It has been 10 years to the month since the passing of the greatest manager England never had, Brian Howard Clough OBE.
His time in football was dotted with highs and lows. Clough’s achievements with Derby County and Nottingham Forest have gone down in folklore but it’s safe to say he had his fair share of trouble too.
Arguably, the most infamous period of Clough’s managerial career was his ill-fated 44-day tenure at Leeds United. Clough sensationally succeeded his rival Don Revie as manager of Leeds on the 31st of July 1974 but the former’s reign of the then league champions was as disastrous as it was short-lived.
Before arriving at Leeds, Clough described the side as “the dirtiest, most cynical team in the league”. When Clough became manager of Leeds he famously (or infamously) remarked to his players “the first thing you can do for me is throw your medals in the bin because you’ve never won anything fairly; you’ve done it by cheating”. Needless to say he didn’t ingratiate himself to his players. The disastrous opening to Leeds’ 1974-75 campaign sealed Clough’s fate.
On the 12th of September 1974, Brian Clough was sacked by Leeds United. On that very evening Brian Clough went on the program Calendar to discuss his dismissal. Sitting next to him was his nemesis Don Revie. It was a spectacular piece of television between two giants of soccer.
It may have been 40 years since the program first aired but it is utterly compelling viewing as two giants of the English game came face to face. It’s safe to say that we won’t see something like this again any time soon.
