Everyone knows the story of how Brian Clough took Nottingham Forest from the lower reaches
of the Second Division to European Champions.
Films and books have been written, endless tales have been told and legends made about
his successes in that half of the East Midlands.
But not so widely told is how close he came to doing exactly the same in the
other half.
Brian Clough and Peter Taylor arrived at Derby County in 1967 to find a club in disrepair.
They had been outside the top flight for 14 years, had been in the lower
half of the Second Division for much of the previous decade and finished 17th
the season before they arrived.
Their first season didn’t show much improvement: they finished 18th, but the following
summer they put together the core of the team that would lead them to the top.
Alan Hinton, John O’Hare, Roy McFarland, John McGovern and Dave Mackay all arrived,
and the team clicked, winning promotion to the top flight as champions.
‘I’ve never known a collective spirit stronger than the one we built at Derby at
that time,’ Clough wrote in his autobiography.
The improvement was gradual: ninth in their first season back in the First Division, then
fourth, and by 1971 they had established themselves as a force.
But already the seeds had been sown for the end of Clough and Taylor at Derby:
their relationship with chairman Sam Longson was already beginning to sour, ostensibly
over transfers, but ultimately over who was the real driving force behind
Derby’s revival.
The more Clough got the credit, the more Longson resented
him.
In fact, halfway through the 1971/72 season, with Derby on their way to winning their first
league tittle, Clough and Taylor handed in their resignations, in theory because
they had received a better offer from Coventry, but in reality their
motivation was probably to secure a payrise, which they did.
Derby were involved in one of the most fraught title races in history that season, competing
with Manchester City, Liverpool and Leeds United for the First Division
crown.
So close was it that City won their final game of the season,
taking them top, but they had no chance of winning the league as Derby still had to play
Liverpool, so one would overtake them.
Derby won that game, but the title wasn’t secured: it would all come down to the last
day, as Leeds faced Wolves (two days after they’d played in
the FA Cup final) and Liverpool played Arsenal.
With no more games to play, Derby left the country.
Taylor took the squad to Majorca, while Clough retreated to the
Scilly Isles with his family.
The players followed the games, nervously, via crackly telephone lines.
Ultimately, despite them going to and fro, results went in Derby’s
favour: Wolves beat an exhausted Leeds, while Arsenal held Liverpool.
“I do not believe in miracles,” said Clough,
“but one has occurred tonight...This has given me far more pleasure than I can
adequately express.”
The first part of the miracle was done, and they so very nearly completed phase two.
They reached the semi-final of the European Cup, beating Benfica - Eusebio and
all - on the way, but there they came up against Juventus.
This was a brilliant Juve team, featuring Dino Zoff,
Helmut Haller and Fabio Capello, but in Clough’s words “it wasn’t the result that
incensed me.”
Clough believed, and did to his dying day, that the Italians ‘influenced’ the referee
that night in the first leg in Turin, after Haller was spotted going into
the officials’ room at half-time.
Certainly a few questionable decisions were made, but nothing was ever proven.
“I will not talk to no cheating bastards,” he told the Italian press afterwards, making
his feelings crystal clear.
Brian Glanville, an English journalist who spoke
Italian, feigned ignorance when asked by the home press corp for a
translation.
"Tell them what I said, Brian," shouted Clough.
Juventus won that game 3-1, and the return ended in a 0-0
draw, meaning Clough’s first big shot at the European Cup was over.
And so, in a manner of speaking, was their time at Derby.
The following season started well, but by October the
relationship between Clough and Longson was irreparable.
Longson tried to ban Clough from appearing in the media,
not a realistic prospect for a man with a newspaper column and lucrative television
punditry work.
This was the final straw and Clough resigned, even though he
didn’t actually want to leave.
But his bluff was called, and both he and Taylor
were out.
A protest movement was formed, the Derby players considered boycotting that weekend’s game
against Leicester, but in the end they played, and won 2-1.
In a typical act of theatrics, Clough made an appearance at the game, took the ​
applause of the crowd and left.
Pressure grew to bring back Clough and Taylor, and some of the board had second
thoughts, but Longson had already appointed Dave Mackay, by that time Forest manager,
to replace them.
Six years later, Clough and Taylor lifted the European Cup with Forest.
Somewhere, in a Derby boardroom, they must have wondered what could have been...