Over the past fortnight, the mass media have been eulogising themselves blind over two colourful and disliked characters who are no longer of this world. The first is Jade Goody whose death from cervical cancer transformed her from a reality television nobody into a beacon of strength for women in the UK fighting the disease. The second is the focus of a part fact/part fiction film about 44 days he spent in the managerial hot seat at Leeds United – Brian Clough.
With the release of The Damned United very much the talk of the British cinema scene at present, a lot of journalists are embarking on a beatification of Clough that both historically and morally he is not worthy of possessing. BBC Radio 4, London Lite and the Liverpool Echo are just three forms of media - both audio and print - who have claimed that Clough is the only English manager to win the European Cup in consecutive years. It is either hysteria that surrounds the film and Clough's legacy or it is lazy journalism that has seen Bob Paisley's feat two seasons previous to 'Old Big Head' overlooked. Paisley's Liverpool side retained the European crown in the 1977-78 season, 12 months after their first triumph at Rome's Stadio Olimpico - the venue for this season's Champions League final.
Larry Lloyd - who played under Clough at Nottingham Forest during those back-to-back European triumphs in 1979 and 1980 - still believes the outspoken manager is the greatest of all-time, ahead of his former boss Bill Shankly. “I played for Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley but, without doubt, Cloughie was the best,” he said. “It's close, because Shankly was a genius too, but Cloughie did it with two much smaller clubs.” What Lloyd fails to realise is that Liverpool were not a big club when Shankly arrived there half a century ago. The gruff-voiced Scot one remarked, "If you'd seen Anfield when I came it was the biggest toilet in Liverpool. I had to bring water in from Oakfield Road. It cost 3,000 pounds. There was no water to flush the toilets." For someone who spent five years under Shanks at Anfield, Lloyd seems to have allowed the success he enjoyed at the City Ground to deflect from the fact that anything Clough could do, Shanks had already done better.
This Clough mania is very wide of the mark and akin to crowning Jose Mourinho the greatest manager of the current generation of football devotees. Even Liverpool supporters will begrudgingly admit that, over the past 15 years, only Sir Alex Ferguson can take that title. Ferguson has won 35 major trophies in a managerial career that that is equal in years. Clough's paltry nine in 28 years pales insignificantly. Yes, Clough was a good manager but there were far better and less arrogant ones out there who won less and are overlooked. Don Revie, hIs predecessor to those ill-fated 44 days at Elland Road, was just one of them who treated his players like sons and knew the value of family life and team unity. Bertie Mee of Arsenal, Bill Nicholson at Spurs and Liverpool's Bob Paisley are three more to add to that list, although the latter overshadowed Clough's honours roll but his modesty at all times was equal to that of Mee and Nicholson.
There is one enduring image of Brian Clough that really did sum up his legacy to those in the modern era and that is the image of his last game in charge of Forest. His now well-documented battle with alcoholism was clear for all to see as he stood in the City Ground, minutes after he had condemned the club to relegation, fists clenched and raised aloft. His face tells the story of a man who had drunk heavily for over thirty years. At the age of 58, the same age that Kenny Dalglish is currently, Clough looked far older than he was and gravely ill; his face blotchy and with red liver spots. But there was no sympathy with this fallen idol coming from Anfield following his comments that the Hillsborough disaster was caused by Liverpool supporters - comments which were only retracted in 2001 - 12 years after the tragedy.
The film is based on a book released in 2006 of the same title and the Clough family have said that they will boycott it for this reason, a ringing endorsement for anti-Clough merchants. Clough may have thought he was the greatest but great managers do not liken themselves to the likes of Muhammad Ali and get sacked a month and a half into, what was at the time, one of the top jobs in English football. The journalists who continue to place him on a pedestal in light of the release of The Damned United should listen to the words uttered by Ali in one of the film's scenes - "Now Clough I've had enough. Stop it."
