TheGame - Times Online - WBLG: Oh, for a new Brian Clough

I spent Saturday re-reading David Peace’s The Damned Utd. It seemed appropriate — Leeds in turmoil, Community Shield weekend...

The 1974 Charity Shield was the first at Wembley and the first to be decided on penalties, with one team led by a psychotic young manager and the other by a barking-mad elder statesman of the dugout.

Things are so different in football these days.

But I often think of Brian Clough at this time of year and not for his 44-day botched suicide pact with Leeds. No, a memorable day 30 years ago comes to mind.

It was an excellent first day of the season, back in August 1977. At Ayresome Park, Kenny Dalglish scored on his league debut for Liverpool and an away point at such a difficult venue meant the new campaign had started brightly. Then the news came from Goodison Park that Everton had been beaten 3-1 by Nottingham Forest. Routed by Forest, a team that had sneaked into the top flight by finishing third in the old Second Division the previous May. The Special train rocked with laughter all the way back to Lime Street. It was going to be a long old winter for our Blue friends - and that after a summer of big talk about winning the title.

Of course, Everton were not a bad side. They went on to finish third that season, above them a pair of teams that would win four consecutive European Cups. Forest were champions and deserved their title. They won the League Cup, too, leaving those of us who mocked Everton in August laughing on the other side of our faces in March as Liverpool were beaten in a replayed final at Old Trafford.

Forest came from nowhere and swept through the top flight with a vengeance. Clough’s bunch of discards and journeymen blended to create a team that went from losing at home to Cardiff City to double champions of Europe in three years. This feat was achieved at a club with middling support that would have been classed as ’unfashionable’ in the jargon of the day.

Clough must go down as one of the great managers in the game’s history. He was a boorish, arrogant alcoholic, whose mouth operated independently of his brain. He would deride hooliganism and then punch pitch invaders. He made much of his socialism and gloried in an image of being an outsider but then repeated the Establishment’s lies over Hillsborough, a drunken, hurtful slur at odds with the Taylor report and the truth.

But you don’t have to like the man to see that his teams were greater than the sum of their parts. Players like Kenny Burns, a troubled and troublesome striker, was turned into a superb defender by his manager at the City Grough. Initially, at Forest, he bought well and cheaply, fusing his players into a team with an iron core that could overwhelm the opposition with guile or, when necessary, brute force. And those Forest sides stand as evidence that a talented manager on a tight budget can build teams that give lie to the common misconception that all it takes to win in football is a lorryload of cash.

As the season looms and the pundits recycle last year’s predictions about the big four dominating the Premier League again, I increasingly yearn for a Clough, a Forest. A team that comes from nowhere to shock the big boys. To show Roman that success can come without the chequebook. To let Rafa know there are good British players out there who will do a winning job if you just get the right blend. To make the prawn-sandwich munchers at Old Trafford choke as take the title out of Ferguson’s hands a display of sheer gall. And to show Arsene that doing it the French way isn’t always the best.

That should be the aim of the three managers promoted from the Championship but somehow it’s hard to see Steve Bruce and Billy Davies looking for anything more than safety next May. Roy Keane, however, is different.

Like Clough he’s irrational, obstinate and hard to like. He’s bought underachievers like Michael Chopra and journeymen like Dickson Etuhu this summer and his approach to management was fashioned at the City Ground rather than Old Trafford. It won’t happen, but if there was a prospect of overturning all the preconceptions and myths of modern football, I’d even wish Keane well.

Listening to Sven-Goran Eriksson last week again brought Clough to mind. Like everyone’s favourite Swede, Ol’ Big Head rarely watched the players he bought. That job was entrusted to Peter Taylor, whose opinion Clough trusted implicitly. They went all the way back to Hartlepool United and understood and complemented each other. The manager’s success came when Taylor was around and Clough never had the same impact without his sidekick.

So it’s harsh to criticise Eriksson for listening to the advice of others on players. However, when your career rests on the judgement of someone else, you better pick the right man as your eyes and ears. Pini Zahavi could be that person. Valeri Boijnov, Elano and Fernandes Gelson may well have as much impact at the City of Manchester Stadium as Kenny Burns, John Robertson and John McGovern had in Nottingham. Eriksson will hope so.

But taking the opinion of an agent — nay, a superagent — is a public relations disaster waiting to happen. Zahavi is not involved in any of the deals but that will not absolve the Swede if the newcomers can’t make an impact in the Premier League. If Zahavi’s ability to spot a player is not the equal of his skill in negotiating contracts, then Eriksson’s error in judgement will appear monumental. His position as manager of Manchester City could become untenable very quickly. It could make Clough’s 44-day sojourn in Leeds look like a candidate for a long-service award.

Comments

would it be possible if you could post out too me a copy of the times preview to the new epl championship divisions one and two 2007 2008 football season ernie gortan 92 stephen road botany 2019 sydney australia

Posted by: ernie gortan | August 07, 2007 at 01:52 AM

Posted by: ernie gortan | August 07, 2007 at 01:51 AM