Last week marked half a century since Brian Clough took over at Nottingham Forest. Has there ever been a coach in the history of the sport who had a more dramatic effect in his first five years in charge?
Promotion, a League title at the first try, two League Cups, two European Cups and a Super Cup and, as everyone around here will tell you, all done with five players from the team he took over languishing in the old Second Division. . Division. There is no money from oligarchs or oil states for Clough, who did it the old way, with brilliance in recruiting and personnel management.
The thing about Clough is that he has become so ubiquitous in football folklore that you can sometimes get lost in the mythical place he occupies there. 'When the legend becomes reality, print the legend' is a line from the movie The man who shot Liberty Valance. The line is often used as a way to describe the idea that legends can be as important as facts.
Clough definitely inhabits this world now. There is a practical cottage industry to Clough's stories. People on the after-dinner circuit know that the way to capture the rapt attention of any audience is to say: “And then I met Cloughie.” The silence that always descends is a testimony of man.
One of my favorites concerns Liverpool. Every great sporting era needs two protagonists who push each other to greater heights. Ali and Frazier. Borg and McEnroe. Coe and Ovett. These rivalries are burned into our conscience.
Why is that? Why do we, as human beings, get so involved when two people, teams or even empires engage in an almighty struggle to win? There's something in our DNA about watching powerful warriors touch the gods in their quest to be the best.
Brian Clough stated that Liverpool were Nottingham Forest's fiercest rivals early on at the club.
Clough's Forest team repeatedly faced Bob Paisley's Liverpool in important finals
In those early days when Clough took charge of Forest, there is a story they tell. Forest, struggling in the old Second Division, had just lost to city rivals Notts County. The next morning during training, the new manager told the players with his head bowed that if they wanted to get in a bad mood because they thought County were their rivals, they should think again!
Some players looked at each other… are you referring to the Derby? The club was our rival, he had taken them to the stratosphere and they won two titles in recent years.
No, gentlemen, said the 40-year-old man with his eyes burning with ambition. I need you to understand that for me our fiercest rival is now Liverpool.
The players now looked at each other in disbelief…
Are you serious? The team that everyone agrees is now probably the best in Europe, maybe in the world!
He vouched for them… oh yes, youngsters… 'they' are the team I aim to surpass, and if they don't believe me, there's no point in them staying at Nottingham Forest Football Club. Now go get some balls and split into two teams.
Clough kept his word when he took Forest to the First Division in 1977. They were favorites to be relegated, as you might think, a bit like this season, but they ended up winning it.
Now, no one on the banks of the Trent believes Forest will win the title this season, but good recruitment has allowed them to avoid at least a relegation battle. The owner's ambition is a big part of it. Clough had an elected committee to deal with, which he did at the end of that season when, instead of showing up in person at the annual postseason meeting, he simply sent a Polaroid of the two cups he had won. Enough words and arguments.
Clough, pictured with captain Kenny Burns, after Forest's League Cup final victory over Liverpool in 1978.
I Believe in Miracles charted Forest's rise under Clough to English and European champions
But what people also forget are Clough's three signings when he took charge of Forest. The best goalkeeper in the world, Peter Shilton, the brilliant Scottish midfielder Archie Gemmell and a Glasgow striker from Birmingham City called Kenny Burns, who Clough and Peter Taylor decided to turn into a world-class centre-back. Not a bad recruit, huh? As good as this team was, with everything built around Forest's greatest player of all time, John Robertson, a short, stocky winger who could twist your defense inside out and land the ball from corners to a sixpence, The problem was Liverpool Football Club. .
Let's talk a little about how great they were. In fact, many say it is the best team of all time and there are a few to choose from. They had transitioned seamlessly from the game's other great personality manager, Bill Shankly, to his quieter, but in some ways more effective assistant, Bob Paisley.
Paisley turned Liverpool into the greatest winning machine in world sport. In fact, the now famous banner hanging on the Kop expressed it beautifully. 'There we go collecting glasses in May.' And boy did they do that and then some.
For a kid like me who grew up in South Wales, we could name both teams as they faced off like two giant Texas bulls.
Clemence, the Kennedys, King Kenny, McDermott, Hughes, Thompson. The boys shouted in the schoolyard: 'We are Liverpool!' Immediately others would respond. Shilton, Anderson, Larry and Kenny, Woodcock, Birtles and Robbo. 'We are Forest!' We knew their names. I still do it. There were songs on the charts about them.
They constantly seemed to be in finals, both in some kind of eternal 15-round boxing-type battle, achieving devastating results, but in the end Forest seemed to win. He drove Liverpool and their fans crazy. I can remember after making the movie. I believe in miracles A Scouser approached me in Sorrento, Italy.
'I loved your movie, boy, and it reminded me how frustrated we were! Our best team ever and we just couldn't track down these bastards who came out of nowhere!'
We both laughed because it was so strange that Europe's biggest rivals in the late 70s were barely a two-hour drive away and yet they won all five European Cups between 1977 and 1981. Go ahead and read that and imagine that now. ? Two clubs have literally exchanged the most important prize in national football for almost half a decade.
In the end, Forest seemed to win when they met in the final, which sent Liverpool fans into a frenzy.
The club beat Liverpool 2-0 at home en route to winning the European Cup in 1979.
That's how good they were. That's how intense it was. They even faced each other in a European Cup match. It is undoubtedly Forest's most famous home victory, beating the double champions 2-0 on a night when millions of people were watching on ITV at a time when football was almost never seen on television.
Young Garry Birtles scored his first goal and then Colin Barrett scored the second to give him mythical status among Forest fans to this day. They still sing a song about him beating the Scousers, almost 50 years later.
By the way, the Kop also sings a song. These are their fiercest rivals. It's about Everton and Manchester United, of course, but the song actually starts about a team they never played for for over 20 years.
The younger generation, who had grown up with Sky Sports and Liverpool-United as the game of the season, must have wondered what they were singing about.
Set to the tune of Land of Hope and Glory, it opens with 'We Hate Nottingham Forest' and Liverpool fans of a certain generation shout it out with a nostalgic smile as they remember one of the great rivalries in football history.
In fact, when they finally met again in the FA Cup a few years ago, Liverpool TV did a wonderful article educating their younger fans about how, in a land and time long ago, “this” was the rivalry .
Nuno Espirito Santo's modern Forest team has become Liverpool's rival
Forest hosts Liverpool on Tuesday and hopes to close the gap in the Premier League table
I love the fact that it all started on a miserable morning after a defeat to Notts County and with one man's dream of leading his new team to the top.
He knew he had to put his team and his club as high as possible and that was to chase the mighty Liverpool.
There can be no higher praise and that is what the Forest players must try to do again on Tuesday.
I believe in miracles is available to view at sky tent, AppleTV and Amazon Prime