Hartlepool United After a short spell coaching the
Sunderland youth team, in October 1965, Clough was offered the manager's job at
Hartlepools United (from 1977 the club became known as Hartlepool United). He accepted and immediately asked
Peter Taylor (then managing non-league
Burton Albion) to join him as his assistant. At the age of 30, Clough was then the youngest manager in the league. Hartlepools were perennial strugglers and had repeatedly had to apply for re-election to the Football League, having finished in the bottom two of the Fourth Division five times in the past six seasons. Such was the club's perilous financial state in the
1965–66 season, Clough had to tour local pubs raising money to keep the club afloat and even applied for a coach driver's licence to drive the team to away matches. On 15 November 1966, the then chairman, Ernest Ord, who was known for playing mind games with managers, sacked Clough's assistant Peter Taylor, claiming he could not afford to pay him anymore. Clough refused to accept it so Ord sacked him as well. However, there was a boardroom
coup where the other board members refused to ratify the two sackings and which instead saw Ord ousted as chairman. Both Clough and Taylor were reinstated. Hartlepools' fortunes gradually improved and the club finished in a creditable eighth place in
1966–67. Their Hartlepools team featured three players who would play for Clough and Taylor at other clubs in the future:
Les Green, who would be goalkeeper in Derby's promotion-winning side of 1969,
Tony Parry who Clough signed for Derby in 1972 in what is seen as a helpful gesture to his former club who needed funds from transfers and a 16-year-old
John McGovern, who would later be signed by Clough at Derby County, Leeds United and Nottingham Forest, winning several major trophies in the process. On 14 May 1967, the two men then joined
Second Division side
Derby County as manager and assistant manager. They took charge on 1 June 1967. In the following season, Hartlepools were promoted for the first time in their history.
Derby County Derby County had been rooted in the
Second Division for a decade before Clough's arrival, and had been outside the top flight for a further five years, their only major trophy being the
FA Cup in 1946. In Clough's
first season, the club finished one place lower than in the previous season, but he had started to lay the foundations for his future success by signing several new players, among them
Roy McFarland,
John O'Hare,
John McGovern,
Alan Hinton and Les Green. Of the inherited squad, 11 players departed and only four were retained:
Kevin Hector,
Alan Durban,
Ron Webster and
Colin Boulton. Clough also sacked the club secretary, the groundsman and the chief scout, along with two tea ladies he caught laughing after a Derby defeat. With the additional signings of
Dave Mackay and
Willie Carlin in
1968–69, Clough and Taylor's management led Derby to become champions of the
Second Division, establishing the club record of 22 matches without defeat on the way and the team was promoted to the
First Division for the
1969–70 season. Clough was universally seen as a hard but fair manager, who insisted on clean play from his players and brooked no stupid questions from the press. He insisted on being called "Boss" and earned great respect from his peers for his ability to turn a game to his and his team's advantage. Derby's first season back in the
First Division saw them finish fourth, their best league finish for over twenty years, but, due to financial irregularities, the club was banned from Europe the following season and fined £10,000. In
1970–71, the club finished ninth. In February 1971, Clough bolstered his squad by signing
Colin Todd for a British record £175,000 on the same day Clough had denied that Derby were about to buy Todd. In the
1971–72 season, after tussling with
Liverpool,
Leeds United and
Manchester City for the title, Derby finally topped the league table by one point after playing their final match, a 1–0 win over Liverpool.
Manchester City did temporarily top the league after playing their last match, but had a slim chance of winning the title due to outstanding fixtures between the clubs directly below them. Peter Taylor took the players on holiday to
Mallorca as the clubs beneath them played their final matches. Clough was not with the squad, instead holidaying in the
Isles of Scilly with his family and elderly parents. Both Liverpool and Leeds United had a chance to overtake Derby by winning their final matches (played a week later due to fixture congestion) but Leeds lost to
Wolves and Liverpool drew at
Arsenal, meaning Derby were league champions for the first time in their 88-year history. The team and management were on holiday when receiving the news they were champions.
Feud with the Derby County board of directors On 27 April 1972, less than two weeks before taking Derby to the league title, Clough and Taylor had briefly resigned for a few hours to manage
Coventry City before changing their minds after Longson offered them more money. In August 1972, Clough refused to go on an arranged pre-season tour of the Netherlands and
West Germany unless he could take his family with him. Derby chairman Sam Longson told him that it was a working trip and not a holiday, so Clough put Taylor in charge of the tour instead and refused to go. The club did not contest the
FA Charity Shield that year. On 24 August 1972, Clough and Taylor signed
David Nish from
Leicester City for a then-record transfer fee of £225,000, without consulting the Derby board. Afterwards, Jack Kirkland, a director, warned Clough and Taylor there would be no more expensive buys like Nish. Then, in early September 1972, after the team had defeated
Liverpool 2–1 at the
Baseball Ground, Clough criticised the Derby County fans, stating that "They started chanting only near the end when we were a goal in front. I want to hear them when we are losing. They are a disgraceful lot". In the same interview, Clough also verbally attacked the club's board of directors for their policies. The following day, board chairman Sam Longson apologised to the fans and dissociated himself from Clough's remarks. That
1972–73 season, Derby failed to retain their title, finishing seventh, but reached the semi-finals of the
European Cup in April 1973, when they were knocked out by
Juventus 3–1 on aggregate. During the first leg in
Turin, Clough was aggrieved by the performance of the match referee, whom he believed had been influenced and possibly bribed to favour the Italian side. After the game, Clough refused to speak to the Italian reporters, saying: "No cheating bastards do I talk to. I will not talk to any cheating bastards". He instructed
Brian Glanville to translate what he had said to them and questioned the Italian nation's courage in the
Second World War. It was these sorts of frequent, outspoken comments – particularly against football's establishment, such as the
FA and club directors, and figures in the game such as
Matt Busby,
Alan Hardaker,
Alf Ramsey,
Don Revie and Len Shipman, along with players such as
Billy Bremner,
Norman Hunter and
Peter Lorimer – combined with Clough's increased media profile, that eventually led to his falling out with the Rams' chairman, Sam Longson, and the Derby County board of directors. On 5 August 1973, Clough put his name to an article in the
Sunday Express headlined "I Would Put Leeds in Division Two – Brian Clough lashes Soccer's bosses for letting off Don Revie's 'bad boys,'" which savaged
Leeds United's disciplinary record, stating that Revie should be fined for encouraging his players in their unsporting behaviour and Leeds relegated to the Second Division. Clough also said that "The men who run football have missed the most marvellous chance of cleaning up the game in one swoop" and went on to say "The trouble with football's disciplinary system is that those who sat in judgement being officials of other clubs might well have a vested interest." Days afterwards, Clough was charged with bringing the game into disrepute, but he was cleared on 14 November after he had later resigned from Derby. In September 1973, Clough travelled to
West Ham United's Upton Park and personally made a £400,000 bid for
Bobby Moore, a player he long admired, and
Trevor Brooking. West Ham manager
Ron Greenwood informed Clough that neither was available but that he would pass his offer onto the West Ham board of directors anyway. Clough never told Derby's chairman, secretary or any other board members at Derby about the bid. Longson found out four months later during a chance conversation with Eddie Chapman, West Ham's secretary at the time, but by then Clough was no longer the Derby County manager.
Resignation from Derby County During the
1973–74 season, on 11 October 1973, Longson called for the sackings of both Clough and Taylor at a board meeting, but did not gain the support that was needed. Earlier that week, Longson had demanded that Clough stop writing newspaper articles and making television appearances, and prohibited both Clough and Taylor drinking alcohol on Derby County premises. Two days later, following a 1–0 win against
Manchester United at
Old Trafford, club director Jack Kirkland demanded to know what Taylor's exact role within the club was, and instructed Taylor to meet him at the ground two days later to explain. On the same day, Longson accused Clough of making a
V-sign at Matt Busby and chairman
Louis Edwards and demanded that he apologise. Clough refused, and admitted later that he did make a V-sign, but it was aimed at Longson, not Busby or Edwards: he blamed Longson for providing too few tickets and seating for players' and staff's wives, including his own and Taylor's. Clough and Taylor hoped to oust Longson as chairman, as they had done with Ord seven years earlier, but failed. Both Clough and Taylor resigned on the evening of 15 October 1973, and the resignation was accepted by Sam Longson the following morning, to widespread uproar from Rams fans, who demanded the board's resignation along with Clough and Taylor's reinstatement at the following home game against Leicester City four days later. That evening, Clough appeared on
Parkinson and attacked football directors for their apparent "lack of knowledge" of football. That week, Clough, as a television football pundit, memorably called
Poland goalkeeper
Jan Tomaszewski a "circus clown in gloves" before the crucial
World Cup qualifier with England at Wembley. The match, which England had to win in order to qualify for the
1974 World Cup finals, ended 1–1, and Tomaszewski made numerous magnificent saves, some of them unconventionally, to ensure his nation qualified for the finals at England's expense. When commentator
Brian Moore said "You call him a clown, Brian, but he saved his side", Clough insisted "Would you want him in your team every week?" The six years at Derby County had brought Clough to the attention of the wider football world. According to James Lawton, "Derby was the wild making of Brian Clough. He went there a young and urgent manager who had done impressive work deep in his own little corner of the world at Hartlepools. He left surrounded by fascination and great celebrity: abrasive, infuriating, but plugged, immovably, into a vein of the nation."
Brighton & Hove Albion Such was the loyalty to Clough that, along with himself and Taylor, scouts and backroom staff completed the walk out, following the pair for their brief spell with
Brighton & Hove Albion. He proved less successful on the south coast than with his previous club, winning only 12 of his 32 games in charge of the
Third Division side. Whereas nineteen months earlier he led Derby County to the league title and eight months earlier Clough was managing a team playing Juventus in the European Cup, he was now managing a club who, just after his appointment as manager, lost to non-league
Walton & Hersham 4–0 at home in an FA Cup replay. On 1 December 1973, his side lost 8–2 at home to
Bristol Rovers. Brighton eventually finished in 19th place that
1973–74 season.
Leeds United Clough left Brighton less than a year after his appointment, in July 1974, to become manager of
Leeds United, following
Don Revie's departure to become manager of
England, though this time Taylor did not join him. Clough's move was very surprising given his previous outspoken criticism of both Revie, for whom Clough made no secret of his deep disdain, and the successful Leeds team's playing style, which Clough had publicly branded "dirty" and "cheating". Furthermore, he had called for Leeds to be demoted to the Second Division as a punishment for their poor disciplinary record. He lasted in the job only 44 days before he was sacked by the Leeds directors on 12 September 1974, after alienating many of Leeds' star players. During one of the first training sessions he took for Leeds United, he reportedly said "You can all throw your medals in the bin because they were not won fairly." Until
Darko Milanič's winless six games in 2014, he had the unenviable record of being Leeds United's least successful permanent manager, winning only one match from six games. Leeds were fourth from bottom in 19th position with only four points from a possible twelve, their worst start since their last relegation campaign fifteen years earlier. His pay-off was estimated at £98,000, a huge amount at the time. On the evening of his dismissal, Clough discussed his short reign at
Elland Road with
Yorkshire Television's
Calendar news programme. Revie also participated in the live broadcast, the two ex-managers spending as much time debating management practice with each other as with the host
Austin Mitchell. Describing this televised interview as the culmination of the bitter rivalry between the two men, journalist Roger Hermiston stated: "It was like watching a bickering couple about to get a divorce."
Nottingham Forest Clough replaced
Allan Brown as manager of Nottingham Forest on 6 January 1975, just over sixteen weeks after the end of his 44-day tenure as manager of Leeds United. Clough brought
Jimmy Gordon to be his club trainer, as Gordon had been for him at Derby and Leeds. Forest won Clough's first game in charge, an FA Cup third round replay against Tottenham Hotspur, with Scottish centre-forward
Neil Martin scoring the only goal.
Ian Bowyer was already at Forest and had won domestic and European trophies with
Manchester City. Clough signed Scottish duo
John McGovern and
John O'Hare in February from Leeds United, having been bought by Clough the previous year during his ill-fated 44-day managerial stint there; both players had been part of Clough's
title-winning team at Derby. He then brought
John Robertson and
Martin O'Neill back into the fold after they had requested transfers under Brown.
Viv Anderson had previously made his debut for the first team and became a regular under Clough.
Tony Woodcock, early in his career, was at Forest but was then unrated by Clough and was to be loaned to
Lincoln City. Forest were 13th in English football's second tier when Clough joined. They finished 16th at the end of the
season. Forest signed
Frank Clark in July 1975 on a free transfer. The following
1975–76 season, Forest finished eighth in Clough's
first full season in charge. On 16 July 1976,
Peter Taylor re-joined Clough as his Assistant Manager, which he had been when winning the league at Derby. Taylor berated
John Robertson for allowing himself to become overweight and disillusioned. He got Robertson on a diet and training regime that would help him become a European Cup winner. Taylor turned Woodcock from a reserve midfielder into a 42-cap England striker. In September 1976, he bought striker
Peter Withe to Forest for £43,000, selling him to
Newcastle United for £250,000 two years later. Withe was eventually replaced in the starting team by
Garry Birtles who Taylor had scouted playing for non-league
Long Eaton United. Birtles also went on to represent England. In October 1976, Clough, acting on Peter Taylor's advice, signed
Larry Lloyd for £60,000 after an initial loan period. Together Clough and Taylor took Forest to new heights. The first trophy of the Clough and Taylor reign was the
1976–77 Anglo-Scottish Cup. Forest defeated
Orient 5–1 on aggregate in the two-legged final played in December 1976. On 7 May, Alan Moore's own goal meant Forest in their last league game of the season defeated
Millwall 1–0 at the City Ground. This kept Forest in the third promotion spot in the league table and dependent on
Bolton Wanderers dropping points in three games in hand in the fight for third place. On 14 May
Kenny Hibbitt's goal from his rehearsed free kick routine with
Willie Carr gave Wolves a 1–0 win at Bolton. Bolton's defeat reached the Forest team mid-air en route to an end of
1976–77 season break in
Mallorca. Forest started their return to the top league campaign with a 3–1 win at
Everton. Three further wins in league and cup followed without conceding a goal. Then came five early September goals conceded in losing 3–0 at
Arsenal and defeating Wolves 3–2 at home.
Peter Shilton then signed for a record fee for a goalkeeper of £325,000. Taylor reasoned: "Shilton wins you matches." 20 year old
John Middleton was first team goalkeeper pre-Shilton. Middleton later in the month went in part exchange with £25,000 to Derby County for
Archie Gemmill transferring to Forest. Gemmill was another Scottish former 1972 Derby title winner. Forest lost only three of their first sixteen league games, the last of which was at Leeds United on 19 November 1977. They lost only one further game all season, an 11 March FA Cup sixth round defeat at
West Bromwich Albion. This made Clough the third of four managers to win the
English league championship with two different clubs. Forest conceded just 24 goals in 42 league games.
Chris Woods chalked up two clean sheets in the final covering Shilton's league cup absence. McGovern missed the replay through injury, and Burns lifted the trophy as the stand-in captain. Robertson's penalty was the only goal of the game. Forest started season
1978–79 by defeating
Ipswich Town 5–0 for an
FA Community Shield record win. On 9 December 1978 Liverpool ended Forest's 42 match undefeated league run dating back to the November the year before. The record stood until it was surpassed by Arsenal in August 2004, a month before Clough's death.
Arsenal played
49 league games without defeat. In February 1979, Taylor authorised the English game's first £1 million transfer, signing
Trevor Francis from
Birmingham City. In the April European Cup semi final home first leg against
1. FC Köln, Forest were two goals behind after twenty minutes. Forest scored three to edge ahead, but Köln equalised. Thus the German side started the second leg ahead on the away goals rule.
Ian Bowyer's goal, the only one of the game, put Forest through.
Günter Netzer asked afterwards, "Who is this McGovern? I have never heard of him, yet he ran the game." Forest defeated
Malmö 1–0 in Munich's
Olympiastadion in the
1979 European Cup final. Francis on his European debut scored with a back post header from Robertson's cross. In addition, Forest defeated
Southampton in the final 3–2 to retain the League Cup. Birtles scored twice, and Woodcock once. Forest finished second in the
1978–79 Football League, eight points behind Liverpool. , Brian Clough and
John Robertson in 1980 In the
1979–80 season Forest declined to play in the home and away
1979 Intercontinental Cup against Paraguay's
Club Olimpia. Forest defeated
F.C. Barcelona 2–1 on aggregate in the
1979 European Super Cup in January and February 1980.
Charlie George scored the only goal in the home first leg. Burns scored an equaliser in the return in Spain. In the
1979–80 Football League Cup, Forest reached a third successive final. A defensive mix up between Needham and Shilton let Wolves'
Andy Gray tap in to an empty net. Forest missed numerous scoring chances and lost 1–0. In the
1979–80 European Cup quarter final, Forest won 3–1 at
Dynamo Berlin to overturn a 1–0 home defeat. In the semi-final they defeated
Ajax 2–1 on aggregate. They defeated
Hamburg 1–0 in the
1980 European Cup final at Madrid's
Santiago Bernabéu Stadium to retain the trophy. Robertson scored after exchanging passes with Birtles. Forest finished fifth in the
1979–80 Football League. The next
1980–81 season in the
European Cup first round, Forest lost 2–0 on aggregate, losing 1–0 both at home and away to CSKA Sofia. McGovern subsequently said the double defeat by CSKA affected the team's self-confidence, in that they had lost out to "modestly talented" opponents. On 11 February 1981, Forest lost 1–0 in the
1980 Intercontinental Cup against Uruguayan side
Club Nacional de Football. The match was played for the first time at the neutral venue
National Stadium in
Tokyo before 62,000 fans. The League and European Cup winning squad was broken up to capitalise on player sale value. Clough and Taylor both later said this was a mistake. Jimmy Gordon retired in the same close season. In 1997 UEFA subsequently banned Anderlecht for one year from European competition. Muro died in a car crash in 1987. After three seasons (
1984–85,
1985–86 and
1986–87) without trophies, Forest defeated
Sheffield Wednesday on penalties in the
Football League Centenary Tournament final in April 1988 after drawing 0–0. Forest finished third in the league in the
1987–88 season and reached the
FA Cup semi-finals.
Stuart Pearce won the first of his five successive selections for the
PFA Team of the Year. On 18 January 1989, Clough joined the fray of a City Ground pitch invasion by hitting two of his own team's fans when on the pitch. The football authorities fined Clough and issued him with a touchline ban. Forest defeated QPR 5–2 in that
1988–89 Football League Cup tie. Forest defeated Everton 4–3 after extra time in the 1989
Full Members' Cup final. They came back to defeat Luton Town 3–1 in the
League Cup final.
Nigel Clough scored two and
Neil Webb one. Forest chased a unique cup treble in the
1988–89 season, but tragedy struck a week after the League Cup win. Forest and Liverpool met for the second season in a row in the FA Cup semi-finals. The
Hillsborough disaster claimed the lives of 97 Liverpool fans, and the match was abandoned after six minutes. When the rescheduled game took place, Forest struggled and Liverpool won 3–1. Forest finished third in the First Division for a second successive year. However, they were unable to compete in the
UEFA Cup as English clubs were still banned from European competitions following the
Heysel Stadium Disaster.
Des Walker won the first of his four successive selections for the PFA Team of the Year.
Nigel Jemson scored as Forest defeated
Oldham Athletic 1–0 to retain the League Cup in 1990. Clough reached his only
FA Cup final in 1991. Pearce put Forest ahead after sixteen minutes, direct from a free kick against Tottenham Hotspur at
Wembley. Spurs won 2–1 after an extra-time own goal by Walker.
Roy Keane declared himself fit to play in the final and was selected in preference to
Steve Hodge. Keane later admitted he was not fit to play and that was why he had such an insignificant role in the final. English clubs were re-admitted to Europe for the
1990–91 season. English places in the competition were initially limited. 1990 League Cup winners Forest were not included. The only
UEFA Cup place that season went to league runners-up
Aston Villa. In the summer of 1991,
Millwall's league top scorer
Teddy Sheringham set Forest's record signing fee at £2.1 million. In that
1991–92 season Forest defeated Southampton 3–2 after extra time in the Full Members' Cup final.
Brian McClair's solitary Manchester United goal defeated Forest in the
1992 Football League Cup final. Forest had played in seven domestic cup finals at Wembley in five seasons, winning five. Forest finished eighth in the league that season to earn a place in the new
FA Premier League. Walker transferred in the summer 1992 to Italian side
Sampdoria. On 16 August 1992, Forest defeated Liverpool 1–0 at home in the first ever televised live Premier League game. Sheringham scored the only goal against Liverpool. Only one week later, Sheringham transferred to Tottenham. Forest's form slumped, meaning Clough's 18-year managerial reign ended in May 1993 with Forest relegated from the inaugural Premier League. In the final game of the season away to
Ipswich, Forest lost 2–1, with Clough's son,
Nigel, scoring the last goal of the Brian Clough era at Nottingham Forest. Clough was still a popular choice to be given the job of England manager before
Graham Taylor's appointment in 1990. Clough himself quipped: "I'm sure the England selectors thought, if they took me on and gave me the job, I'd want to run the show. They were shrewd because that's exactly what I would have done." He has been called the "greatest manager England never had." Following
Mike England's dismissal as manager of
Wales in February 1988, Clough was offered the position as manager of Wales on a part-time basis, something later done with
John Toshack. Clough was keen on the chance to become an international manager, but the directors of Nottingham Forest refused to let him split his loyalties. In April 1986, Clough had declared that he intended to spend the rest of his managerial career with Nottingham Forest. In June 1986, Clough was linked with the job of Scotland manager, but the vacancy was filled by
Andy Roxburgh (a long-serving member of the Scotland coaching set-up) instead. Clough had also been linked with the
Republic of Ireland job the previous year, before it was filled by fellow Englishman
Jack Charlton.
Rift with Peter Taylor Peter Taylor, Clough's friend and long-time assistant at Hartlepools, Derby, Brighton and Forest, retired from football in 1982, bringing to an end their partnership. Several events had strained their friendship in the past: while at Derby, Taylor was riled when he learned that Clough had accepted a pay rise from Sam Longson without telling him; Taylor did not get one. Then, in 1980, Taylor released a book,
With Clough, By Taylor, which detailed their partnership, but he had not told Clough that he was writing the book. Six months after retiring, Taylor was appointed Derby County manager. When their teams met in the FA Cup third round on 8 January 1983 at the Baseball Ground, the two managers ignored each other and did not speak. Derby County won the match 2–0. When Taylor signed
John Robertson from Forest without informing Clough on 21 May 1983, it was, according to Robertson, "the straw that broke the camel's back" and the two men would never speak again. In a tabloid article, Clough called Taylor a "snake in the grass" and declared that "if his car broke down and I saw him thumbing a lift, I wouldn't pick him up, I'd run him over." Taylor retorted that Clough's outbursts were "the sort of thing I have come to expect from a person I now regard with great distaste." The rift had not been repaired by the time Taylor died in October 1990, but Clough and his family attended Taylor's funeral. According to Taylor's daughter Wendy, Clough was "deeply upset" by Taylor's death and telephoned her when he heard the news. Clough dedicated his autobiography in 1994 to Taylor, and he also paid tribute to him when he was given the freedom of Nottingham, as he did in September 1999 when a bust was unveiled of Clough at the
City Ground.
Corruption allegations Clough was implicated in the 1990s "bungs" scandal in
English football. A "bung" was a euphemism for illicit payments made between parties to ensure player transfer deals went through. In 1995
George Graham, then
Arsenal manager, lost his job over payments during the transfer of two Scandinavian players in 1992. Clough became involved in the scandal in June 1993 when he was
named in court by
Alan Sugar, then chairman of
Tottenham Hotspur. Sugar, who was the club's major shareholder, was taking legal action to sack
Terry Venables, the club's chief executive. Sugar testified in court that during the 1992 transfer of
Teddy Sheringham from Nottingham Forest to Tottenham, Venables had told him that Clough "liked a bung". Sugar said he sanctioned a cash payment of £58,750, which he believed would be paid to an agent, but instead was handed over to
Ronnie Fenton, Clough's assistant at Forest. After an inquiry by the FA, Clough was charged with misconduct but the case was dropped due to his ill health. Former Premier League chief executive
Rick Parry, who led the investigation into Clough, said: "On the balance of evidence, we felt he was guilty of taking bungs. The evidence was pretty strong." Clough always denied the allegations, saying "Asking me what it's like to make money out of transfers is like asking 'What's it like to have
VD?' I don't know, I've never had it." ==Later life==