English football lost one of its most colourful personalities, greatest managers, today as Brian Clough died at the age of 69 after a battle with stomach cancer. As manager of Nottingham Forest in the 1970s, Clough won successive European Cups after winning the English League against all odds.His footballing brain and eye for talent — one of his last finds was current Manchester United captain Roy Keane — was matched by his sharp tongue and hard, often physically violent, style of man-management. A far remove from today’s professorial, MBA-style bosses.‘‘It’s a major shock’’, one of his former Forest players Garry Birtles told Sky Sports. ‘‘He was a huge character. When he walked into a room, there was always a hush. He was one of those guys you were in awe of.’’Twice in his 28 years as manager Clough took over second division clubs and turned them into league champions — Derby County in 1972 and Forest in 1978. Forest’s European success was with players who developed from also-rans into internationals once they came under the wing of a manager full of paradoxes.Though the game has changed too much for comparisons, a modern-day equivalent would be a club like Aston Villa winning the Premiership this season and the Champions League next year. Villa, incidentally, did just that in 1981 and 1982.Clough was often mean-spirited but could be extremely generous. He was a bully but inspired immense loyalty.Many players barely disguised their dislike of someone who would happily tear them apart in public after a bad game. But they all wanted to play for Clough because his teams won trophies.Clough signed striker Trevor Francis to make him English soccer’s first million-pound player — then gave him his first game for Forest in the youth team and told him to make the tea.‘‘In his day, Brian was second to none. He succeeded in giving to a small city like Nottingham a footballing name that became known throughout the world of sport’’, former Forest, Liverpool and England defender Larry Lloyd said.Clough believed his success at Forest should have earned him the biggest prize of all — coaching the England national team. England fans desperate for success in the 1970s were behind him but officialdom shied away from appointing a man who was happy to claim.‘‘I am a bighead, not a figurehead’’, he said, in reference to his nickname, ‘Ol’ Bighead’. ‘‘One of the reasons I never became England manager wa sbecause the F.A. thought I would take over and run the show. They were dead right’’, he said later.Born in Middlesbrough, Clough joined his local club in 1953 and was among the greatest goalscorers of his age. He scored 251 goals in 274 games before his career was effectively ended at Sunderland by a knee injury in a match against Bury the day after Christmas in 1962. He won two England caps but the premature end to his career needled Clough for many years, contributing to his belief that the rest of the world was out to get him. (Reuters) CLOUGH-TALKING
