Clough the Autobiography by Brian Clough

Author:Brian Clough [Clough, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Sports, Soccer, Football, Non-Fiction
ISBN: 9781409045427
Google: GXMhl6mgmYEC
Amazon: B0031RSAXI
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2009-05-27T04:00:00+00:00

14

GLORY DAYS

I shout my opinion. I yell my contempt. I mean every word of it. I've got to be a winner or they'll cut me to shreds.

The wheel has turned full circle. Eighteen months ago my Forest team were relegated, back where I found them, a division adrift of the best. After I quit they had to choose well if they were to find a manager capable of achieving instant promotion and they went for the man I recommended – Frank Clark.

No-one was more delighted than I was when Frank repaired the damage in his first season, re-establishing Forest in the Premiership, the elite group we used to call the First Division.

But if he wants to emulate what we did in the late 1970s he'll need to be bloody good. We won the League Championship in our first season up from the Second Division, and then went on to win the European Cup the season after. Frank will remember it well because, as Max Boyce says, he was there. In a way, Frank was a symbol of that instant, unprecedented run of success, that continued with our successful defence of the European Cup a season later. What a signing! What a team! What a manager I must have been!

Frank had joined us a year earlier. A journalist tipped me off, as journalists often tip off managers on transfers. Doug Weatherall, the Daily Mail's man in the North-East, who seems to have spent longer on the patch than the Tyne Bridge, rang me and said: 'Newcastle have dropped a clanger. They've let Frank Clark go on a free transfer. Although he's turned thirty he must have another two or three years in him.'

'Where is he now?' I asked. 'Can I have a word with him?'

Doug explained: 'He's in Doncaster, talking to their manager, Stan Anderson.'

Now, I couldn't have that. Stan Anderson, an ex-playing colleague of mine at Sunderland, signing Frank Clark to play in the Fourth Division? Not if I could help it. Bargains don't come along very often in top-level football. Bargains like Frank Clark, without a fee, don't come along more than once in a lifetime.

I told Doug: 'Get hold of him and tell him Cloughie wants a word. Tell him not to sign for Doncaster or anybody else before he's talked to me.' Journalists can be useful on occasions. They can often get through to people quicker than managers. If I had rung Stan Anderson and told him I wanted a word with Frank before he signed, I can imagine what Stan would have told me: 'You can f**k off.' So Doug did all the donkey-work. I can't remember, but I do hope he got an exclusive out of the story.

Frank turned up at the City Ground the next day and signed within half an hour. He was thirty-two, but was to make nearly 120 appearances at full-back and one memorable appearance up-front. That was the day I pulled off Peter Withe and sent on Frank as substitute.

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