Fly Me Over the Pond: The Legend of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor

Middlesbrough will celebrate Boxing Day with a visit of Nottingham Forest and it gives us a chance to celebrate a legend, and “one of our own.”  Despite the fact the Brian Clough was listed on a list of “50 Greatest People from Nottingham,” he is, was and remain an icon who is Middlesbrough born and bred.  While he may have had some of his success at Forest, Brian Clough is no more from Nottingham than Jonathan Woodgate is from Madrid.

Ironically, Nottingham did not include Peter Taylor on that list, which may have been appropriate given the fact the he is actually, well, from Nottingham.  But it isn’t that par for the course with Taylor? 

The impact of Taylor was never fully realized until Clough took charge of the (then) mighty Leeds United.  Despite taking over an outstanding team from another Middlesbrough man Don Revie, Clough’s time at Leeds was a disaster.  His brash style and stern leadership backfired without Taylor, suggesting Taylor was the human touch building a bridge between the dressing room and the flawed genius of Clough.

It is not hard to see why the attention levitated to Clough, on a footballing world that didn’t take itself as seriously as today his behavior was eccentric and funny. 

Consider the reaction today if the fans invaded the pitch and Tony Mowbray gave one of them a left hook?  Well Clough did that, and the fallout was the fan giving him a kiss on the cheek on national television. 

Consider the reaction if David Moyes hid underneath his desk with the lights off because he “could not be bothered” to talk to England Manager Fabio Capello about a player.  Clough did that to Graham Taylor.

Think of the fallout when Sir Alex Ferguson hit David Beckham with a stray boot, and compare it to Roy Keane summarizing the time he was punched in the face by Clough by saying “I deserved it.”  Keane was also forced to down a pint of milk minutes before a game, not because of the latest sports science, but because Clough “had to take the bottles out.”

Finally, what would happen if a manager was nowhere to be seen by his team before a crucial relegation battle?  The team warmed up alone and on the way down the tunnel found Clough in his wellies carrying a shovel.  “Don’t worry lads” he said, “I’m not worried.”

It was brilliant, and makes for legendary anecdotes, but it needs more to succeed. His demand that Leeds “throw all their medals in the bin” because “they had won them by cheating” could have been funny in a different light, but instead it wrecked the dressing room.

It takes more to lead a football team, it takes the ability to connect with the dressing room and give players a reason to love their job, not show up, to love it.  That is the only way great things are done, and Clough and Taylor did great things together with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. 

Their relationship was formed when they met playing for Middlesbrough.  Taylor mentored a young Clough then, and if the perception is true and Taylor was the human touch in management he was invaluable to their success.

Brian Clough once summarized, “I am not equipped to manage without Peter Taylor.”  If that is true, then surely Taylor should have been on the “50 Greatest People from Nottingham,” or we will claim him alongside Brian Clough, the man born at 11 Valley Road, Middlesbrough.

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