LEGENDS IN CRISIS “BRISTOL ROVERS HAVE SCORED AGAIN, DAD!”
Remember when Jose Mourinho fell out with Roman Abramovich in 2007, and left Chelsea after two league titles and two Champions League semi-finals? Imagine if he then thought, ‘What the hell, let’s manage a team in League One’.
After winning the league with Derby, Brian Clough took the Rams to the European Cup’s last four in 1973, losing to Juventus with some controversy. Eight months later, he pitched up as manager of Brighton in the old Third Division.
Clough lasted 34 matches on the south coast – 26 more than in his next job, that infamous 44-day spell at Leeds. His time with Brighton is usually reduced to little more than a quiz question, yet some of the events at the Goldstone Ground were arguably even more disastrous than his Elland Road debacle. It’s one thing to lose games in the top flight; it’s quite another for one of England’s leading managers to suffer humiliation in the lower leagues.
A fractious relationship with the Derby owner, Sam Longson, prompted Clough to briefly resign in 1972, then change his mind, lead the club to the title and hand in his notice once more in October 1973. It was managerial hokey-cokey. This time, Longson called his bluff. Clough was out.
Within 12 days of his exit, Cloughie had decided his next job should be at a club fighting to avoid relegation to the Football League’s basement division. Peter Taylor joined him to resume the double act that had transformed Derby, and would later lead Nottingham Forest to promotion, a league title and two European Cups.
Clough had nothing to prove. The only possible incentive was money. Brighton were owned by ambitious entrepreneur Mike Bamber, who seized the moment and made Clough an offer he wouldn’t refuse. However, things did not go well.
After one win in their new manager’s first five games, Brighton were humiliated in an FA Cup First Round replay, losing to non-league Walton & Hersham. At home. 4-0. Three days later, they played in-form Bristol Rovers and lost. At home.
