Brian Clough: The Man Who Made Nottingham Forest World Beaters

There aren’t many people in the history of football that are simultaneously as controversial and as successful as Brian Clough went on to be. Known not to be overly shy when it came to offering his opinion, Cloughy, as he became known, helped Nottingham Forest make it out of the Second Division into the top-flight, winning that and then taking the club to two European Cups before an ill-fated spell with Leeds United. He also enjoyed success with Derby County, winning the First Division at a time when the club was not overly feared prior to Clough’s arrival there.

A Lad From Middlesbrough

Brian Howard Clough was born in the north-east town of Middlesbrough on the 21st of March 1935. He grew up in an inter-war council house, being the sixth of what would eventually be nine children had by a local sweet shop worker. In spite of the relatively sparse nature of his upbringing, he later claimed that he had grown up in a ‘little part of paradise’. A large part of his work ethic in football came from watching his ‘mam’ dealing with eight children, all whilst working long hours and doing so in an extremely hard manner so as to ensure her children didn’t go wanting in their lives.

There is a strong possibility that Clough would’ve done much better in school if he hadn’t been so obsessed with sport. He failed his Eleven-plus, for example, and fell in love with cricket as a youngster. In spite of his obviously affection for games rather than books, he still did well enough to become the Head Boy at Marton Grove Secondary Modern School. He left in 1950 without any qualifications to his name, taking up work at Imperial Chemical Industries before taking part in his national service with the Royal Air Force Regiment from 1953 until 1955.

Clough the Footballer

Although Clough preferred cricket to football, once saying that he’d rather get a century at Lord’s than score a hat-trick at Wembley, he began playing in earnest with Great Broughton Juniors. When he started working at ICI, he joined the Billingham Synthonia, then combined his national service with playing football as he played for the Middlesbrough third team when he was on leave. It was his hometown club with whom his career proper began, becoming a prolific striker who scored 204 goals across 222 league games for the Boro, becoming Division Two top scorer twice.

Clough’s abrasive nature was well-demonstrated at Middlesbrough, regularly clashing with other players and often handing in a transfer request. Eventually, he got his wish, being transferred to nearby Sunderland in the July of 1961. The Back Cats paid £55,000 for his services, which continued where they’d left off as he netted 63 goals in 74 games. His manager there was Alan Brown, whose disciplinary nature was an influential part in Clough’s own managerial style later down the line. In terms of his ability, he has the best goals-per-game ratio of any player to score over 200 goals in the English leagues.

Becoming a Manager

50 years ago today, Brian Clough became our manager. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/OBqqbcf9sW

— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) January 6, 2025

Brian Clough’s first experience of coaching came with the Sunderland youth side, but in the October of 1965, he was offered the role to become Hartlepools United’s manager. He asked his friend Peter Taylor to join him as his assistant, with 30-year-old Clough becoming the youngest manager in the league when he started the job. Perennial strugglers, Hartlepools, which would become Hartlepool United in 1977, constantly had to reapply for election to the Football League. The club’s financial state was equally as perilous, forcing Clough to collect money from pubs to keep it afloat.

When the Hartlepools Chairman, Ernest Ord, sacked first Taylor and then Clough on the 15th of November 1966, there was a boardroom coup to replace him. The fortunes of the club gradually improved under Clough, seeing them come eighth in the 1966-1967 season. He worked hard to ensure that the building blocks were in place to give the club long-term success, which was realised the season after Clough departed when Hartlepools were promoted for the first time in the club’s history. For Clough, it was an excellent education in how to deal with a club in crisis.

Managing Derby County

Today’s a day to celebrate the life of our legendary former manager, Brian Clough.

A football legend who achieved great things at Derby County and wider football.

Happy birthday, Brian 🖤 pic.twitter.com/DVfFnbW7wn

— Derby County (@dcfcofficial) March 21, 2020

Rooted in the Second Division for ten years, Derby County decided that what Clough had done with Hartlepools United was proof that he was the man they needed. They appointed him on the first of June 1967, also employing Taylor as his assistant. He spent his first season laying the foundations for future success, bringing in new players and getting rid of all but four of the members of the squad that he took over. The likes of the Club Secretary, the groundsman and even two tea ladies were given their marching orders by Clough, who made Derby County Second Division champions in his second season.

Seen as a hard but fair manager, Clough was able to get Derby into fourth in their first season back in the First Division. That was the club’s best league finish for more than two decades. That was to be bettered two seasons later, however. The Rams went up against Leeds United, Manchester City and Liverpool for the top-flight title, winning it by two points after beating the latter on the final day of the 1971-1972 campaign. Having briefly resigned to manage Coventry City in 1972, Clough and Taylor eventually did leave in 1973 in order to take charge of Brighton & Hove Albion.

Brighton & Leeds United

On this day in 1974, Brian Clough was sacked as Leeds United manager… pic.twitter.com/JG8Ozos7DB

— LUFCMOT (@LUFCMOTcom) September 12, 2024

Having fallen out with the board at Derby County, Clough became the manager of Brighton & Hove Albion but struggled to enjoy any real success on the south coast. His first 32 games in charge of the Third Division side saw them win just 12 of them, losing 4-0 to Walton & Hersham, a non-league side, not long after his appointment. The Seagulls ended the 1973-1974 season in 19th place, leading to Clough’s departure that summer. It was in the July of 1974 that he was appointed the manager of Leeds United, which led to one of the most disastrous spells of any manager’s career.

Anyone who has seen the film The Damned United will know the story, with Clough lasting just 44 days at his new club. He replaced Don Revie after the revered manager left to take over as the England manager, having previously been critical of both Revie and his Leeds players. He alienated many of the Leeds United players, whom he had called ‘dirty’ and ‘cheats’ previously, telling them to ‘throw all your medals in the bin’ on account of the fact that they were ‘not won fairly’. He won one of just six games and was sacked by the board on the 12th of September 1974.

Taking Forest to the Top

At the start of 1975, Clough took over from Allan Brown as the manager of Nottingham Forest, working hard to reunite a fractured squad alongside bringing in some of his own players. The club sat 13th in the Second Division when Clough arrived, ending up in 16th at the conclusion of the season. He got them up to eighth at the end of his first full season in charge, then in the July of 1976 he brought Peter Taylor back as his assistant manager, having fallen out with him during their time at Leeds United. The pair worked wonders together, getting the squad back in shape and winning the Anglo-Scottish Cup.

More importantly, they finished in third in the 1976-1977 season, which saw them promoted to the top-flight. The return to the First Division began with a 3-1 win over Everton, which was later followed by the £325,000 signing of Peter Shilton. They lost just three of their first 16 games, winning the Football League by seven points from runners-up Liverpool. They were one of only a few teams to win the English top-flight having gained promotion from the division below, also winning 1-0 against Liverpool in the League Cup final, which went to a replay.

Conquering Europe

The battle between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest was a long-running one, pitting the two teams against one another in the 1978-1979 European Cup, with Forest winning 2-0 on aggregate. The Merseyside club did end Forest’s 42-game unbeaten run in the league that December, however. In the February of 1979, Forest became the first club to spend £1 million on a player, paying that for Trevor Francis from Birmingham City. Francis helped them reach the final of the European Cup at the Olymiastadion in Munich, where they defeated Malmö 1-0.

Having also won the League Cup that season, it meant that Forest had done a double, missing out on the First Division title to Liverpool. In the 1979-1980 European Cup campaign, Forest beat Dynamo Berlin to make it to the semi-finals. There they faced Ajax, winning 2-1 on aggregate before heading to the Santiago Bernabéu in Spain in order to play Hamburg in the final, winning 1-0. He would go on to win more silverware, but two European Cups in successive seasons was arguably the pinnacle of the career of a man who won everything. He eventually left the club and the sport in 1993.