Brian Clough, the footballing legend widely seen as the greatest manager England never had, has died in hospital in Derby at the age of 69.
Clough, who scored 251 goals as a forward and went on to lead Nottingham Forest to successive European Cup triumphs as a manager, had endured a long battle with alcoholism.
He had a liver transplant in January last year and had since been struggling against stomach cancer. A spokeswoman for Derby City Hospital said that Clough succumbed to the disease this morning with his family by his bedside.
Clough was revered and reviled in almost equal measure for his loud-mouthed, no-nonsense attitude and almost total lack of modesty. But none could deny that he brought the best out of his players - he took both Derby County and Nottingham Forest from the second division to win the first division title, making superstars out of football journeymen along the way.
Advertisement
“I wouldn’t say I was the best manager in the business,” he once said. “But I was in the top one.”
But he was too colourful and opinionated by far for the Football Association, which repeatedly passed him over for the England manager’s job in favour of lesser lights with less attitude.
Clough was said to rule Nottingham Forest as a virtual tyrant, badgering, bullying and belittling his players. His 18-year rule at the club ended with its relegation to the second division in 1993 and, with his own health deteriorating, Clough retired from the game. Among his honours were two league titles, four league cups, two European Cups and a European Super-Cup.
“With all his eccentricities and occasional excesses, he was a remarkable manager who transformed what was essentially a secondary club into European champions, which was, I think, really something more than any other British manager did,” Brian Glanville, The Times and Sunday Times football writer, said today.
Advertisement
“If you look at what Manchester United did, or Liverpool did, or Celtic did, they had resources that were completely denied to Nottingham Forest.”
As late as last month, Clough fans launched a campaign for him to be knighted for his services to English football. More than 5,000 fans signed an online petition that was to have been delivered to Downing Street next month.
Marcus Alton, editor of fan website www.brianclough.com said as the campaign was launched: “This is one last push to get the ultimate honour for Brian Clough. Cloughie is a national treasure. Perhaps if he’d been England manager the national game wouldn’t be in its current mess.”
Clough became a full-time professional at the age of 17 for his native Middlesbrough, but did not make his league debut until September 1955 in a game against Barnsley. He was soon a first-team regular and became the leading scorer for three season - although his goals could not get ‘Boro promoted.
He began to make transfer requests but had to wait until 1961, when Sunderland took over his contract. When he left Middlesbrough he had scored 204 goals in 213 games. At Sunderland he played two seasons and scored 53 goals before suffering a knee injury against Bury on Boxing Day 1962, which ended his playing career.
Advertisement
His final tally of 251 goals in 274 games still represents the best ratio of goals per game of any postwar player, although he represented England only twice.
After his accident, he briefly joined the coaching staff at Sunderland, then, aged 29, became the league’s youngest manager at Hartlepool United. With his old friend and mentor, Peter Taylor, he left for Derby County, where he won the second division title in 1969 and the first division title three years later.
After short stints at Brighton and Hove Albion and Leeds, Clough arrived at Nottingham Forest in January 1975, winning promotion two years later and the league title the next season. The following two seasons brought the successive European Cup triumphs that marked him out as one of the greatest managers in the game.
Gary Birtles, the former Nottingham Forest and England forward, remembered his former manager with “great fondness and great affection” but suggested that Clough could have taken his talents even further.
“He should have managed his country. Shame we never saw what he would have been capable of. He would have rocked the FA from top to bottom if he had got the job and that is something they would not have wanted,” Birtles said.
Advertisement
Frank Clark, another who also played under Clough at Forest, said: “He was a tremendous man manager and great motivator and he got 100 per cent from everyone who worked for him. He never made it too complicated and stands up there with the greatest.
“As for his drinking, well all managers make mistakes and he dealt with his demons like we all do.”