A football genius, sporting miracle maker… and apparent gardener’s nightmare.
Brian Clough, the legendary manager who delivered two European Cups to Nottingham Forest after first taking the Reds and Derby County to the top of English football – with an ill-fated spell at Leeds United in between – is being remembered 20 years on from his death at the age of 69 in 2004.
A BBC Sport documentary, Brian Clough – 20 Years On, which will be available on BBC iPlayer from today, chronicles the achievements of a man famously 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 of “the absolutely box office” character, ex-Derby and England defender Colin Todd recalls a “powerful” figure that chairman and directors could not handle, while Everton boss Sean Dyche, who started his football career as an apprentice at Forest, laughs through his tale of once smoking Clough out of his own house.
Two decades on from his passing, Clough remains a football icon and one who Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis says continues to influence the club he elevated to footballing folklore.
“You had someone, Brian Clough, who inspired the players to outperform, who inspired the crowds to be there to support the team everywhere, and when he spoke he talked about things that they could never imagine,” Marinakis told BBC East Midlands Today.
“It was the way he was talking that made you think it was possible and that it was normal – and this charisma, very few people have it, that is 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 history repeats.”
Clough was born in Middlesbrough in 1935 and it was for his hometown club that he first emerged and flourished as a player.
He was a prolific striker, scoring 204 goals in 222 games for Boro between 1952 and 1961 – in which time he earned two England caps. To this day, he remains third on Boro’s all-time list of goalscorers.
Clough went on to play for Sunderland after that, bagging 63 goals in 74 matches.
But it was while there that he suffered an ultimately career-ending injury.
The cruel end to his playing days before the age of 30, however, set him off on one of the most remarkable managerial careers ever known.
“He brought people joy in life by showing what can be achieved,” said John McGovern, who played under Clough at four clubs and who was captain at Forest when they won back-to-back European Cups.
“There are managers that have better records, but if you look at the time it took him to bring success at football clubs, nobody did it quicker.”
That journey began in the Fourth Division at Hartlepools United (now Hartlepool United), then started to morph into something truly special as 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 stint at Brighton and Hove Albion followed by his 44-day spell as Leeds boss, before he started an 18-year footballing love affair with Forest – which most famously saw the Reds rise from the second tier to be crowned First Division champions before conquering Europe, all within three years between 1977 and 1979.
At Forest, where he eventually retired following relegation from the Premier League in 1993, Clough also collected four League Cups, a European Super Cup and a Charity Shield.
Everton boss Dyche is the only current Premier League manager with a direct link to Clough, having been an apprentice and young professional on the books at Forest between 1987 and 1990.
When Dyche reflects on time spent around a man who is often regarded as the greatest manager England never had, he speaks of recognising “genius” in the way Clough dealt with players, approached matches and set sides up tactically.
“When I became a manager I started reflecting back,” said Dyche. “As a person and footballer I learned so much during that period of my life.
“When the boss spoke, you were listening. He had this amazing thing that when he told you that you did well, you just felt 10ft tall and couldn’t fit through the door, but if he told you that you didn’t, you could go under the door with a top hat on.”
Clough did more than just try to mould Dyche as a footballer of the future, with a list of odd jobs also handed out to emerging players.
Running a bath for Clough was a regular occurrence – with Dyche admitting he stressed about never knowing how hot to make it – while tending to the garden at the manager’s house was also part of “silly, mad stuff” he would get up to.
Not that it always went to plan for Dyche, who was almost always referred to as “young ginger” by Clough.
“He once asked me to get rid of five bags of leaves, green leaves,” Dyche said. “When I was a kid, I’m from Kettering, I used to love a fire in the woods and I know green leaves are not going to burn very well.
“I’m at the bottom of his garden and he says ‘young ginger, get rid of these leaves for me darling, I’ll help you start a fire and you can get rid of them for me’.
“He starts it off and goes back up, and he used to make us food – more food than you could imagine – so I’m putting these leaves on and thinking it isn’t going to work. Then the wind starts blowing towards the kitchen and I’m going, ‘oh no’.
“He comes out and says ‘young ginger, get that smoke out my kitchen or I’m going to throw you on the fire’.
“I’m now putting one leaf on at a time and I have five bags, and I’m thinking this is going to be a long afternoon. And I hear him again and I say, ‘but boss I can’t help it, they are green leaves’. Then he went ‘you are right, well done’ and just went back in.
“One minute I’m shaking, then I’m thinking he is all right now.
“As a character, he most certainly broke the mould.”
As a manager who once punched his own club’s supporters for invading the pitch after a Forest win – only to be filmed days later with the same fans as they gave him a kiss on the cheek as a way of making amends – and who famously introduced himself to his players at Leeds by saying they should throw their medals in the bin, Clough was a polarising character.
O’Neill – the former Republic of Ireland, Leicester City, Aston Villa, Sunderland and Celtic boss, who also had a stint managing Forest in 2019 – was part of the Reds side that climbed to the top of the English and European game under Clough.
To O’Neill, he was both a “phenomenon” and complicated figure.
“He was a very special man,” O’Neill said.
“We could have had that fellow in the dressing room, and in a matter of minutes have about three different personalities – he could be very rude, but he could also be unbelievably generous as well.
“To me, he was the most charismatic manager that has ever been in the British game, and in any conversation at all be the greatest manager for his achievements at Derby County and Nottingham Forest – two provincial sides which you will not see the likes of again.”
Defender Todd was signed by Clough at Derby and puts his England career down to the influence of the Rams boss as the club rose from the second tier to become First Division title winners in 1972 before going on to reach the European Cup semi-finals the following season.
“He was ruthless with me at times, but I played for him, had a lot of respect for him, and he certainly got the best out of me,” said Todd.
“The highlights for me were winning my first England cap under Brian and the European nights, when the atmosphere was electric.
“And it was all brought upon by one man – that one man was Brian Clough. Without him I don’t think it would have happened. But it did happen.”
Todd went on to join Clough at Forest in the 1980s, but he smiles when he talks about what could have been for the Rams if Clough had stayed at a club that went on to win another English title soon after his exit.
“What he did for Derby County was incredible,” Todd said.
“Derby wasn’t a big club, and Forest wasn’t a big club when 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 semi-final [of the European Cup] at Derby where we lost to Juventus [in 1973], was another achievement and I believe if he had stayed at Derby he would have done exactly the same as he had done at Forest, and probably won maybe three.”
