his hotel room in Liverpool, where he was preparing for Tottenham’s fixture with Everton that evening, I wasted no time diving into Charlie’s Nottingham days. Recalling his fondest memories, he says, “I did a lot of theatre when I was at Nottingham, it was called New Theatre then [and still is]. One of the highlights for me was when we took a show to the Edinburgh festival at the end of my second year.” Another standout memory is the glory of IMS football which many of us are familiar with: “playing for my halls’ football team at Grove Farm [now known as Riverside], I’ve got good

Quick Questions

memories from there - the weird sort of micro-climate, where it was insanely windy. Everywhere else it was a really nice day, but you’d get to Grove Farm and it’d be horrifically windy. I remember one game in my first year where you literally couldn’t kick the ball out... it was going out for a corner from your own goal kicks.”

“The most fun things I remember were the theatre and football, as well as obviously doing Impact – the extra-curricular stuff; I always felt that was the most important in a way.”

Charlie assured me his History degree has also been useful in journalism. One example he gave is when a manager gets sacked. “You’re trying to piece together what’s happened, and there are similarities there in trying to understand what happened 50, 100 years ago. Was it inevitable? Was it doomed to fail? What were the factors that caused this to happen? So, I definitely think you learn loads from a History degree that’s useful for journalism.”

Charlie took on the role of Sports Editor at Impact in his final year: “I always thought I would go into journalism, so I’d done a bit at school and on my gap year I did a bit... I then went for the

Favourite night out in Nottingham? “I’m gonna be boring and say Ocean.”

Favourite place on campus? “Down by the science area, by the lake, there’s a café down there. It’s really quiet, there weren’t many people who went there. You could go and have a nice catch up with someone.”

Favourite place in Nottingham? “The Sir John Borlase pub.” position of Sports Editor with one of my best friends Ben Bloom, who’s also gone on to have a career in sports journalism.”

“It was more about doing more Nottingham-based sport; that felt like a more interesting area for the uni magazine.” Charlie highlights a couple of other notable Impact alumni he’s familiar with. Hanna Flint is now a critic, host, and author working in the field of film and entertainment featured on numerous major outlets. Tom Allnutt, also an ex-Sports Editor at Impact, is now a football writer at The Times

Asked about a favourite Impact memory, Charlie ponders. “I remember there was an unveiling of a statue of Brian Clough in the city centre, that would’ve been 2008. I remember that being a really good occasion, and again feeling like a very Nottingham-specific story.” Since his time in Nottingham, Charlie has ascended all the way to the dazzling lights of Premier League football. But it wasn’t always shaping up to be that way. “When I graduated in 2009 it was all doom and gloom about the jobs market, there was a global recession, everyone was saying don’t go into journalism, it’s a really bad idea,” he recalls. “I really regret listening to them, because I think generally if you’re dogged enough and determined enough you can get there.

“But I did listen to them, and I actually did a master’s in International Relations at SOAS in London – that world really appealed to me as well as the journalism. I then got a job in a grad scheme for a PR/Public Affairs company. I stayed there for three years.” Then, a realisation dawned. “I was training for a marathon, and I just had an epiphany. I was like, ‘why aren’t I giving sports journalism a go, like what’s holding me back? If I don’t do it now, when am I gonna do it? Because soon I might have genuine responsibilities’... so I just thought ‘f*ck it, I’ve got to give it a go’, so I handed in my notice where I was – which wasn’t an easy decision because I really enjoyed it, it was a really good company – and got on the Press Association’s fast track journalism course for about four months.

“I qualified, and then I was quite lucky because that summer it was 2014, there was a World Cup on, and I got work at the Evening Standard on the online desk doing bits and pieces. Because there was so much football happening it was quite a good time. That turned into paid work, I was able to get shifts at some of the nationals, and then a job came up at The Telegraph only a few months later. I was just really lucky that it did come up because staff jobs at nationals don’t come along very often.

“I got it and was there for five years and worked my way up from initially doing more editing and online stuff to then writing big features for the paper, getting to do cool things like cover the Wimbledon final, Premier League football matches, go to Marbella to cover tennis, the Davis Cup, go to Azerbaijan for an Arsenal game; all these things that were really, really exciting.”

After nearly five years at The Telegraph, The Athletic came calling.

“They got in touch asking if I wanted to do the Tottenham correspondent role. They’d just reached the Champions League final... I was just thinking ‘wow, what an amazing opportunity’. One of the biggest clubs in the Premier League, in Europe, they’d just moved to the new stadium. I was also conscious that they’re a very newsy club, and that’s definitely been the case.” Indeed, it has. Our interview took place in the days after Antonio Conte was sacked and Managing Director Fabio Paratici was forced to take a leave of absence after sanctions against him for his alleged involvement in Juventus’ capital gains violations were extended (Paratici denies all wrongdoing).

“It’s been just the most amazing experience to be exposed to so much stuff by covering them”. On leaving The Telegraph, Charlie says, “it was a really tough decision... I really liked a lot of my colleagues there. Obviously The Athletic was a little bit of a leap of faith because it was only starting off in the UK at that point.”

After speaking to the Editor in Chief, Charlie was convinced he would regret it if he didn’t give it a go. Ultimately, he is delighted with his decision: “I’m really, really pleased... it’s been an amazing four years where I’ve done so much and got to do tonnes of really cool stuff.”

I was keen to learn more about Charlie’s week-to-week schedule, how flexible it is, the constraints and the unknowns. “It depends. Either it’s a week with two games or one game, and that slightly dictates things to an extent. You might have two games, two press conferences. I do a lot of podcasts and various broadcast stuff bits of pieces – the last couple of weeks I’ve done stuff for the BBC and Sky Sports.

“The main thing alongside all of that is writing three fairly in-depth pieces on Tottenham every week. It is quite a big workload. You’ve got to be efficient with your time, especially as all our pieces require a decent amount of prep work and speaking to people. Because we’re behind a paywall, it all has to be a bit different, and a bit thought out and have information that’s not out there for free.”

“Tonight, for example, I’m going to the Everton game, and I’ve already got a few thoughts in my head about what sort of angles I want to go down. But you also have to be agile – a few years ago was the game where Son Heung-Min got sent off for injuring Andre Gomes in what was a horrific injury, and suddenly this game which we thought was gonna go one way has gone a completely different way and you have to be agile... so you might have a plan of how you think it’s gonna go, and then it goes in a completely different direction.”

Charlie references the aforementioned Paratici news: “it blindsided Spurs, and suddenly everything we thought we were going to do– scrap that, this is the story we need to work on.” Finally, I ask Charlie one more question, wondering if he has any words of wisdom for us student journalists.

“Firstly, find a niche... there are so many people writing about the Premier League, it’s really hard to stand out unless you’ve got a very specific entry point; that could be if you’ve got a really good mind for data ana- lytics.”

“To do things that the nationals and The Athletic aren’t doing on the Premier League, especially the big clubs, is really hard. They’ve got dedicated writers who’ve got tonnes of experience, contacts, so to compete with that is really difficult, even if you’re extraordinarily gifted.”

“Where you will have more cut through probably is if you can find a more underreported area of sport, thinking more locally –you’ll open doors that way and show future employers you’ve got genuine initiative, can chase stories, do interviews. Initiative is the big thing; you just have to be a self-starter because jobs are scarce and they’re really hard to get. You need to take a lot of chances with trying to find stories, talking to as many people as you know in the industry.”

“So many people get in touch with me, I’m always really happy to help, but a lot of people then won’t follow it up, which is fine, but you need to take every opportunity you get. Think about ‘who do I know in the industry?’

It can be as tenuous as whatever – tomorrow I’m speaking to someone who’s the son of the builder of a colleague of mine who wants to go into tennis journalism. Just think about anyone you might know who might be happy to help. Generally, people will be happy to help because we know how hard it is and invariably, we will have had help.”

“My first break was getting shifts at the Standard; that came through a friend of mine from school having previously worked with the sports editor there.”

“It’s about any links you have, being dogged, having that initiative to be proactive. There are grad schemes, but places are few and far between. Some industries you get on a grad scheme and there’s a fairly clear path – it’s not really like that in journalism.”

“Working really hard and being humble are some of the most important things.”