Winning the European Cup is a tremendous feat. Successfully defending it is simply phenomenal. Welcome to the world of Brian Clough. When he died from stomach cancer in September 2004, he was 69 but left behind a legacy as one of the England’s finest ever managers.
It is often forgotten that his brief playing career was spectacularly successful. Like Sir Bobby Robson, Clough’s brilliance as a manager has obscured the memories of his achievements on the field but they are definitely worth mentioning.
He was a prolific striker, emerging as a bright young talent at his hometown club Middlesbrough. In 213 appearances, Clough smashed an incredible 197 goals.
His reputation soon spread and a first England cap followed. Sunderland snapped Clough up in 1961 and he went on to bag 54 goals in 61 games. His future appeared bright and he looked forward to a lengthy career.
Then disaster struck. A nightmare collision in a match against Bury saw Clough suffer a cruciate ligament injury and, in the blink of an eye, his playing career was over. He tried to return two years later but the pain was too much and he had to retire. Nowadays, such an injury would be far less serious but back in 1962 it spelt the end for Clough.
Distraught at seeing his world crumbling around him, he acted decisively – as always. In 1965, an opportunity to become Hartlepool manager presented itself and Clough decided it was too good to miss. He and good friend Peter Taylor – who he knew from his Middlesbrough days – took the job at the Fourth Division side and began the journey to the top of the management tree.
He was just 30 and was, at the time, the youngest manager in the Football League. Far from being intimidated by giving up so many years to his opposite numbers, Clough embraced the challenge.
The duo took over a poor Hartlepool squad and turned things around to clinch an eighth-place finish. His reputation grew as his straight-talking, ruthless approach seemed to get the most out of his limited resources.
It was not long before bigger clubs started to take notice and in 1967 Clough was offered the manager’s position at Derby County. The step up to the Second Division was a reflection on how effective he had been at Hartlepool.
With Taylor providing invaluable assistance as his right-hand man, Clough led Derby to the Second Division title in 1969. He assembled a hugely talented side that played glorious football. Among the stars were John O’Hare, Roy McFarland and Dave Mackay, who had won the FA Cup as Tottenham captain in 1967.
Clough’s rebellious style engineered the arrival of Mackay. He travelled to London to meet the player and managed to do the seemingly impossible – convince the Scotland legend to join his ambitious Second Division outfit.
In an article in The Independent, Mackay was quoted as saying: “He’d [Clough] finished fifth from the bottom in his first season at Derby, they’d almost gone down, but he said, ‘If you come to this club we will win the Second Division’. That’s the way the guy talked, giving people so much confidence in themselves. For the younger players in particular, he’d tell them how good they were and they’d begin to believe it themselves.”
Mackay had never played in defence but Clough installed him in the back-line, where he was imperious. This signing was perhaps the greatest deal that the Clough-Taylor double act struck during their many years together.
In the same article, Mackay heaped praise on Taylor as the perfect foil for Clough. He said: “All the accolades went to Brian, but they were a brilliant double act. I believe it was Peter who told Cloughie, ‘Get Mackay’. Peter’s job was to locate the players, Brian’s job was to ignite them. Peter identified good players. Brian made them great.”
The upstart Derby squad made a big splash on arriving in the top flight. The Rams took a few years to establish themselves but got it spot on in 1972 as Clough celebrated winning the First Division. It all looked so rosy at the Baseball Ground and the club’s supporters adored Clough.
Unfortunately for him, chairman Sam Longson – the same man who had gambled on the management duo in the first place – did not share the fans’ love for Clough. The relationship between Longson and his manager became increasingly bitter and, a year after winning the title, Clough and Taylor resigned under pressure.
It was a decision that would haunt him for the rest of his career. He felt he was on the brink of greatness with his squad at Derby, only to see his plans crumble before his eyes. He would never be forgotten by the club’s fans.
A bizarre few years followed. The duo surprised many by taking over in charge at Brighton & Hove Albion in the Third Division. It was a big backward step and proved to be a disaster. His aggressive style of management failed to lift the players in the way it had at Derby and it ended up being a brief spell in charge for Clough. Taylor stayed on, moving into the managerial hotseat.
Even briefer was Clough’s controversial 44-day stint as Leeds United boss, taking over from Don Revie. The football world was stunned as he agreed to manage a club whose players he had previously called cheats. It was a staggering turnaround and was always destined to end badly.
Clough would never see eye-to-eye with the Leeds players who seemingly disliked him as much as he appeared to despise them. There were constant arguments and confrontations before a player mutiny led to Clough being sacked.
Having suffered disappointing outcomes in his past two jobs, he could have been forgiven for taking a break from management. But instead he opted to get straight back on the horse when he received an offer from Nottingham Forest.
He accepted the manager’s post and began the most successful stint of his career. Initially, he went solo but then Taylor joined him in 1976. With the old partnership back in action, Forest quickly became competitive as Taylor’s first class eye for talent helped Clough make a string of shrewd additions.
The club boasted the likes of Martin O’Neill and John Robertson while Clough added trusted faces from his Derby days in O’Hare and John McGovern. He also bought Larry Lloyd and Peter Withe as Forest gained promotion to the top flight at the end of the 1976/77 season.
By his own admission, Clough could be rude and arrogant but as a manager his record was fantastic. He gained the nickname Old Big ‘Ead and was hugely popular, if sometimes feared, by his players.
In the First Division, Clough continued to be an inspiration for his Forest squad. It could have all been very different, though, if he had been awarded the England manager’s job in 1977. He was interviewed but the FA opted to appoint Ron Greenwood.
Clough would later remark to the media: “One reason I never became the England manager was because the FA thought I would take over and run the show. They were dead right.”
England’s loss was Forest’s gain as Clough carried on his fine work at the City Ground. In the First Division, his team refused to be put off by the reputations of their opponents and his eccentric style soon bore even greater fruits.
The year after gaining promotion, Forest toppled the established order in the top flight by bagging the First Division title in 1978. The club had not been blessed with major trophies in their history and this represented a sensational achievement. It is hard to imagine such a feat ever happening in modern football. Could West Brom, Hull or Stoke City lift the Premier League trophy this season? Absolutely no chance is the answer.
Even more impressively, Clough’s side had won the title in style, putting together a phenomenal unbeaten run of 42 league matches between November 1977 and December 1978. It stood as a record until Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal team managed 49 Premier League matches without defeat from May 2003 to August 2004.
Clough was constantly aiming higher, though. Winning the league was great but then there was the European Cup to target. Forest were on a roll and the belief that the manager had instilled in his players shone through as they surged to the European Cup final in 1979, beating Malmo 1-0 to lift the trophy. Trevor Francis, who had become the first million pound player when Clough signed him from Birmingham, grabbed the winner.
Old Big ‘Ead was rightly hailed as a genius. And for good measure he repeated the trick the following year, defeating Kevin Keegan’s Hamburg in the showpiece final with Robertson the goal-scoring hero this time. The 1979 success had been no fluke. Forest had emerged from nowhere to become a European power.
These two nights were the pinnacle of Clough’s career and allowed him to stick two fingers up to his critics. The ecstasy of these moments would stay with him forever, just as Sir Alex Ferguson will never forget the glory of Barcelona and Moscow.
Off the field, Clough could enjoy family life. He had married his wife Barbara back in 1959 and had a daughter and two sons – one of whom, Nigel, would play for Forest under his father.
League Cup final appearances arrived at regular intervals during Clough’s stint at the City Ground, with victories coming in 1978, 1979, 1989 and 1990. But the FA Cup remained elusive, despite leading his team out for the 1991 final with Tottenham that saw the infamous Paul Gascoigne injury and the decisive Des Walker own goal.
However, Clough was heading for heartbreak, intensified by the fact that a rift with Taylor, who had left to take charge at Derby in 1982, had not been put to rest when his former assistant manager died in 1990 – something that ate away at Clough for years.
He received an OBE in 1991 in recognition of his tremendous achievements in football. The following year, the First Division became the Premier League but Forest struggled badly. Stars like Teddy Sheringham and Des Walker were sold and the team never recovered. Clough could not turn the situation around and Forest were stuck in the bottom three for the majority of the season.
In the end, a defeat to Sheffield United condemned the club to almost certain relegation – and brought the end of Clough’s managerial career. He resigned. He no longer had the energy for the job and his problems with alcohol had caught up with him. It was time for Clough to leave the dugout for good.
It was a desperate shame that such a brilliant manager had been unable to go out on top but as Clough walked away from the game he could reflect on a truly magnificent career.
There had been plenty of ups and downs and he was often at the centre of controversy – never more so than when he ran onto the pitch and hit pitch-invading fans, earning himself a touchline ban. He did not suffer fools and had plenty of bitter exchanges with opposite numbers and the media alike.
But it was this incredible character that made him so unique. Until Jose Mourinho arrived at Chelsea in 2004, there had not been another boss in the Clough mould since 1993.
It is testament to Clough’s influence that several of the stars who played under him have gone on to successful careers in the dugout. Martin O’Neill is regarded as one of the Premier League’s best managers while Roy Keane got Sunderland promoted before resigning.
As for Forest, they have endured some of the most miserable years in their history since Clough’s exit. They tumbled into the third tier of English football in 2005, leaving the supporters in despair. Colin Calderwood’s side have now clambered back into the Championship and it would be a fitting tribute to Clough if they could reclaim a place in the top flight in the coming years.
In a career that had many magical moments and was certainly never dull, Clough spoke his mind, inspired his players and delivered the goods when it mattered most. He will never be forgotten.
