Brian Clough was on the verge of becoming Man City manager, deal fell through at the last second

petrusha said:
I remember Clough being linked with us in 1983 because, having seen the stories in the press, I baited rag mates at school with the idea that he'd get us promoted and win us the title before Atkinson won in for them. I don't think that the idea Clough could have fancied our job in the summer of 1983 is as outlandish as suggested earlier in the thread, either.

Remember that, in those days, no one took much of an interest in the off-field side of football. We'd obviously overstretched ourselves with the signing of Trevor Francis, but we'd mitigated that by selling him. The team we went down with was generally regarded as one that shouldn't have taken the drop and, though the side then broke up that summer, we were relegated with the fourth-best average gate in the country in 1982/83.

To the outside world, we were in a decent place to rebuild while at the same time making an immediate return, as the rags and later Spurs had in the seventies. Billy McNeill took our job that summer, which was quite a coup. After all, successful Scottish managers were in big demand in England in those days and he'd won three Scottish leagues plus various domestic Cups in his stint at Celtic. That had been enough for the rags to be interested in him when the eventually appointed Atkinson a couple of years before, and he was also linked with other big English jobs when at Parkhead.

So if he was prepared to take the job, why wouldn't Clough have been? Neither would have known the unholy fucking mess Swales had created with our finances. And when Swales told McNeill there was cash to spend, the latter believed it. Clough easily could have done so, too. The difference is that McNeill battled on manfully for three seasons despite the deceit. Clough would have walked within months, I reckon.

I also take issue with the idea that Clough was a busted flush at this point and that he was useless without Taylor. His achievements at Forest in the late 1980s were superb, IMO. He regularly kept them in the top handful of teams in the league (third three times with a relatively small club) and reached numerous domestic Cup finals, winning several, ahead of many better resourced outfits. At this point, remember, home teams kept all their own gate receipts. That created a financial landscape which rendered impossible what he'd achieved at Forest and Derby in the seventies or what Bobby Robson did for Ipswich. And those later, exceptional achievements came without the involvement of Peter Taylor.

That said, I'm sure that peak Clough was with Taylor at his side and their most inspirational period was when they were at Forest from when Taylor joined after leaving Brighton in 1976 until the second European Cup win in 1980. And that makes all the more galling the fact that City passed up a golden chance to recruit Clough in the autumn of 1973. This, rather than 1983, is the glaring missed opportunity when it comes to not recruiting such a legend.

Clough had left Derby in mid-October of that year and took up the post at Brighton in early November, but between those dates, Johnny Hart went on sick-leave and City already knew he wasn't coming back, even though his official departure didn't come until after Clough had signed on at the Goldstone Ground. At least one Clough biography and some media reports at the time suggest that City did hold talks with him, but we opted not to pursue the possibility of appointing him. However, it would seem that he really was ours if we wanted him.

Instead, after an ill-advised dalliance with Ron Saunders (good manager but the wrong man for us), we landed on Tony Book and the latter built the first football team I fell in love with. Book was certainly a creditable performer as City boss (and, Lord knows, down the years we had many who weren't). But the difference between him and Clough is the difference between a perfectly decent local restaurant and a Michelin-starred one.

But then in 1973, as in 1983, Peter Swales was in the chair (Swales's ascension in 1973 came literally a matter of weeks before Clough was available). Our chairman for that period was a vile, egotistical **** who wouldn't make the best managerial appointment for the club because he was worried what it would do to his own position of power within the organisation. Do remember to cite this back the next time anyone tries to argue what a big Blue Swales was.
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Agree entirely about the late 1980's Forest side. Clough put together a very good side with the likes of Pearce, Walker, Webb etc. He even managed to make young Nigel play well. A real Sliding Doors moment as, with Clough in the same City, maybe bacon face would not have survived his early period at the rags.
 
johnevans said:
Together with 'Harry' Bassett, Brian Kidd and 'Big Sam' Allardyce, that makes four 'last seconds' thus far.

Another three similar revelations and maybe the lads and lasses of the South stand could get to work on a song based on Youssou N'Dour/Neneh Cherry's 'Seven Seconds', just as they've recently done with Fleetwood Mac/Christine McVie's exquisite 'Everywhere'? What might've been, eh?

And thinking about it, maybe 'Seven Seconds' would be more appropriate for us.. after all that's about the actual length of time of our 'history' according to the red barmpots at either end of the East Lancs Road..
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Not heard barmpot for ages, what a great word.
 
tbf after Taylor left and then fell out with him in 82 forests glory days soon went, Clough without Taylor is like allison without mercer.
 
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