It was only three years earlier and just 16 miles away in Derby that Clough collected his first major trophy in management – guiding the Rams to their maiden English title in 1972.
And while he took Derby to a European Cup semi-final showdown with Juventus – a two-legged tie mired in controversy that the Rams lost, external – a falling out with the board led to his departure in 1973.
He went on to have a stint as manager of Brighton & Hove Albion after that, but he left the then third division strugglers after 32 games for an infamous 44-day reign at Leeds United – where he introduced himself to a squad that had won the English title just months earlier by saying they should throw their medals in the bin.
It showed that Clough could be as caustic as he was charming.
In the decades that have followed, he was seen as the greatest manager England never had –, external interviewing for the job in 1977 and 1982 – and it is widely thought that the Football Association saw Clough as too much of an outspoken figure to hold the job.
Some at Forest were nervous for the same reasons when they went after him as a replacement for Allan Brown – who was sacked following a 2-0 home defeat by city rivals Notts County, which left the Reds 13th in the second tier at the start of 1975.
“Brian Clough was a very controversial figure and a lot of the committee didn’t want him to come,” said former Forest chairman Brian Appleby during an interview with BBC Sport before he passed away in 2021.
“I think they were frightened of what would happen.
“My attitude was simply that we can’t be in any worse position than we are now, and we needed a breath of fresh air. And that’s exactly what Brian Clough was.”
Nottingham’s Football Post newspaper echoed those very words in an article published after Clough oversaw his first win – which was to knock Tottenham out of the FA Cup in a third-round replay at White Hart Lane.
“It was not so much a breath of fresh air that swept the corridors of the City Ground this week – more like a hurricane,” the piece stated in its opening line.
“A wind of change has come over the club and within an hour of his arrival, Brian Clough made more impact than most managers achieve in a lifetime.”
O’Neill says he remembers first meeting Clough “as clear as daylight” having been sat with team-mates in the changing rooms at the City Ground on the day of the new manager’s arrival.
While the former midfielder readily admits that many in that changing room would have been relative unknowns to the new boss, the man himself was among the most famous in Britain.
His personality was known well beyond the terraces, as his wit and panache for entertaining as a talkshow guest made him a media darling whose catalogue of memorable quotes – be it about grass in the sky or shutting up to show more football – remain part of football’s lexicon to this day.
“In that time there were very few television stations around, but he was a celebrity,” O’Neill said.
“He was appearing on Michael Parkinson’s chat show, and I might be exaggerating, but it seemed like every six weeks. He was big news. What he had was this great charisma.”
+ There are no comments
Add yours