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Clough in the rough: the man behind the words

Watching The Damned United, I found myself feeling very protective towards the memory of Brian Clough. Which is a bit strange because for most of his 44 days at Leeds United he was trying to buy Colin Todd to replace me.

Even though Clough turned out to be a disastrous appointment at Elland Road, only a fool would fail to acknowledge his greatness as a manager and I am not sure his qualities are done justice by the film.

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• Collision that transformed Brian Clough’s life

• Brian Clough: He did it his way

• How big screen brought Brian Clough back to life in new film, The Damned United

BACKGROUND

• TheGame Podcast: How would Brian Clough fare in today's game?

• Filming the strife of Brian

• The panned United is still a work of genius

Related Internet Links

• The Life of Brian - Interactive Timeline

Multimedia

• Clough in the Rough full index

• Brian Clough: A life in pictures

• Audio: He did it his way

BACKGROUND

• The 12 biggest managerial flops of all time in British football

• Football Villains or heroes?

• My first love - Leeds United

• The Best Football Goal Celebrations

• On me head

BACKGROUND

• The 10 British Managers never to lift the FA Cup

• The WAG factor

• Oranges are not the only fruit

• Nigel Clough is his own man

• Clough struggled for love at Leeds

Related Links

• Time to give a damn about reviled Revie

• A thousand words: The Damned United

• My first love - Leeds United

Arguing with the chairman at Derby County every five minutes, rowing with the board and players at Leeds, messing up all the relationships he was involved with; we only see part of the story. But the basic truth is in there and what happened at Leeds was one heck of a tale.

Don Revie, the Gaffer, was leaving to take over England and he had recommended Johnny Giles as his successor. Promote from within, the Liverpool way. Maybe the club wanted to mark a change of direction but we were all very surprised at the Clough appointment.

It was no secret he had a problem with us, with the way we played. Every time we came up against him he would be jumping up, shouting from the touchline. There was hostility right from the start because we knew he never liked Leeds or what we stood for.

He'd been appointed at the start of the week, but Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday passed and we kept asking: “When's he coming? What's going on?” Then when he finally turns up, it is to tell us to throw our caps, our medals, in the bin. And then the infamous comment about Eddie Gray, how if he was a racehorse he'd have been shot. A bit harsh is what I thought.

I'm not really sure he was ever going to have much chance after that. The players didn't down tools on him. We were professionals. But the atmosphere was awful and, in those circumstances, you are never going to play your best.

We were this tight little family under the Gaffer. Yes, we were hard, but I have never known a better set of lads. People used to ask if Don taught me to kick. That's nonsense. The competitiveness came from the players, it was our nature. Lads like Billy Bremner, Johnny Giles, were the Roy Keanes of their day.

The Gaffer does not get the credit he deserves for creating the best side in Europe. Yes, he had his little ways. The dossiers on opponents could be a bit of a pain and there were all these superstitions. In my second game for Leeds, I threw the ball to the captain, Bobby Collins, just before we went out. We won and that was it, I'd have to do the same for years afterwards.

But he created a family atmosphere which didn't last under Clough. I remember getting on the team bus with Dave Harvey and on the news they were saying that Leeds were trying to sign Todd and Peter Shilton. That was the first we knew about it. That sort of stuff had never happened under the Gaffer.

If Clough had come in softly softly, making changes as we went along, perhaps it could have worked. But we ended up with this meeting, shown in the film, with the chairman and the players, when Clough was asked to leave the room. That's pretty much as it happened. We had things to say.

I don't think that was a case of the players undermining him. As he acknowledged later, he had made mistakes. I didn't have any relationship with Clough whatsoever. But, oddly, on the day he was sacked, he walked into a meeting of my testimonial committee. He was carrying a bottle of champagne and I think he'd had a few. “Raise all the money you can for this man because he deserves it,” he told them. Later I found out he'd tried to sign me for Nottingham Forest. So he can't have thought I was all bad. But he never said anything nice to me in his 44 days.

It is quite strange to see yourself portrayed on film. My character does not have much of a role in The Damned United, just a silent, brooding presence that probably fits the image. It's not how I am at all, but I got the nickname “Bites Yer Legs” from a banner put up by some fans behind the goal once and it stuck with me. I went with Alf Ramsey's England for nine years and I was the first PFA Player of the Year so, whatever my reputation, I must have been able to play.

Despite my reservations about the portrayal of Clough, and my sympathy for the family, I have to say I enjoyed the film. The actors who play Clough and Revie - Michael Sheen and Colm Meaney - are fantastic. The guy who plays the Gaffer gets him spot on.

It brought back a few memories and the basic truth is in there. Clough didn't really give himself a chance at Leeds, which was a shame.

† The premiere of The Damned United is at the Vue West End cinema in Leicester Square tonight.