Nigel Clough – A son of Brian

Manager Nigel Clough is the main topic in Championship these days. You have probably heard he is the newly appointed Derby County manager, the club in which his father, the celebrated English manager, Brian Clough, had left a deep mark during the seventies.

Brian Clough, who is not amongst us since 2004, had a huge share of success with the Rams, before he become a world-class coach leading Nottingham Forest in their double European Champions winners campaign. Respectable Derbyshire side had reached its peak with Brian at helm. He took Rams over in 1976 when the club was bottomed in the former Second division, leading them to First division in two years time, and in 1972 to the crowned champions. They have also reached to the Champions Cup finals year after that, when the refs ripped them off in two games against Juventus. Clough senior’s big mouth were the main reason for his departure, after which he managed to make a similar success with their neighbors, Nottingham Forest making this team English champions and double European Champions Cup winners.

His son Nigel is a peaceful, family man, Nottingham Forest’s ex player, who had been managing Blue Square Premier league outfit Burton Albion for more than 10 years. Is he the right solution for the Rams who haven’t been able to put themselves together for two years now ? unlike most of the backing and praising analyses calling him his father’s natural successor, I disagree. And there is why…

Modern football, as we have already mentioned , is fast, raring to go, committed only to the result. The same thing is with Coca Cola Championship as one of the stronger European league. There is no time to be sentimental, waiting too long for inexperienced managers to learn and to bring the results can cost you a lot. Derby suffered a lot in the Premiership under Billy Davies, touching the rock-bottom with Paul Jewell. This season is only the consequence of last season’s trauma over the Premier League negative record when Rams managed to score a single win with mere 11 points during the entire season, also making the longest English football winless run stretching to almost a year.

This is not the end of their problems. This year, the team is fighting against the relegation despite having enough play-off potential, so Paul Jewel bowed his head, confessed the loss and packed his bags off the Pride Park. During all of that time and earlier on, for the last 10 years, Nigel Clough has helmed the semi-amateur Burton Albion, driving his children to and from school coming home from practice. He has that gene, there is no doubt about that, since his Burton are convincing at top of the Blue Square Premier with almost certain promotion to League Two.

However, work in the professional club (which Derby County definitely is) can turn out to be a quite opposite thing for Nigel. Fans will unleash the unbearable pressure since there is no time to wait, half a season is already gone. Almost 30.000 people on each game sitting on Pride Park stands will ask for results every week, and even if they don’t want it, they will certainly look the father in Niger’s face, reminiscing the magic of the club’s best times. The family atmosphere of driving your kids to school every day is over, Rams are losing their temper as time is passing by. The arrival to the club whose Pride Park gave a magnificent memorial game (which wasn’t done at Nottingham City Ground), has put a lot of problems upon Nigel Clough. Those problems are threatening to mix up his emotions towards the Rams with the professionalism and the expected rise of the club. If the rise and success don’t come soon, it will be even harder since he would surely feel he let them down. Still, with the choice he made, Nigel has put the pressure himself, with the only one to be blamed should the results miss. Even if the fans and Pearson cut the slack, even if the players respect him, it would all worth nothing if he enters the season’s last third this close to relegation zone as he is now. There were a lot of good “free lancers” at the manager’s market good enough for Rams (like Aidy Boothroyd, Roy Kean) who would be cold-blooded, emotion-free as Rams mangers and who wouldn’t have their pressuring past, who would surely be a better solution to the job.

Good luck Nigel, but you have just entered a circle that is not easy to get out of. Circle where it is very hard to remain sane, safe and sound…

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