3 Brian Clough

Brian Clough was a very prolific striker for both Middlesbrough and Sunderland, although, despite a phenomenal strike rate, he was hardly noticed by England's managers, winning just 2 caps. As well as the perceived injustice of his career-ending injury while he was in his prime, being overlooked by his country rankled with Cloughie and these were certainly two things that drove his management career on. Clough the manager was much more difficult to ignore than Clough the player. Indeed, he was rarely out of the headlines. He was successful in his first management job at Hartlepool, gaining a reputation for blunt wit and guiding the club to promotion. However, it was in his next post as Derby manager that his career really took off. In a handful of seasons, he guided unfashionable Derby Country from the second tier to the championship of the top tier, through the shrewd signings of up-and-coming, hard working pros and veterans out of whom Clough squeezed a few more seasons; his side played attractive, stylish football into the bargain and played fair with an exemplary disciplinary record. Clough rapidly became an icon at Derby, guiding them to the semi-finals of the European cup. Despite his enormous success in dragging Derby to the summit of English football, he fell out with many people at the club, most importantly the chairman. He signed players without telling his chairman, he attracted and courted publicity, often embarrassing members of the board and frequently made demands and offered his own resignation. Clough and his trusted deputy, Peter Taylor, both resigned from Derby, fully expecting the board to beg them to return in due course. Clough was even involved in helping to arrange a pro-Clough demonstration at the club to force the board's hand. The resignation was heavily publicised and Derby fans were furious, demanding the reinstatement of their hero. At no point did he believe his divorce from Derby would be permanent. However, permanent is what it became when they appointed his former captain at Derby as his replacement. A livid Clough joined lower league Brighton briefly, before leaving for reigning champions Leeds United, a club he had previously mocked due to their poor disciplinary record and aggressive, underhanded tactics. The team consequently made a disasterous start, languishing close to the relegation zone. In the face of a virtual mutiny by the players who resented Clough's vitriolic attacks on their team and manager in the preceding years, the board sacked Clough without giving him a chance to make a success of the job. He went on TV immediately afterwards with Don Revie - the former Leeds manager whom he disliked intensely - describing his sacking as "a mistake - for the club." After the humiliation of Leeds, Clough joined Nottingham Forest - a team who had never won a major trophy - who were languishing in the second tier and redoubled his efforts to take them forwards. He promptly repeated his remarkable achievements of a few years earlier in even quicker time, guiding Nottingham Forest to promotion in his second season and winning the league in his very first top flight season. Not content with this, he went on to win two successive European cups, proving his rapidly and relatively cheaply assembled side to be unquestionably the best in Europe for that short period. Consisting of a few great players and some journeymen with chequered careers as well as bargains he picked up from non-league sides, his success at Forest was astonishing. Stories abound about his eccentricity. On one occasion - after finally tiring of a player he had signed for Forest - he kicked him in the back of the legs, before having the police escort the player out of the ground. The player never returned. On another occasion, captain Stuart Pearce looked on in disbelief with the rest of the players in the team bus as Clough got angry that a car had been parked in the wrong spot and - spitting fury - stormed out of the coach, somehow managing to obtain the keys to the car, before driving away in it. No one knew where he'd gone or indeed if he'd return so the players and coaching staff just waited patiently in the bus. A good time later, Clough drove back in the car, having ostensibly changed his mind about doing whatever he intended to do with the car. He re-parked it, before jumping back in the bus with the players sitting in stunned silence. No one dared laugh. At one disorganised and self-aggrandising press conference, after some typically outrageous statements, one German journalist asked a British counterpart, "is he mad?" The British journalist replied, "No, not quite." Clough was the first manager to become a star. Books and even a smash film have been made about his career. Over these seasons, he was the closest thing in history to a football management genius, achieving unimaginable success with provincial teams. Quotes such as, "I wouldn't say I am the best manager in the country but I'm definitely in the top one" earned him the nickname 'ole big head' and attracted comments from Mohammed Ali as well as slots on prime time television. He even made an appearance on 'Parkinson.' Clough once summed up his approach to man-management with the comment, "If I had an argument with a player, we would sit down for twenty minutes, talk about it and then decide I was right.” He was also a highly intelligent manager, one of the few who really thought deeply about tactics in the 1970s, while his coaching methods were legendary. Players who played under Clough often became great before apparently deteriorating when they left him. This was true of many of his players, incluing John Robertson, Gary Birtles and his son, Nigel. Unfortunately, Clough's alcoholism drained his energies over the following decade and England's decision to repeatedly overlook him in favour of 'safe pairs of hands' who were eminently less qualified than he was hurt him and left him embittered. His descent into serious alcoholism towards the beginning of the 90s - often drinking vodka and orange in the mornings and missing training - left him a shadow of his former charismatic self, unable to remember the names of some of his players (Carl Tyler became "that lanky shithouse I signed - what's his name? Aye, him.") and he frequently cursed his decision to sign players he'd never watched play. Colleagues described him as 'being on another planet' during this period. According to one account a player under Clough at the time called Nigel Jemson tried some step-overs during a match and fell over on more than one occasion. Being rather unimpressed, Cloughie thought he'd explain why it was counter-productive from a tactical perspective. So, he walked up to him in the dressing room at half-time and punched him in the abdomen - hard - shouting, "don't ever try any of those bloody stupid tricks again - not with your parents in the stadium!" On another occasion, Clough stomped around the pitch, slapping a series of his own supporters who had invaded the pitch. In order to make amends, he said, "gissus a kiss" and planted a kiss on them on national TV. So besotted with him were the fans, they didn't seem to mind that he'd physically assaulted them. Clough did, at least, have the support of his chairman who publicly said he agreed with his manager that they 'deserved a slap.' Ultimately, Clough was relegated for the first time in his career after a dismal final season with his beloved Forest. It had become painfully obvious he was too ill to manage a major football club. He never forgave himself for this relegation and wrote about it subsequently in his autobiography, citing some poor team selection decisions and an inability to replace Teddy Sheringham as the main reasons. Having been stabbed in the back and exposed by one of his former directors as an 'alcoholic' in return for cash from a tabloid before being forced to retire, a crestfallen Clough was nonetheless cheered and applauded deafeningly by the Forest fans in a walk of honour around the stadium in his trademark green sweater after the final match of their relegation season. Without Clough, Forest would probably have spent fifteen years hanging around in division two and instead they won the league, 2 European cups and a whole host of further silverware. It was, perhaps, the first time in history that thousands of fans stayed behind after the match to applaud and chant for a manager who had just led them to relegation and it visibly moved Clough, bringing a tear to his eye. Had Clough maintained his incredible success in the 1970s, he would undoubtedly be at the top of this list of great managers; as it is, Clough was the most charismatic and controversial of all the managers on this list and the one with the greatest mystique but - due to his few failures (Leeds, a few dodgy signings and ultimate relegation) - he is in third place. During his time in the game, Clough was well-known for helping people out with money and sending them flowers during bad times. This side of him is often overlooked in some accounts. Having passed away, he is now rightly regarded with affection and veneration by both Derby County and Nottingham Forest supporters. They would, no doubt, argue he was the greatest manager of all time. Today, a statue of Clough stands proudly in Nottingham, a reminder of the most infamous manager this country has ever produced and a larger-than-life character who quite simply achieved the impossible. On numerous occasions. He's now often referred to as 'the greatest manager England never had.'

British league champions: 2
Foreign league champions: 0
European cup: 2