The Life and Times of Brian Clough: Part Two

THE DERBY COUNTY DAYS

Clough left Hartlepools in May 1967 to take over as manager of Derby County, and after an initial season of stabilisation, his second year at the Baseball Ground saw the Rams claim the Division Two title.

Derby’s first season back in Division One saw them finish fourth, but in the 1971-72 season, the Midlands club edged out Leeds and Liverpool in a dramatic finish to claim their first ever top-flight title.

Alan Durban (Derby midfielder)

“I knew he had been at Hartlepool, but I knew very little else about him – but that soon changed. We had this incredible meeting with him. One player asked for spending money for when we were on tour, and you can imagine Cloughie’s response.

“Then Peter Daniel said, ‘Somebody has got to milk the cows boss, when I am away’, and Cloughie replied, ‘Well, you’d better get used to it’. Whatever we asked for, he said, ‘No, you can bugger off’.

“He very, very quickly changed our thinking so that we were focused completely on the job. We knew it was work and if you didn’t like it, you were out. The impact he made was immense.

“I liked to have my life structured, planned, but you couldn’t under Cloughie. He wouldn’t let you know until the day before what time you would be training the following day. He made you realise that football was your life.”

Sam Longson (Derby chairman, with whom Clough repeatedly clashed)

“This young manager had arrived like a whirlwind. We were all under his spell. Unfortunately for the club, he took more and more control both on and off the field.

“I had to work overtime to explain to him that a football club is a limited company subject to company law. It is also subject to the rules and regulations of the Football Association and the Football League. Chaos was abounding inside the ground.”

Les Green (Derby goalkeeper, who was dropped by Clough) “After about six months of being mucked about and not knowing where I was with the club, I went to Brian’s office and told him I wanted to sort everything out once and for all. ‘You can’t talk to me,’ he said. ‘I’m Jesus Christ’.

“I chose the wrong time because he was knocking back the brandies. He shouted and swore at me to get out so I shoved him and he fell off his chair. I just turned round and walked out.”

Colin Todd (Derby centre-half, signed by Clough for a British record fee)

“Every Friday night, home game, we were at the Midland Hotel. We knew what the routine was, we’d have our meal at 7 o’clock, then we’d go to our room, have a game of cards, a few beers.

“Anyway, this one night, I went straight to my bed. No sooner did I get to my bed, the phone rang and Clough said, ‘Hey, young man, get your arse down here, would you?’ I went down, he said, ‘You know the format, you’ve got to get some beers down you because you’re going to sweat tomorrow’.”

THE LEEDS UNITED YEARS

Despite having developed something of an enmity for Leeds United, Clough shocked the footballing world when he agreed to take over from Don Revie at Elland Road in July 1974.

It proved a disastrous decision, with Clough lasting just 44 days as Leeds manager before a players’ revolt effectively forced his dismissal.

Peter Lorimer (Leeds striker)

“He was on a family holiday in Majorca when his appointment was announced and he let it be known that he would arrive at Leeds when he was good and ready. He was certainly not going to interrupt a holiday abroad and everyone could just wait.

“Straight away, he showed no great desire or commitment, which you could perhaps understand, to a minimal extent, if you were talking about a third or fourth-tier club. With Leeds, you were talking one of the biggest clubs in Britain, Europe and the world.

“We had just won the league title for goodness sake, what message then did, ‘Leeds can wait’ give out?”

Eddie Gray (Leeds winger)

“If Brian had come in and just thought, ‘I know I’m a bit of a character and I’ve got this reputation, but I’ll just play it cool and let them get on with it and slowly stamp my authority’, he would probably have been fine.

“Instead, he went about things in the wrong way. He came in like a bull in a china shop. Saying thing like, ‘You can throw your medals in the bin’, brought a response from people like Bremner and Giles of, ‘What the hell are you on about?’ And quite rightly so.”

David Harvey (Leeds goalkeeper)

“His first training session brought my first direct contact with Clough. My first feel of the ball was a short goal-kick to Paul Reaney who, in an instant, had Joe Jordan bearing down on him.

“Joe took the ball off him and blasted in a shot that went narrowly wide, and the next I knew, Clough, who was at the other end of the pitch, stopped the game.

“Dressed in the gear he was often photographed in – green top, shorts, rolled-down socks – he folded his arms and walked ever so slowly over the halfway line and headed in my direction.

“He carried right on until our noses were nearly touching and boomed, ‘If you ever do anything as stupid as that again, you will never get into a team of mine’. I could feel my hackles rising. ‘Mr Clough,’ I said, ‘If you ever again try to make me look a prat, I’ll squeeze your balls even harder than I’m squeezing them now’.”

THE NOTTINGHAM FOREST YEARS

Clough took over at the City Ground in January 1975, and his 18 years in charge of Nottingham Forest were easily the most successful in the club’s history.

He won the First Division title in 1977-78, four League Cups and a Charity Shield, but his crowning glories were the back-to-back European Cups that saw Forest crowned champions of Europe in 1979 and 1980.

Martin O’Neill (Nottingham Forest midfielder during their European Cup successes)

“He would be the first to say that he was the greatest of all time. But he was like England’s version of Muhammad Ali.

“He had fantastic charisma, unbelievable charisma. Outwardly, he had this fantastic self-belief and self-confidence, but in truth, I think sometimes he was as vulnerable as all of us.

“One of the great myths was that he was a manager and not a coach, and seldom on the training ground. The very fact is that every day was a coaching lesson from Brian Clough and, when he did come down to the training ground for a 20 or 25-minute spell, you’d pick up enough in that time to do you a lifetime.”

Stuart Pearce (Nottingham Forest captain towards the end of Clough’s career)

“He was one of the big characters in the game, I can’t name anyone bigger. It was a different day every day with him, he brought simplicity and the main thing was respect.

“I think he was a man for all seasons. He had a reputation for being a hard taskmaster, which he was when it was needed. But there were other times, like when I came back from the 1990 World Cup under a bit of a cloud, and he was there with an arm around the shoulder. He knew exactly what to do at the right times.”

Garry Birtles (Nottingham Forest striker)

“The night before the League Cup final against Southampton in 1979, we were blotto. We had everything we could possibly have wanted to drink – bitter, lager, mild, champagne.

“There were people who could hardly stand by the time we went to bed. But Clough insisted on it. Archie Gemmill wanted to go to bed – he wouldn’t let him. We were 1-0 down at half-time the next day, but once we sobered up, we were okay. We won 3-2.”

Roy Keane (Nottingham Forest midfielder)

“He was incredible. I walked into the dressing room at half-time once and he punched me straight in the face. ‘Don’t pass the ball back to the goalkeeper!’ he screamed. He never said sorry, but the following week, I was given a few days off.”

* Some source material has been taken from “Nobody Ever Says Thank You” by Jonathan Wilson and “We Are The Damned United” by Phil Rostron.