Brian Clough: The Outspoken Manager

The manager Brian Clough, an English manager gifted with charisma and famous for his quotes and interviews. A talkative man for sure, but behind the arrogance and self confidence there are trophies and big accomplishments.

Either with Derby County or Nottingham Forest, Clough's influence was massive and effective wherever he went. This is the story of Brian Clough, since his playing days at Middlesbrough and Sunderland mostly in the 2nd division until his beginnings as a manager managing Hartlepool in the depths of the English Pyramid.

Watch how the best English manager the national team never had went from those depths to the peak of European Football.

Written, Directed, and Voiced by:

Fahad Al-Thekair

[balon-english]

To support the channel through Patreon:

CORRECTION: A slip of the tongue at 33:42, Grasshopper are of course a Swiss side not Swedish.

[no.fourteen]

A One man channel with Netflix style production - this is the best football channel on YouTube and it's a crime that this guy is getting recognized now

[nw]

A few months before Brian Clough died I was at a Burton Albion match when Nigel Clough was the manager & a few rows in front of me was the great man. At half time I walked down & got Cloughie’s autograph, he looked desperately ill. I still have that programme he autographed & I treasure it.

[SilentNinjaaa]

You are the Brian Clough of football docs habibi!! Much love and respect. Keep doing what you love. You are appreciated ✌🏼💯

[augustinembugua]

Whoever you are, your football documentaries are a work of art. Beautiful, simply beautiful!

[dannycarter]

History will dictate that the Clough-Taylor partnership was one of, if not the, greatest duos in footballing history. No one can even come close.

[axelsch]

Brilliant documentary Balon you have out done yourself here. Clough was one of a kind, so charismatic and a master of man management. To achieve his accolades at two small clubs is a testament to his greatness. It's a pity his relationship broke down with Taylor, never quite understood why. Too bad Alcholism took a toll on his health and he failed to evolve his tactics/ management style. What a character though, pretty sure Mourinho tries to emulate him all the time.
Fantastic work again Balon, keep going!

[aldystudent]

Now, I wanted to see that you do a Sir Bobby Robson video as well. Particularly interested in how he met Jose Mourinho and his time in Barcelona. And of course his overall managerial career.

[unclejacksbluewhitearmy]

In Clough’s last season at Forest I went watching Blackburn away at Forest.
Bizarrely at half time, Clough sat in the dug out on his own. Motionless, he looked like a stubborn and broken man.
Both the Forest and Blackburn fans sand his name together in the second half such was the whole game’s regard for him.
He was Forest manager at my first ever football mate I went to in 1981 when Blackburn Rovers played Forest in the cup. Howard Kendal was our manager and many, many years later I bumped into Howard in a bar and told him this fact and he laughed and said “the Cloughie tale”.

[zzz]

This channel is EXTREMELY underrated. Glad to be one of the first of many fans to come. This channel deserves 1 mil subs at least.

[tashrif]

28:42 we will see never anything like that ever again. A team, that virtually got promoted from the second division play-off spot nowadays, to win in their first year in the top flight is astonishing. Brian Clough did the impossible, a hallmark of a genius.

[knunrup]

That was brilliant Fahad.
You captured Cloughs career perfectly.
I grew up watching Cloughs team and remember Derby County winning the League, it was a huge shock.

It was an even bigger shock when Nottingham Forest won the League.
Then to win TWO European Cups is an amazing achievement in itself.
There will never be another like Brian footballing genius.

[Villainous]

“I do it well i do it good,
It could be argued, i am the best in the business”

what a line, such a legendary man who took a team to unwarranted limits, Charismatic and mourinho definitely took some of his charismatic behavior from Mr Brian Clough, Thanks and what a wonderful story

[moacirmoacirr]

Balon is unique, the editing, the production value, it looks so professional you might forget its located on youtube - every time you post is like the sun shines on the darkest days, keep on producing such stupendous pieces of art lad

[kentontomlinson]

A brilliant documentary of a brilliant manager. As a Forest fan I went many games throughout the 80s and 90s, including both of those league cup wins and that desperate 92-93 season. Clough was, and still is, an absolute god in Nottingham. What he did will never be repeated. RIP Cloughy.

[jeffsparey]

The best English manager especially when he had Peter Taylor by his side, in my 58 years on this earth he was the best for sure

[jimbo]

Cocky, enigmatic and brash but deep down there is a man who was as meticulous as Ferguson was with man-management and a man who knew when and where to push the right buttons.

The face of Forest and an icon of the English game.

[stevenanderson]

Cloough was one of the greatest mangers of all time and my favorite maneger hope he is heaven watching over forest although I am Chelsea supporter

[robertvickers]

An excellent documentary, one of the best I've seen on Clough. So accurate, even down to the fact of director Jack Kirkland's insulting of Taylor triggering the resignations from Derby. Whether you supported Derby or Forest those were wonderful times.

[stevenmacdonald]

It is a cold man that didn't shed a tear at the end of this excellent documentary. I write this comment on the 1st May 2022, and in two days from now, a football match every bit as important as any Champions League Final of today will take place in Bournemouth, as they play Nottingham Forest with a 3pt lead, and just 1 more game to play afterwards, for possible promotion to the Premier League, for the first time since the end of this documentary.

I am a lifelong Manchester City Football Club fan, privileged to have existed in the Brian Clough era, when men were men, and bullshit took a bus home. Clough was arrogant, Clough could infuriate a saint, but the man took every hit, and every piece of attention bad or good, because he knew it took the pressure off his players on the pitch, and then the football could talk for itself. As a young child, Manchester City (the club with no history) were teetering on the exact same wobbly ground as Nottingham Forest, and we were not long before falling heavily without first reaching up as Forest were able to. We could not stretch up high enough to achieve what Clough did with Nottingham Forest. For all that Joe Mercer was, he was not Brian Clough. City since have seen nothing short of a miracle happen at the club, and we are where we are now, and yet have still not ever achieved what Brian Clough that Nottingham Forest team did in the 1970's & 1980's.

They say football must always come before tribal support, and this coming week could not speak for that more. On Tuesday night I will forget my own colours, with all respect to AFC Bournemouth, because I know what it feels like to see a phoenix rise from the flames. Young supporters do not believe in legacy, because they simply have not started one yet. For any football supporter, that remembers this era though, and given the football already seen of Nottingham Forest earlier this season in the F.A Cup, it is far past the time when this iconic football club should return to their spiritual home of top flight football. You earn your place in a footballing ladder, that is true, but if you don't believe there are forces stronger than all of us, then given Nottingham Forest's league position just months ago, you really should believe in fairies, because should Nottingham Forest win their next two football matches, the entire world will be, just for a while, Nottingham Forest supporters, for every reason given in this video. In fact, I feel it is so important, I say with my hand on my heart, if it was between Nottingham Forest finally regaining their place in the Premier League, or Manchester City winning our first Champions League this season, I will choose a Nottingham Forest promotion, because there are things far bigger than me, my support, my football club, and football itself.

We will never see anyone like Brian Clough again, he is simply a man who could not be told how to be, or how the beautiful game could be played, and when you look at everything at that time that was available to him, no academy, no massive stadium, no state-of-the-art training facilities, no wealth to simply pick and choose any player that took the fancy, with only maybe one or two choices every season, it's only then you realise the genius of Brian Clough, still to this day not formerly recognised by his sport properly, a man who was ignored by an F.A who still employ 'yes men' as England football manager, and still disliked by so many, who couldn't put petty ego and self-importance aside, when spoken to and of, by a man who never said anything worse than, I want to achieve great things, and to be better for that, and more importantly, I want my team and football club to be better than yours, and that is the reason we are intrinsically attached to this sport.

To Nottingham Forest Football Club and all supporters of the club. May the wings of all the footballing Gods, lift you in the coming weeks, and do so with one name on your lips. Brian Clough ended up literally giving his life to you (and one or two right-handers also) and if he is up there right now, rest assured he is annoying and gobbing off to whoever he needs to, to make sure we all see Nottingham Forest in the Premier League for season 2022/23.

'If you win something once, they say it is luck. If you win it again, then you shut the buggers up' - Brian Clough.