Brian Clough

Brian Howard Clough (/klʌf/ KLUF; 21 March 1935 – 20 September 2004) was an English football player and manager, primarily known for his successes as a manager with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. He won the European Cup twice with Nottingham Forest and is one of four managers to have won the English league with two different clubs. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time. Charismatic, outspoken and often controversial, his achievements with Derby and Forest, two clubs with little prior history of success, are rated among the greatest in football history. His teams were also noted for playing attractive football and for their good sportsmanship. Despite applying several times and being a popular choice for the job, he was never appointed England manager and has been dubbed the "greatest manager England never had".

Clough played as a striker for Middlesbrough and Sunderland, scoring 251 league goals in 274 matches; he remains one of the Football League's highest goalscorers. He won two England caps. He entered management after his playing career was ended by a serious injury at the age of 29. As a manager, Clough was closely associated with Peter Taylor, who served as his assistant manager at several clubs in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. He is also remembered for giving frequent radio and television interviews in which he made controversial remarks about players, other managers and the overall state of the game. In 1965, he took the manager's job at Fourth Division Hartlepools United and appointed Peter Taylor as his assistant, the start of an enduring partnership that would bring them success at several clubs over the next two decades. In 1967, the duo moved on to Second Division Derby County who, in 1968–69, were promoted as Second Division champions and, three years later, crowned champions of England for the first time in the club's history. In 1973, they reached the semi-finals of the European Cup. By this point, Clough's relationship with chairman Sam Longson had deteriorated; he and Taylor resigned.