Why Nigel Clough is still a Forest legend

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Following his dismissal over the weekend, Paul Severn says maybe it’s time to remember Nigel Clough’s time in a Nottingham Forest shirt — rather than as Derby County manager…

In his autobiography, Stuart Pearce said he’d sooner take his chances on the dole than manage Derby County. Pearce didn’t need to say this to cement his place as a Nottingham Forest legend, but it became part of what ‘Psycho’ stood for – total commitment to the Forest cause. In any discussion about Forest legends, the name of Nigel Clough would always come up in the conversation. But something changed in January 2009. Clough was appointed manager of Derby County.

I drive many miles up and down the M1 to attend Forest games and this ritual is partly due to the fact I was lucky enough to see the tail end years of the Brian Clough era. His son Nigel was integral to that team. One of my earliest memories of supporting Forest was the 1989 Littlewoods Cup Final against Luton Town. Forest were a goal down to Mick Harford’s first half header and it looked a little bleak. Clough Junior’s penalty and excellent finish in the second half won the cup. His father – so long without a trophy – shared a moment with the fans before leaving the stage. Father and son had won silverware and it was a perfect day.

Although darker times would follow, Clough went on the score over 100 goals for Forest. Added to this goalscoring prowess was superb vision and immense courage to keep receiving the ball while being clattered by defenders – a fact mentioned by Pearce himself, a true hardman.

Clough was to eventually move on to Liverpool, although he did briefly return to Forest on loan in December 1996, showing glimpses of his old skills in Pearce’s doomed attempt to keep Forest in the Premier League. Clough unsurprisingly followed his father into management. It was always great to hear that Brian attended games at Burton Albion as his son began to show his own managerial abilities, albeit totally different to his father in style. The scene seemed set for Clough to manage Forest, but to the horror of many Forest fans, it was to be one of Brian’s other former clubs instead who took their chances on this promising young manager.

In football, fans like simple, neat narratives. Managers tend to be good (Billy Davies) or bad (Steve Cotterill) and the opinions are steadfast despite differing situations, owners, squads, morale and transfer funds all making the picture more complex. Players too are neatly filed by fans. Nigel was a Forest legend, so it was somewhat bewildering when he took over at Derby. How could this happen? Fans debated whether they wanted him to fail. Should they boo him? It just didn’t seem to fit the way fans thought about the name ‘Clough’.

What followed was quite interesting. Clough displayed the same fierce will to win as Derby manager and the fixture took a more explosive context, rather than a thaw that might have been expected with a Forest favourite managing Derby. Billy Davies was keen to pay back Derby for his sacking and Clough was in no mood to surrender easy points. After a number of ugly derby-day incidents, Clough’s popularity amongst Forest fans plummeted. Perhaps the feeling was mutual. And what made things worse was that Clough proved rather adept at beating Forest. And it hurt.

The sacking of Clough now allows Forest fans a chance to draw a line under Clough’s tenure at Derby, and perhaps reassess. Forest of course had plenty of opportunities to appoint the young Clough who was excelling at Burton, yet chose the likes of Joe Kinnear and Gary Megson instead. It was naïve to expect Clough to wait indefinitely for the role and Derby provided a familiar, local opportunity at a high level. Anybody who expected Clough’s Derby to give Forest an easy ride was mistaken. Clough showed as a player he was brave and a winner. It was unlikely to change as Derby manager.

With Billy Davies always keen to score any victory over Derby, it is understandable that Clough would match him and do whatever it took to win. That’s what top sports coaches do. That’s what makes players legends. I believe Clough felt that beating Forest on a regularly basis was key to surviving as Derby manager with promotion off the agenda financially. He knew this and got his team motivated to frustrate big-spending Forest. It was perhaps apt that his reign ended after a derby defeat, to the one manager Forest have appointed to match his own will to win – Billy Davies.

There might be other reasons Clough has cooled towards Forest, but I won’t speculate on those. What is important is that his time at Derby does not cloud what he achieved for Forest. Football supporting can be fruitless at times and those who score goals, win trophies and give 100% should always be respected. These are the players that build a club, give it a history and get fans like me hooked.

Nigel Clough remains a massive part of Forest, even if the story is not as neat and tidy as it was before. I hope that now he has left Derby, Forest fans will remember his contribution and readmit him back into the Forest family. Good families always have an open door for their members and that should be extended to Nigel. Perhaps in time, there will be an element of grudging respect at the tough job he has done at Derby and, maybe, one day there might be calls for him to take over at the City Ground. What a prodigal son story that would be. But even if it doesn’t happen, Nigel Clough will always be a part of the Nottingham Forest that I, and many others, have grown to love.

You can follow Paul on Twitter: Follow @paulsevern7
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Image: Alan Murray-Rust (CC-BY-SA-2.0), via Wikimedia Commons