September 20th 2004. The date that the world, and specifically the football community, lost a great man, and one of the best to ever be associated with the game.
The words legend and genius are banded around far too often and easily in the era in which we live. When a manager makes a substitution, and the said player taps home the winner minutes later, his boss is a genius. Score a hat-trick, you’re a legend. But in the grand scheme of things, very few people deserve to be labelled as both.
Last month marked the seventh anniversary of Brian Clough’s death, a man who transformed Derby County, for the good, forever.
Another who deserved the moniker was Liverpool’s Bill Shankly. It is then however fitting that Shankly praised Clough highly for his time at Derby County. “He took a pig sty and turned it into a football club”.
To say a few words about Brian, I invited my Roker Report collegue, guest contributor to The Football Project and big fan of Mr Clough, Michael Graham, to add a few words of his own.
“For those unfamiliar with the Clough family history, Nigel and Brian would appear so dissimilar to each other that even a shared name and association with Derby County may not be enough to convince them they are so closely related. Whilst Clough the younger presents himself as an unassuming picture of humility, his father’s ego was legendary.
Such was Brian Clough’s conceit that he was more dictator than he was football manager. He had scant regard for the intricacies of tactics and formations, and gave little thought to the those of his opposition. Over-complicating the game meant over-complicating his own message, and making it harder to get across to his players who he did not wish to burden with needlessly complex instructions on the pitch. It could be argued that he actively did all he could to actually dismiss the role football itself had to play on the pitch. But that was Brian Clough. He was a man who existed outside of convention.
Where he placed his faith were in people and his ability to inspire the best in those that he worked with. Martin O’Neill, a feisty and at times volatile character, said of his former manager ‘You wanted to please him. You wanted to go out and do your utmost to please him so that he would have that respect for you that you were craving. You needed to know that you meant something in his life’. The magic of the man himself was the magic of the manager. He turned the average into the extraordinary through sheer force of character. It is a formula that is impossible to duplicate.
When Nigel played under Clough Snr for Nottingham Forest, he was addressed as simply ‘number nine’ by his manager. By his father’s own admission he ‘treated him worse than the other players’. In fact, Brian Clough even refused to pay him a penny for the first year or two in which he was playing top division football at the County Ground. There was no favouritism, and you can be certain that he would judge his managerial career similarly harshly.
But what is also certain, is that had he been alive today, he would have enormous respect and admiration on a purely professional level for the manager that Nigel has become. It is, of course, highly unlikely that he will reach the managerial heights of his father. The goalposts of success have been well and truly moved since then. But in showing the humility and the respect for the job to serve a long apprenticeship at a lower level, and being steadfastly committed to producing passing football in keeping with the football ideals both men share, Nigel is paying a fitting tribute to, and helping perpetuate, the Clough legacy on a daily basis.”
The celebration of Clough’s life comes at a time when his son, Nigel, is enjoying his most successful period at the club that has a nine-feet tall statue of his father outside of its ground. The question that the former Burton Albion manager must now ask himself is, can he ever step out of his father’s shadow, and become a County legend in his own right?
Football is now experiencing a time when chairmen across the land have begun to dish out P45s at an alarming rate, and a revolving door policy has become the norm in the modern game. It is however refreshing to see that the people in charge at Pride Park have stuck by their manager, through some admittedly tough times, and are now reaping the rewards of their patience.
Like so many managers in the Championship, Clough has rebuilt his squad, bit by bit, on a yearly basis since taking over from Paul Jewell. Having kept the club in the league in his first half season, Clough Jr performed well during his first full season in charge, securing more points and a better league position than the previous campaign, despite his sqaud being ravaged by numerous injuries.
However, last season saw Clough come under a lot of pressure after a poor run of results. The Derby fans lost patience with their boss, and began to chant ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’, while trying to force the board into the change that they deemed necessary if they were to avoid being dragged into a relegation battle.
Refreshingly, said board weren’t to be swayed by the fans, and gave Clough Jr a vote of confidence, quashing rumours that he was set to leave the club and return to Burton Albion, the club with which he made his name.
The move has certainly paid off for the club, as The Rams currently sit handsomely in the top six of the Championship, and as much as a team can at this stage of the season, look like a team capable of pushing for promotion. After the start that they have made, the playoffs now seem like a minimum requirement.
Interestingly, when Steve McLaren left Nottingham Forest last month, and potential suitors were being banded around to replace him, Nigel Clough was one of the names linked with the job. If he thought it would be difficult to step out of the shadows of his father’s legacy at Derby County, attempting to do the same at a club that won back-to-back European Cups under Clough senior sounds like borderline sadomasochism. Footballing aficionados still fall out over which club was closest to Brian’s heart, and the two clubs have named any games between them played since 2002 ’the Brian Clough Trophy’, in honour of the great man.
Clough wouldn’t be the first person within the beautiful game to be overshadowed by their parents before them. Jordi Cruyff, upon signing for Manchester United, requested that only his first name be displayed on his shirt, in order to try and stop the obvious comparisons between him and his father, one of the greatest players ever to kick a football. In a situation more akin to the Cloughs, Darren Ferguson’s management career will always be overshadowed by the work of his ‘old man’. Darren can even call on the help of his father with loan signings, and although he wouldn’t like to admit preferential treatment, when he was sacked from Preston North End in December, 2010, it is telling that the Manchester United gaffer withdrew all of the Manchester United loan players that were on the books at Deepdale.
Derby haven’t tasted life in the Premier League since their doomed campaign in the 2007/08 season, which saw them pick up a record-low 11 points, registering just one victory along the way.
If Nigel can follow in his father’s footsteps and take the club back to the English top flight, then he may have, finally, begun to step out of the considerable shadow cast by his father that he has been living under for so many years.
Talking about seeing Nigel win promotion with Burton Albion, Clough Sr said: “I went to see his Burton Albion side pick up the Unibond League championship trophy, having comfortably won promotion to the Conference. Now, as you know, I’ve had my hands in a lot of silverwear in my time, but none of those trophies gave me the depth of pleasure I felt when I picked up the one they gave to Burton that day. I know he was proud, but he couldn’t have felt prouder than his old man. I’ve never before experienced the sensation I felt as our Nige led his triumphant team on their lap of honour. I think he might just have taken to the managerial side of the business. I think he might have a chance”.
Whatever happens to Derby this season, and whether Clough succeeds in his quest for promotion, Nottingham Forest’s courting of him has encouraged the board at the Pride Park to offer him a new, four-year deal, and it is difficult not to wish him well in his quest to even begin to emulate what his father acheived within the game. For the younger generation of Derby fans that don’t remember the Clough years the first time around, this season seems the perfect opportunity for Clough Jr to leave his ‘number nine’ tag in the past, and make sure that Nigel is the first name that Derby County fans associate with the great name Clough.
Many thanks to Michael Graham for his contribution. If you want to hear more from Michael and myself on Sunderland FC-related issues, you can find us both over at www.rokerreport.com
