Provided You Don't Kiss Me: 20 Years with Brian Clough

by Duncan Hamilton

Provided You Dont Kiss Me

Genres: Football, Sports, Biography, Nonfiction, Soccer, Journalism, British Literature

263 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Steve Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to have been born way back in 1971; so I can remember the Liverpool team’s dominance of English football that was briefly interrupted at the end of the 70s by Nottingham Forest and their enigmatic manager Brian Clough.

Cloughie was not a true hero of mine. (I well remember his assessment of my real hero Sir Trevor Brooking shortly before the 1980 FA Cup final; “He floats like a butterfly, and he stings like one as well.” How I laughed when the boys brought the trophy back through the streets of the East End to be confronted by the banner that simply said, “Stuff Clough!”) Cloughie was undeniably the greatest character that English football produced in my lifetime.

David Peace’s semi-factual novel The Damned United did not do Cloughie the justice that he deserved. He was a foul-mouthed, arrogant, alcoholic, football genius, but the charisma and generosity of the man were lacking from the book. In this one, they are placed right at the front and centre for all to see; along with his vindictiveness, spite, aggression and stubborn ability to hold a grudge. Do not think that this is a biography written with a view through rose-tinted spectacles. It is an honest and forthright view of a mercurial talent that the world of football sadly lacks in an era of clichés, agents, million pound salaries and gamesmanship. If you love football, you will love this book; if you have more than a grudging respect for Cloughie, then this is essential reading.

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

It used to be said that football never enjoyed the same literary status as cricket, but it is fair to say that some excellent football books have been produced in recent years, many of high literary merit. This book by Duncan Hamilton serves to emphasise the point. I liked it because although it is a book that the non-literary football fan could read and enjoy, it is much more than just another sports book. It has real quality, and is very well written, and it is obvious that the author is a master of words, this man can write, and he has great feeling for his subject. He tells the story of his years with Clough with passion and yet with restraint. It tells us so much not just about Clough, but about football, and about what it was like being a provincial football reporter during that era. The book reveals many aspects of football and journalism that the average fan never sees or begins to appreciate. It is a slice of social as well as sporting history. I can understand, too, how Duncan Hamilton came to fall out with football, and to resent the changes that came in his final years as a sports writer. Having been in the same business, I had many similar experiences. At the same time, I can appreciate why the author acceptedthat sport IS an important part of our lives. It took me a long time to find this book, in that I didn't snap it up when it was first available, but I am glad that I eventually acquired a copy and read it. I found that I couldn't put it down, and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest not just in Brian Clough but in football in Clough's time.

[Abhinav · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second book I've read on the enigma that was Brian Clough, the first being the excellent 'factional' account 'The Damned Utd' by David Peace last year. The author, a former football journalist & close confidante of Clough during his managerial tenure at Nottingham Forest, celebrates the legend in this refreshingly honest & insightful memoir.

Interesting approach to the narrative, the incidents being thematically linked in each chapter instead of going down the conventional path of chronological order. Having observed the genius at close quarters during the times of his spectacular rise to the pinnacle of European glory to his fallout with partner-in-crime Peter Taylor to his imminent decline on account of excess booze resulting in relegation for Forest in his final season, Hamilton paints an entirely different picture of Clough while trying to explain & justify some of his eccentric behaviour & pecularities.

4 stars to Duncan Hamilton's refreshing memoir of Brian Clough. Highly recommended for football fans & lovers of sports literature.

[James Grimditch · Rating 5 out of 5]

A personal highlight for me was anchal asking me what book I was reading and i replied ‘provided you don’t kiss me’ and she thought I was trying to rekindle our romance.
Anyway! This is a book about Brian Clough- manager of Nottingham Forest in the 1980s when he led them from relative obscurity to back to back European cups. Clough has been a bit of a hero of mine ever since I saw his documentary ‘I believe in mircacles’. Opinionated, an ardent socialist and a deeply funny and complex character, he’s basically everything I want to be when I grow up.
The book is written by Duncan Hamilton, a journalist covering Nottingham Forest for the local paper during the era of Brian Clough. Not to go all class consciousness, but Hamilton is clearly a remarkable character; emerging from a mining community at 16 with no qualifications and little ability to spell. What he’s produced is an astonishing piece of work, shunning the usual chronological biography structure in favour of a series of vignettes, each representing a different strand of Clough’s multi-faceted personality. It’s also littered with references I could only claw at, hinting at an incredibly broad range of touchstones from a clearly well read author. It’s also important because his working class background endeared him to Clough, who came from the red wall too. The two had an exceptionally close relationship after Hamilton spent years following Clough’s every move, behind close doors as well as in front of cameras. While he usually acts as an impartial observer, there are moving insights into their relationship, be it Clough’s attempts to help Hamilton with his stammer, Hamilton’s very apparent guilt at facilitating Clough’s alcoholism or the very touching passage about Clough’s death.
I completely understand the way people look at me when I say I’m reading another football book. I talk about football a lot, and it’s very boring, I am trying to cut down I promise. At its core, though, this is a very human story. It’s about a flawed genius who, aided by his friendship with Peter Taylor, accomplishes something extraordinary, only to see that relationship and the team break down on his slide towards alcoholism.
The latter pages of this book are filled with tributes towards Clough after he died. Thousands of people ringing, writing, leaving flowers to let him know how much he meant for them, and isn’t that important enough to write a book about? My grandparents are endlessly reading histories of some obscure family that they picked out at a national trust property, so why not Clough? A man cleverer, funnier, with a more profound impact on a more interesting British period than any ancient Lord of the manor. This is football writing at its best, celebrating the range of emotions and relationships sport can gift to us, and not apologising for loving it.

10/10. This isn’t the best biography I’ve ever read…but it’s in the top 1.

[Rishi Prakash · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the football books I have been trying to get my hands on but was not able to locate it till my dear friend found it on “bookchor”! And what a great book it turned out to be about one of the brilliant but eccentric Manager the world has seen…Brian Clough's twenty years as Nottingham Forest manager were an unpredictable mixture of success, failure, fall-outs and alcoholism which has been put really well by the author here. Duncan Hamilton the author was just 18 years old when he first met the great Man and the next twenty years just flew…he was initiated as a young journalist into the Brian Clough empire and was there to see it all. In this strikingly intimate biography, Hamilton paints a vivid portrait of one of football's greatest managers: from Nottingham Forest's double European Cup triumph to the torturous breakdown of relations at the club and Clough's descent into alcoholism.

Hamilton’s book is superbly paced. It tells the stories any football fan wants to hear: the truth behind the team and the manager and what goes behind closed doors… He spent 20 years covering Nottingham Forest and during that time had to put up with – and occasionally bask in – the inner workings of a flawed football genius who took Forest from 2nd division football to 1st division after 3 years and then won the 1st division in the very first year of their ascendency making everyone sit and notice. And then took the team 2 European Cup glory which was the biggest trophy any football club could win during that era.

This is not a straightforward biography. Instead it reads almost as a psychological discussion of what makes one man a success – makes a person stand out above others.

Hamilton was standing just behind Clough through the 20 years of success and failures at the club. He saw the madness, the slow and sad descent into alcoholism. He also watched Clough create a barnstorming persona that meant he was the fans’ favourite and the nemesis of directors and FA administrators which also ensured he never became the Manager of England football team!

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brian Clough was the irascible genius of English football. To football fans in Derby and beyond he is still the game's secular saint. His statue today overlooks the A58, seemingly about to part its lips and shout his pet term of affection and abuse (‘Shithouse!’) at passing motorists.

In many ways Hamilton has given us the factional counterpoint to David Peace’s The Damned United. Unlike that book, this one was written by someone who was actually there. And what times Hamilton witnessed- from the early days, when Clough was lobbing balls at his own players’ testicles to the rage and booze-sodden final years.

The book manages the tough balancing act of giving Clough his due (and his often-overlooked right-hand man Peter Taylor) while never losing sight of his uglier traits. Well recommended.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do not support any team that Brian Clough played for or managed. However, he was so much part of my childhood and adolescence that when he died in 2004 I found myself in floods of tears. In a world before media was an up to the second information source, Brian Clough strode the media world like a colossus. He was not just a very good football manager he was an iconic character for a generation. Like George Best, Brian was newsworthy and noteworthy for the reason that he was a genuine figure who seemed honest even if he made himself unpopular. So different to the saccharine outpourings of those who are in the game now. This book is an intimate reflection of one of the great football figures of the 1970's and 80's. It is also a portrait of the loneliness and isolation at the top and how it affected a man and how he tried to deal with it, often unsuccessfully with alcohol. Here was a man who was loved by some revered by many, and remembered by almost everyone.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it was great to dip into on holiday. the anecdotes and quotes from Cloughie really made me both laugh and also realise how different and unpolished football was in the 60's and 70's. A funny and insightful read into the mind of one of the best managers in British football.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite interesting, although I would have preferred to read more about Brian Clough and less about Duncan Hamilton.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read. I have been saving this book for a long time and finally decided I deserve to read it. I was quite saddened by his alcoholism and his falling out with Peter Taylor.

[Shatterlings · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting read about a difficult man, it’s told in a non linear fashion so at points seems like a selection of anecdotes rather than a biography. But it gets better as it goes, and the parts about his alcoholism are genuinely moving.

[Sam Hawkes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding book. Got genuinely emotional and not tied to Clough/Nottingham in any way. A book for all football fans.

[Mak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Portrett av ein mann som trente fotballag. Rørande avslutning

[Rob Thirlwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good young man.

[Keen Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I’m the bloke who took two teams from nowhere to win the League Championship. I’m the bloke who did in Europe what Shankly and Revie couldn’t do once, and what Busby and Stein couldn’t achieve twice.”

So says one of the greatest, most controversial and enigmatic managers in British footballing history. Clough alongside other great managers is always going to be a divisive figure, for a whole number of reasons. He was clearly a flawed man, but always a compelling one. Hamilton’s writing shows that football doesn’t always need to be about the sensationalist clichés spouted by the red tops, but can also be written with great verve, compassion and eloquence. There are plenty of great writers out there, writing well about football, but so often they get buried in the white noise of lazy tabloid copy. Hamilton has a fascinating subject and his close proximity to Clough, professional and personal over the years, gives us a wonderful insight into the man and the myth.

The author insists at one stage that, “Good quotes are the diamonds of popular journalism, and Clough represented the richest and the deepest seam. He was an inexhaustible mine of one liners.” With Clough he was spoiled for choice, his thoughts on the troubled Justin Fashanu were, “He looked like a million quid-but he sure wasn’t worth a million quid.” Or what he said about Brian Rice, “I’m not saying he’s thin and pale, but the maid in our hotel remade his bed without realising he was still in it.” were just a few examples.

He goes onto say that, “On one hand, Clough was capable of being unforgivably rude, unnecessarily cruel, appallingly bombastic and arrogant, and so downright awkward that I wanted to drop something large and heavy on his big head. On the other hand, he could be extravagantly generous, emollient and warm, ridiculously kind, and loyal to whoever he thought warranted it, and he often went out of his way to be no bother to anybody.

Clough had complained since the 70s of being on the wrong end of corrupt referees in Europe, not least in the classic case of Derby against Juventus, but his paranoia was justified, especially in the case of the Spanish referee Guruceta Muro, who had been bribed by Anderlecht’s former president, who had given him £18’000. The newspaper that broke the story also revealed that money had been paid to individuals who had threatened to expose the club.

Clough and Forest were never the same after the departure of Peter Taylor in 1982 and Hamilton makes a real effort to show how essential Taylor was to the huge success. It’s hard to believe that in 1982, “Forest were around £2m in the red. The club also had to pay off £2.5m it had invested in the Executive Stand.” This, only two years after winning back to back European Cups. Hamilton paints Clough’s downfall with a painstaking honesty and yet retains enough sensitivity, saying, “Brian Clough drank to celebrate. He drank to lift himself out of a dark corner. He drank because he was bored. He drank to forget. Finally, he drank because he forgot what he was drinking for.”

His last years in management are particularly hard to read, as self-doubt and full blown alcoholism takes hold. This would lead to a series of dreadful mistakes, like getting rid of Sheringham, and turning down the opportunity to replace him with Collymore, which helped see him get relegated back down into the second tier. This book makes a nice pairing with Peace’s,“The Damned United” which covers his brief, but turbulent Leeds period in the 70s. Overall this was a hugely enjoyable read and is hard to put down, it’s informed, nicely balanced and totally worthy of the praise it has been given over the years.

[David Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read (and reviewed) David Peace's excellent novel 'The Damned Utd' revolving round Brian Clough's turbulent 44 days as manager of Leeds, I welcomed the chance of gaining more insight to the man himself by someone who genuinely knew him well. Duncan Hamilton was football correspondent for the Nottingham Evening Post for most of Clough's time as manager of Nottingham Forest and seems to have become closer to him for over 20 years than any other professional excepting Clough's friend and colleague (until they fell out) Peter Taylor. Clough was rarely guarded in his comments even in the full glare of the media but Hamilton enjoyed special status as a confidant; as such he was privy to thoughts and comments that had not been manufactured for public consumption or thrown like a bomb to test their effect, and he often seems to have acted as the butt of Clough's angst.

The result is a captivating psychological exploration of the manager at his most successful, and in his alcohol-induced decline. Hamilton is not particularly concerned with giving us details of the club's campaigns, still less with match statistics, preferring to focus on the mind and behaviour of the individual, and the book is all the better for it. Neither is there any traceable chronological line; rather, we have a series of vignettes - scenes that are in turn dramatic, intimate, comic, powerful, disturbing - with the often charismatic, sometimes desperately needy Clough at the centre of them.

I recognized the Clough I met in Peace's novel as well as the Clough I remember from television and from a personal encounter in the late 1970s, but I also learned much more than I already knew and was absorbed throughout by Hamilton's deep-sourced presentation of this flawed and fascinating man, who was as much a character in real life as ever portrayed in fiction.

[Keith Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A modern day decline and fall, a Shakespearean tragedy, a morality tale, it's all here in the life and times of Brian Clough, " Old Big Head" as he was known From humble beginnings in the tough North East, through a playing career cut short through injury, to the acrimonious partnerships with Peter Taylor, endless run ins with boards of directors and the football establishment, you couldn't fail to notice Clough. Self opinionated, arrogant, certain that his way was the only way, never afraid to offend or pick an argument, Clough was a throwback to a different time. A time before Sky TV money transformed the football landscape, Clough somehow cajoled a small provincial club, Nottingham Forest, into winning championship's and the European Cup twice, an unthinkable achievement today. Sadly the decline, fuelled by alcohol, was rapid and cruelly reduced him to a shadow of his former self. He was a one off, never to be repeated and stands in sharp contrast to today's generation of football managers, who over think what is a simple game. Clough with his liking for bungs and backhanders wouldn't last five minutes in a world of high finance football, foreign ownership and proper scrutiny of his wheeling and dealing. This book tells his warts and all story from a journalist who reported on his life over a period of twenty years. There's no happy ending, Clough died relatively young at 69, his last team Nottingham Forest have charted a downward path ever since. Football the beautiful game, well maybe it once was and Clough certainly made his mark.

[Godzilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully warm and honest appraisal of an enigmatic character, who always appeared to never be "the full shilling".

Duncan Hamilton's candid recollections (calling it a biography is tricky, because it doesn't cover his whole life) of time spent with Old Big Ead are a joy to read.

The man could clearly instill both fear and respect in great doses. I can recall many of his wonderful one liners from the interviews he gave.
Hamilton adds flash to those bones and then injects a sense of the real person into that creation.

He doesn't dwell on the alcoholism, but acknowledges that it has to be addressed. The epiphet "Genius" was often liberally applied to Cloughie, and in some ways he proves that all geniuses are flawed.

His legacy will be felt for a long time - not least by the Nottingham Forest fans, whom I had the "pleasure" of experiencing first hand recently: they're still trading on those past glories, sadly forgetting that they'll never reach those dizzy heights again.

In that sense they're just like Cloughie: slightly stuck in the past and unable to come to terms with the here and now, failing to adapt to changing circumstances.

This book is a great tribute to a great character, written with respect and admiration, and that is passed on to the reader unequivocally.

[Steve Parcell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly and enjoyable and insightful read about the life and times of Brian Clough, one of England's finest ever managers.

The book delves deep beneath the eccentric and extrovert character to see there is a softer more vulnerable soul. Clearly he was sensitive and full of self doubt and regret. He particularly regretted his fall out with Peter Taylor and was full of guilt and remorse that they didn't bury the hatchet before Peter's untimely death. He also regretted leaving the great team he created at Derby over principles and realised he could have created a real dynasty there.

Still he did a remarkable job at Notts Forest but never seemed quite satisfied with taking them from obscurity to double European Cup winners.

Sadly in the latter years his alcoholism really rears its ugly head and it seemed almost a relief when he left them when they were relegated from the Premiership.

Insightful, sad, interesting, exciting and full of humour, its well worth a read.

[Trevor Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, moving, honest and graphic, journalist Duncan Hamilton spent 16 years of his life following the Clough legend, and gives a superb insight into the man, his mania, motivations, musings and malady. There are two elements that led to this book winning the Sports Book of the Year Award in 2007. First, like the biography of Mao written by his doctor Li, this account is told by one close to Clough, on the inside yet on the outside too. Second, Hamilton has written outside of the traditional chronological format, which keeps the reader glued to the pages thoughout. I read both of Clough's autobiographies, but I learned much, much more from this account of his life. To achieve what Clough and Taylor achieved on such meagre resources was nothing short of miraculous. A one off, they broke the mould after they made him, but then one is all the football world could cope with.

[Adrian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is both one of the best sports books I've read and one of the best biographies. After finishing it you feel like you know Brian Clough, and although the author's biography of Harold Larwood didn't grip me in the way this did, it's probably because Clough is so much more interesting. Hamilton was in constant contact with Clough for twenty years and it's that fact that elevates this story - the author was close enough to feel something for the man but distant enough as a writer to capture what made the man so magnetic to those who may never have met him. The last chapter is one of the best I've read in any book, the culmination and validation of the author's willingness to put so much of himself into the story of Brian Clough.

[Adrian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really good book if you are interested in football and despite any feelings you may have about Brian Clough......rude,opinionated and arrogant etc.

It's really a story I suppose about a journalist's career and his relationship with Brian Clough....you don't even have to like Brian Clough at the end of it but you have to admire his achievements.....

I still don't but that Brian Clough was the big winner as regards Leeds Utd.as I don't think it did his reputation as a manager any good only spending about a month there....

I have to say though that it was one of the best football books I have read

[John Coke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Duncan Hamilton seems to really know his subject and to have reflected well on Clough and Taylor. A lot of interesting comments about sports journalism.
The first 40% of the book is excellent - well written, insightful, and well structured. The middle 20% is really just a string of points assembled together without much in the way of narrative. The final third is a bit too self-indulgent but still with some good things to come out of the self reflection.
More than any book I’ve read recently made me reflect on achievement, life and death - as I think in the end Hamilton intended. Not bad for a book on football.
Overall an enjoyable and productive read.

[Ollie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book. Close-up account of a complicated and talented individual that delves into both football and subjects external to it: the nature of fame and money, the corporatisation of football and the strains of life in the dugout. You get the sense that although a colourful figure you would not want to spend too much time in the presence of the man. Got some good humour though, for example Clough's manipulation of the press and a photo of him chucking his passport in the bin with a glum expression after being denied the Wales job.

[Mdaly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book. Humourous and generous to Brian Clough. Duncan doesn't try to over analyse his subject or imply that he was more central to the story. It's a pity that Brian fell out with the author after leaving Notts Forest because it would have been interesting to find out how Clough took to his retirement.
The only quibble I had with the book was the chronology of some of the events, there was a bit of jumping back and forth that was a bit confusing. But other than that I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed 'The Damned United' by David Peace.

[Felipe Portes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ótimo retrato de Brian Clough em sua totalidade. O lado bom, o ruim, os acertos e os erros, sem cair em um trabalho de assessoria. Hamilton descreve perfeitamente e com riqueza de detalhes como era a sua convivência com o treinador mais fascinante que o futebol já teve. Não se pode deixar de observar como é triste acompanhar a decadência de Clough, até sua aposentadoria e morte. No fim, o livro é bem divertido e te prende nas histórias fantásticas e reais do autor. É quase impossível escrever uma história pobre e entediante sobre um personagem tão rico e complexo.

[Vaibhav Tiwari · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's truly excellent for a football fan. Really well written reflecting the heart and soul that football is all about. Coming from India and starting watching football only in 2000s, I had no idea about football as a sport before the increased role of money in it. The narration make me live those years despite being from a different generation altogether along with the ups and downs in Cloughs career. It captures his greatness as a football manager and also his humanness.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this right after Damned Utd as I wanted to see a more true to life angle of Clough's career. The writer obviously has a lot of affection for Clough without papering over his obvious flaws.

An interesting read for anyone that wants to know about one of modern football's most complex characters.

[Derek · Rating 5 out of 5]

A raw, honest and sometimes brutally harsh biography of the best man never to manage the English national team. In his writing Duncan Hamilton also pays much deserved respect to Peter Taylor.......maybe one day Nottingham Forest will have the good grace to do likewise!!

For people who enjoy biographies of legends in sport, this is an essential read.

[Sunny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and my respect for Brian has grown exponentially. He was what I would call a “boxer” according to my personality profile. Someone who doesn’t give a defecation about what others think about him. Brian had a really impressive scoring record in almost all the teams that he played for; he managed to score around a goal per game which as any striker knows is a very very very impressive feat. However, his greatest glory was destined to be for his management career. In a handful of seasons, he took a depleted Nottingham Forrest from the bottom half of the second division in the English league around the late 70s to the top. The next season he won the first division that first season up. I don’t know any team in the world that has done this. The very next season he won the European competition. And the season after that he won the same European competition again. He took average players and did something to them that made them great. He spotted great players from obscurity and turned them into something incredible. Stuart Pearce, Roy Keane, Peter Hilton all player under his aegis. He was brutally honest at times but also had a strong philanthropic side to him like all the greats have. Unfortunately, he was also a drunk and in the end the bottle beat him. Here are the best bits from this stunning little humbly written book by a journalist that was like a son to him throughout Brian’s days of halcyon and eventual decay:
• Revie managed methodically. He compiled dossiers and thought intently about the intricacies of the opposition. Clough managed through gut instinct. He dismissed dossiers as frippery and did not think let alone talk about position, strengths or weakness. Clough prepared almost nothing at all. He liked to wing it.
• Buy players who show courage. Taylor’s antennae learnt to pick up the tell tale psychological signs about players. He would notice the way someone walked or carried his bag or sat on the bench beneath his kit peg or offered a throwaway apparently trivial comment as he came in.
• Nottingham Forrest won the league cup against Southampton in 1979 after he forced the players into a late-night drinking session the night before the Wembley final. He took them into a private room at their hotel, ordered enough champagne to float a long boat and twisted the key loudly in the lock. No one leaves until you’ve drunk that lot he ordered. Clough said that the players had looked tense and he needed to find a way to relax them.
• I can tell from the moment I see someone in the dressing room, whether he’s off colour, had a row with his missus, kicked the cat or just doesn’t fancy it that particular day. I know who needs lifting, I know who needs to have his ass kicked. I know who needs leaving alone to get on with it. It only takes a minute to score a goal and it takes less than a minute to change someone’s outlook with a word or two. That’s just another type of coaching that you won’t find in the manuals.
• Clough never forgot what happened to him in the dressing room before his league debut for Middlesbrough. The manager Bob Dennison told Clough that now he had finally been chosen for the side the rest was “up to him”. All Dennison needed to say to Clough was that he believed in him or tell him not to worry about playing in his first game. As a result, Cloughs core dictum – make sure you’ve got players who are relaxed – sprang out of that moment of thoughtlessness from Dennison.
• I don’t want anything to be predictable was Cloughs line : some of his management techniques were not so much unorthodox as downright eccentric. Punching players in the stomach usually at half time, to signal his displeasure: Stuart Pearce, Neil Webb, Roy Keane and Nigel Jemson all experienced it. Banning Francis from attending the second European cup final because he was on crutches. I didn’t want our lot preparing for a major final, watching someone on a pair of crutches. Ordering the squad to run through stinging nettles and cowpats close to the training ground.
• Clough was in the habit of making players who were either off form or out of favour to sit next to him on the bench. The best coaching lesson of them all he called it. They learn very quickly how the game should be played after listening to me yelling at everyone for 90 minutes.
• For Clough it was all about discipline. Larry Lloyds was fined for not wearing his blazer at the European Cup final tie in Athens – Lloyd said that it was at the bottom of his suitcase and too much trouble to take out and put on. This typified Cloughs zero tolerance of minor infringements. If you sort out the small things the big ones wont bother you.
• Id give anything for one more season as a player. If I could turn back the clock that’s what id do. You never ever lose the thrill of watching your own shot fly past the goalkeeper, or putting on your boots and tying on the laces, of feeling the studs press down into the turf or hearing the sound of the ball as you hit it, and watch it fly like a golden shot. I try to tell them, every player I get, to enjoy every single minute of their career. Because you never know when it might end, in less than a second.
• Joseph Heller the author of Catch 22 was told often that he had never written a better novel than Catch 22, he would nod his head sagely in agreement and then reply with a smile “ but who has?”