A football genius, a sporting miracle worker… and an apparent nightmare for gardeners.
Brian Clough, the legendary manager who brought two European Cups to Nottingham Forest after leading the Reds and Derby County to the top of English football – with an ill-fated spell at Leeds United in between – is being commemorated 20 years after his death aged 69 in 2004.
A BBC Sport documentary, Brian Clough – 20 years later, which will be available on BBC iPlayer from today, chronicles the exploits of a man known as Old Big ‘Ead, with interviews and stories from a number of former players and people who worked with him.
Forest great Martin O’Neill talks about the “absolutely box-office” character, former Derby and England defender Colin Todd recalls a “powerful” figure the chairman and directors couldn’t handle, while Everton boss Sean Dyche, who began his football career as an apprentice at Forest, laughs as he tells his story of a day when Clough was kicked out of his own house.
Twenty years after his death, Clough remains a footballing icon and someone who Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis believes continues to influence the club he elevated to footballing folklore.
“You had someone, Brian Clough, who inspired players to excel, who inspired crowds to be there to support the team everywhere, and when he spoke, he spoke about things they could never imagine,” Marinakis told BBC East Midlands Today.
“It was his way of speaking that made us think it was possible and it was normal – and that charisma, very few people have it, that’s why they have made the difference over the years. Brian was one of them.
“I think it’s very important that if a team has such history and tradition, they know that history repeats itself.”
Clough was born in Middlesbrough in 1935 and it was for his hometown club that he emerged and flourished as a player.
He was a prolific striker, scoring 204 goals in 222 games for Boro between 1952 and 1961, during which time he was capped twice by England. To this day, he remains third on Boro’s all-time goalscorer list.
Clough then played for Sunderland, scoring 63 goals in 74 games.
But it was there that he suffered an injury that would end his career.
The cruel end to his playing career before the age of 30, however, propelled him to one of the most remarkable managerial careers ever known.
“He brought joy to people by showing what can be achieved,” said John McGovern, who played under Clough at four clubs and was captain at Forest when they won back-to-back European Cups.
“There are managers who have better results, but if you look at the time it took him to bring success to football clubs, no one has done it quicker.”
That journey began in the Fourth Division at Hartlepools United (now Hartlepool United) and then began to turn into something truly special when he guided Derby to promotion from the Second Division in 1969 and then to a remarkable first English title just three years later.
A falling out with the Rams board led to his departure, with a spell at Brighton and Hove Albion followed by his 44-day stint as Leeds boss, before beginning an 18-year footballing love affair with Forest – which notably saw the Reds rise from the Second Division to the Premier League before conquering Europe, all in three years between 1977 and 1979.
At Forest, where he eventually retired after relegation from the Premier League in 1993, Clough also won four League Cups, a European Super Cup and a Charity Shield.
Clough, Dyche and a smoky kitchen
Everton boss Dyche is the only current Premier League manager with a direct link to Clough, having been an apprentice and youth professional at Forest between 1987 and 1990.
When Dyche reflects on his time with a man who is often regarded as the greatest manager England have ever had, he talks about recognising the “genius” in the way Clough treated players, approached games and set up teams tactically.
“When I became a manager I started to think,” Dyche said. “As a person and a footballer I learned a lot during that period of my life.
“When the boss spoke, you listened. He had this incredible habit: when he told you that you had done well, you felt like you were 10 feet tall and couldn’t get through the door, but if he told you otherwise, you could walk under the door with a top hat.”
Clough has done more than just try to mould Dyche into a footballer of the future, with a list of odd jobs also being assigned to emerging players.
Running a bath for Clough was a habit – Dyche admitting he was stressed about never knowing what temperature to do it at – while tending to the garden at the headmaster’s house was also among the “stupid, crazy stuff” he did.
But things didn’t always go as planned for Dyche, whom Clough almost always referred to as “the redhead.”
“He asked me one day to get rid of five bags of leaves, green leaves,” Dyche said. “When I was a kid, I come from Kettering, I loved having a fire in the woods and I know green leaves don’t burn very well.
“I’m at the bottom of his garden and he says to me ‘young redhead, get rid of these leaves for me, darling, I’ll help you light a fire and you can get rid of them for me’.
“It starts and goes back up, and he used to make us food – more food than you can imagine – so I put these leaves out and I think this isn’t going to work. Then the wind starts blowing towards the kitchen and I think, ‘Oh no.’”
“He comes out and says, ‘Young redhead, get that smoke out of my kitchen or I’ll throw you in the fire.’”
“I’m planting one leaf at a time and I’ve got five bags, and I think it’s going to be a long afternoon. And I hear him again and I say, ‘But boss, I can’t help it, they’re green leaves.’ Then he said, ‘You’re right, well done,’ and went back inside.
“One minute I’m shaking, then I think he’s fine now.
“As a character, he certainly broke the mold.”
“A Special Man” – O’Neill
As a manager who once punched his own club’s fans for invading the pitch after a Forest win – only to be filmed days later with the same fans kissing him on the cheek in reparation – and who introduced himself to his players at Leeds saying they should throw their medals in the trash, Clough was a polarizing figure.
O’Neill – the former Republic of Ireland, Leicester City, Aston Villa, Sunderland and Celtic boss, who also managed Forest in 2019 – was part of the Reds side that climbed to the top of the English and European game under Clough.
For O’Neill, he was both a “phenomenon” and a complex character.
“He was a very special man,” O’Neill said.
“We could have had this guy in the locker room and, within a matter of minutes, had about three different personalities – he could be very rude, but he could also be incredibly generous.
“For me he was the most charismatic manager that ever played in British football, and in all conversations he would be the greatest manager for his exploits at Derby County and Nottingham Forest – two provincial teams you will never see again.”
Defender Todd was signed by Clough at Derby and credits his career in England to the Rams boss’ influence as the club rose from the second tier to the Premier League title in 1972 before reaching the semi-finals of the European Cup the following season.
“He was tough on me at times, but I played for him, I had a lot of respect for him, and he definitely got the best out of me,” Todd said.
“The highlights for me were winning my first England cap under Brian and the European nights, where the atmosphere was electric.
“This was all caused by one man, Brian Clough. Without him, I don’t think it would have happened. But it did.”
Todd went on to join Clough at Forest in the 1980s but smiles when he talks about what might have been for the Rams had Clough stayed at a club that won another English title soon after he left.
“What he did for Derby County was incredible,” Todd said.
“Derby were not a big club, and Forest were not a big club compared to Leeds or Manchester United, so what he achieved at Forest – winning two European Cups – was something I don’t think any other manager would have done at that club.
“Getting to the (European Cup) semi-final at Derby, where we lost to Juventus (in 1973), was another achievement and I think if he had stayed at Derby he would have done exactly the same thing as he did at Forest, and probably won maybe three times.”
