'COMPREHENSIVE' The Sunday Times
'BEAUTIFULLY DETAILED' The Guardian
'UTTERLY COMPELLING' Nottingham Forest News
'WONDERFUL' Forbes
'INTIMATE' FourFourTwo
20th Anniversary Edition - Fully revised and updated.
In this authoritative, critical biography, Jonathan Wilson draws an intimate and powerful portrait of one of England's greatest football managers, Brian Clough. It was in the unforgiving world of post-war football where his identity and reputation was made - a world where, as Clough's mentor Harry Storer once said, 'Nobody ever says thank you.'
Nonetheless, Clough brought the gleam of silverware to the depressed East Midlands of the 1970s. Initial triumph at Derby was followed by a sudden departure and a traumatic 44 days at Leeds. By the end of a frazzled 1974, Clough was set up for life financially, but also hardened to the realities of football. By the time he was at Forest, Clough's mask was almost permanently donned: a persona based on brashness and conflict. Drink fuelled the controversies and the colourful character; it heightened the razor-sharp wit and was a salve for the highs of football that never lasted long enough, and for the lows that inevitably followed.
Wilson's account is the definitive portrait of this complex and enduring man, whose legacy in football remains untouched to the present day.
Read More[This] is the most comprehensive account we have had of this remarkable man so far - THE SUNDAY TIMESThe first work to document properly Clough's early life, and indeed the complete life, from childhood in Middlesbrough to the booze-sodden befuddlement of early old age. As such, it is the first complete biography and Wilson, whose father watched Clough play for Sunderland at Roker Park in the early 60s, is a natural choice to write it - OBSERVERWilson tracked down a wealth of witnesses and has marshalled a his material with a sure, skilful hand - INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAYThe definitive tome, a massive undertaking that charts his entire life rather than snippets of his career - METROPainstakingly researched, it's a hugely intimate portrait, with the mental impact of his ruined career providing most intrigue - FOURFOURTWO