A book that was a pleasure for me to read as Brian Clough is one of my two all time favourite football managers, the other being Jack Charlton, who is the subject of my next review, purely by coincidence.

Brian Clough was famous throughout the 70s and 80s for his mighty mouth; but there is no doubt that he put his money where his mighty mouth was. Clough was a good quality footballer, although I never saw him play; and he was an even better manager.

This is Clough's record of achievement:

Brian Clough won the following during his manager career:

League champions, 1971-72(Derby County), 1977-78(Nottingham Forest),
League Cup, 1977-78, 1978-79, 1988-89, 1989-90(Nottingham Forest),
European Cup, 1978-79, 1979-80(Nottingham Forest),
Watney Cup, 1970-71(Derby County), Anglo-Scot Cup, 1976-77(Nottingham Forest),
Super Cup, 1979-80(Nottingham Forest), Simod Cup, 1988-89,
ZDS Cup, 1991-92(Nottingham Forest).

He has also received 24 managerial awards including Manager of the year in 1978.

As a player he achieved the following: 274 appearances and 251 goals.

I got those stats from here, thanks Nordic Chris

Clough started being famous when he took Derby County from the second division to the first division championship in next to no time. More than that, he built a team of such quality that no one could match them. At around this time Clough started to appear on television as a pundit and he caused such a kerfuffle with his forthright views. He never held back: what he said was what he thought and as the best manager in England at that time, what could one say?

The book starts with Cloughie in a situation of which I was completely unaware: getting ready for a liver transplant. He had the transplant as a result of a life of wine or whatever it was that he'd abused his body with. I'd heard stories that he'd had a heart attacks whilst at Nottingham Forest but knew nothing about the drink. It's sad that because the drink will have taken something out of his life and reltationships and that's never a good thing.

We read about Clough's early life in Middlesbrough and his parents. His friends and his first girlfriend. His rise through the ranks to become a highly respectable striker. Then crash: a cruciate knee ligament injury put paid to all of that. Clough says that were he playing today, there is a good chance that he would have recoved enough to have continued playing.

Clough was appointed youth team coach at Sunderland and I used to know someone who was a talented footballer in Sunderland at the time and who was coached by Clough: we were terrified of him, he said of the great man! He's not alone as the man was coccooned in his own mind, as he admits at the end of the book. No one could deflect him from whatever mission he was on.

He moved into management immediately, starting at Hatrlepools where he set out the stall that he was to man for the rest of his life: as the boss. Here he started his love/hate relationship with club directors. In the bad days in the life of a club, the manager is a clown. When the club is doing well, the directors are Gods who walk on water. Notice that the sub title of this book is walking on water ... now you know why!

Clough did well at Hartlepools and even learned to drive the club coach ... all hands to the pumps and people like Clough serve an apprenticeship as a manager as young footballers did.

Clough is famous for his pithy sayings:

I wouldn't necessarily say that I'm the best manager in England but I would say that I'm in the top one!
We had a discussion for twenty minutes or so then agreed that I was right all along.
When a referee went to the ground for a pre match inspection as there had been a lot of rain, the ref kicked the ball from the goal line to see how far it would roll. It rolled no more than two metres: Clough said, 'Perfect'! The match was played.

A player of Clough's said that he spent one entire game marking the excellent Alan Ball. At the end of the game Clough went up to him and asked,

'Who said you should spend the whole game marking Alan Ball.'
'No one, boss; but I thought he was a danger so I kept my eye on him.'
Clough replied with, 'You did the right thing because he's a good player and you're not.'

They loved him for it: including the players who felt the rough end of his fist when they did something he definitely didn't like.

He went to Nottingham Forest after Derby County, Brighton and Leeds United (at that time a massive club but he lasted just 44 days there and walked away £98,000 richer).

I remember an interview on the radio at around the time Clough joined Forest and the presenter asked if he thought Clough could get Forest out of the trouble they were in and the interviewer said, 'He might, you know: he just might.' How prophetic.

No one could have dreamed what would happen next: not even the most fervent Forest supporter as high as a kite would have thought it possible. Championships, European Cups, League Cups and so on. It was only marred by Clough's decline as he got to retirement age and at the end of his last of 18 seasons in charge Forest was relegated. A sad end that to an otherwise glorious career.

The style of the book is not the best: ghost written as it was by a John Sadler. I liked the story though because I like the man and that's all there is to it. Cloughie died a couple of years ago sad to say and when he died there was a veritable outpouring of sympathy and affection for a great man. Except for one BBC Radio football commentator who said something really crappy and he should be ashamed of himself. After all, Clougie was great at what he did, Alan Green just talks about it.

Much of what Clough achieved he achieved together with Peter Taylor: they were the dynamic duo at Derby and Forest and elsewhere but, sad to say, they fell out and Taylor died several years before Clough, leaving Clough with the regret that they never had the chance to make up. Learn from this lesson, once you're dead you're dead. If you love someone and you have a tiff, never lose the chance to make amends because when you go, you go for ever.

There are many tributes to Brian Clough on the internet as elsewhere: probably more than for any other football manager. He deserves it and the English game is all the better for Brian Clough having been part of it.

ecce panis angelorum one might say!

Duncan Williamson
4^th April 2007 revised 6^th April 2007