Brian Clough

Clough played for Great Broughton Juniors and, while working for ICI, Billingham Synthonia (scoring three goals in four games) before his national service in the RAF between 1953 and 1955. He combined playing football in the forces, though he was never selected for the RAF National team, and playing for the Boro third team when on leave.

Middlesbrough

Following this, he became a prolific striker for his home town club Middlesbrough since his debut in the 1955–56 season and an impressive 1956–57 season now as starter, scoring 204 goals in 222 league matches for Boro, including 40 or more goals in four consecutive seasons, being Division Two topscorer in two of them: 1958–59 and 1959–60. However, Clough also regularly submitted transfer requests since the 1957–58 season and had a tense relationship with some of his fellow players. He was especially irked by Boro's leaky defence, which conceded goals as regularly as he scored them. In the 1960–61 season after a 6–6 draw against Charlton Athletic, Clough sarcastically asked his teammates how many goals they would have to score in order to win a match. He also publicly accused some of his teammates of betting against the team and deliberately letting in goals. While at Middlesbrough, Clough became acquainted with goalkeeper Peter Taylor, with whom he would later form a successful managerial partnership at several clubs.

Sunderland

In July 1961, one of Clough's transfer requests was finally accepted and he…

Hartlepools United

After a short spell coaching the Sunderland youth team, in October 1965, Clough was offered the manager's job at Hartlepools United (from 1977 the club became known as Hartlepool United). He accepted and immediately asked Peter Taylor (then managing non-league Burton Albion) to join him as his assistant. At the age of 30, Clough was then the youngest manager in the league. Hartlepools were perennial strugglers and had repeatedly had to apply for re-election to the Football League, having finished in the bottom two of the Fourth Division five times in the past six seasons. Such was the club's perilous financial state in the 1965–66 season, Clough had to tour local pubs raising money to keep the club afloat and even applied for a coach driver's licence to drive the team to away matches. On 15 November 1966, the then chairman, Ernest Ord, who was known for playing mind games with managers, sacked Clough's assistant Peter Taylor, claiming he could not afford to pay him anymore. Clough refused to accept it so Ord sacked him as well. However, there was a boardroom coup where the other board members refused to ratify the two sackings and which instead saw Ord ousted as chairman. Both Clough and Taylor were reinstated. Hartlepools' fortunes gradually improved and the club finished in a creditable eighth place in 1966–67. Their Hartlepools team featured three players who would play for Clough and Taylor at other clubs in the future: Les Green, who would be…

Much of Clough's retirement was spent concentrating on his fight against alcoholism, ill-health and corruption allegations. His battle with alcoholism dated back to the 1970s and was chronicled in part by Duncan Hamilton in his award-winning book Provided You Don't Kiss Me: 20 Years With Brian Clough. He considered applying for the job as manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers on the sacking of Graham Taylor on 13 November 1995. Nothing came of it, however, and Clough's managerial career was over. In November 1994, Clough caused controversy over comments he made about the Hillsborough disaster. He wrote in his autobiography: "I will always remain convinced that those Liverpool fans who died were killed by Liverpool people. They brought the tragedy on themselves—they were drunk, unruly and disorderly." He defended the comments in an interview with Clive Anderson. In 2001, he said: "I now accept the investigations have made me realise I was misinformed. I wasn't trying to be vindictive or unsympathetic, but my opinion has altered over the years. It was never my intention to hurt anyone." Nottingham Forest honoured him by renaming the City Ground's largest stand, the Executive Stand, the Brian Clough Stand. Clough was made an inaugural inductee of the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002 in recognition of his success and influence as a manager. In 1993, he was awarded the freedom of the city of Nottingham. In 2003, the city of Derby followed suit. He wrote a column for FourFourTwo…

Clough was a lifelong socialist, often appearing on miners' picket lines, donating large sums to trade union causes, canvassing for his local MP, and being the chairman of the Anti-Nazi League. On two occasions, he was approached by the Labour Party to stand as a parliamentary candidate in general elections, but he declined in order to continue his managerial career in football. To accusations that he was a champagne socialist, Clough responded: "Of course I'm a champagne socialist. The difference between me and a good Tory is he keeps his money while I share mine." On 4 April 1959, Clough married Barbara Glasgow in Middlesbrough; he later said that marrying Barbara was "the best thing I ever did". They went on to have three children: Simon, born on 15 June 1964, Nigel, born on 19 March 1966, and Elizabeth, born on 31 May 1967. During the 1980s the Clough family went on to mentor a couple of underprivileged youngsters from Sunderland, brothers Craig and Aaron Bromfield after a chance encounter in the North East prior to a Forest fixture. Craig at one point ended up living with the Cloughs for a significant period of time, coming to see Brian as a second father—the arrangement ending when Craig was found to have been stealing from the family. Craig later published a book on his experience. Nigel also became a professional footballer and played under his father at Forest in the 1980s and 1990s. He then moved into management and, in January 2009, followed in his father's…