Nigel Clough Appreciation Society

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One decent cup run..

Vs

Blowing £2m on a full back,

Signing a player off a YouTube package and making him captain before realising his legs had gone

Signing a Centre back, falling out with him in about 5 minutes and kicking him out the club.

The utterly bewildering pursuit of O'Grady.

Alcock and Maceverly as a Centre back partnership in a play off semi.

Boring negative sterile football.


Yeah good old Nige. Let's give him a big hand....
 



KoppedOff said:
I cant hate Clough because without him, we could well have gone down to League 2 and probably never have come back. And if we were ever in a position where we looked like heading for a relegation battle, I’d take him back in a shot for a short spell.

He makes teams tough to beat and grinds out points, which is incredibly tedious to watch but effective when your in a scrap and every point is precious. Clearly thats no use in a promotion push, which is why McCabe was right to move on (at the time Adkins looked a great move).

To me Clough’s a Steady Eddie- a guy you bring in to keep you up/steady the ship. A lower league Sam Allardyce.
Click to expand...

"a lower league Sam Allardyce"
high praise/insult indeed!
 
He was great as an underdog which is why he was so good in the clubs.

He is also a steady, safe pair of hands for most clubs. He won’t get relegated often and I think even in the PL he would do a Pulis type job of always keeping teams safe.

He’s just not the man to lead you to promotion which is why I think he was poor for us. We would still be in league one now under his management, and we would still just be milling around the top 6. The home game to Bradford at the end of the season summed him up completely, going in to the last few minutes at 1-1 and Bradford get a man sent off and he’s on the touchline telling his players to wind down the clock.

He’s almost the exact opposite of Wilder who tells his teams to always try and win and accepts that he will lose some more games that way.
 
left us with a bloated squad of mainly rubbish.james wallace 3 year contract enough said.
Imagine wilder signing him ,no chance.
did well in the cups but there was no pressure in them.
 
I can't remember any manager at any club blowing as much good will as quickly as Clough. When virtually the entire ground gave them a standing ovation at the end of his first season I thought we were a shoe in to win the league the following season.

Then followed one of the biggest shambles of a pre season I can remember, and The second season really was some of the most painful, boring, uninspired football. The League cup run papered over the big cracks in recruitment and scouting.

He failed I am afraid, the best I can say was he was better than Bozo Adkins
 
He got something really special going in that first season and the way that he utilised Baxter, Murphy and Flynn in that false 9 system was a stroke of tactical genius.

Such a shame that he seemed to have a chronic brainfart in the following summer, leaving us without a defence through a combination of pigheadedness and incompetence.

Still, at the end of the day he gave me two of the best perfornances that I have seen at the lane in recent years [Charlton and Southampton]. I couldn't make Wembley but even from afar that was an epic experience.

I have mixed views on his tenure.
 
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It’s not, they came and beat us at the Lane when they went up. He got quite a good reception that day.
 
hardytm2004 said:
I'm sure he will get a good reception from the Blades fans on friday night but I do feel like he should be held in higher regard in Blades folklore! That FA cup run and semi-final first half against Hull was something special and I'd rate the experience as high as last season. We were two leagues below the Tigers and another set of circumstances in the 2nd half we could have been FA cup finalists. With all the money squandering around in the Prem that was incredible.

There are a few special days we will all look back on as Blades fans and that day at Wembley was certainly one of them, Clough did us proud and made us proud to be a Blade! Cheers Nige
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Oh yeah, watching us conceded 5 goals is right up there in my fave Blade moments.
 
I think what some of the attention seeking single cells don't seem to grasp is that being able to appreciate that Clough gave us some great times, did a decent job and should not have been sacked does not take away any appreciation of the fantastic job Wilder is doing.

UTB
 



nowtfancy said:
I think what some of the attention seeking single cells don't seem to grasp is that being able to appreciate that Clough gave us some great times, did a decent job and should not have been sacked does not take away any appreciation of the fantastic job Wilder is doing.

UTB
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If it hadn't been Clough saving us from the David Wier disaster, we'd have got relegated to Division two and none of the fantastic times of the last 14 months would have happened.

People should stop and think. Clough might be no Wilder, but he's certainly an above average manager.
 
ucandomagic said:
It’s not, they came and beat us at the Lane when they went up. He got quite a good reception that day.
Click to expand...
Exactly, so why should the next game be any different. What's happened since the last time we played them. Apart from now we can be even more magnanimous than before, because we're in a good place.
 
The Good, the bad and the ugly....
The good. Took over when we were bottom and got us on a great run just missing out on play offs. FA Cup run to Wembley Semi - but lost. Great League Cup run and semi against Spurs - but we lost. Provided some great moments at home to Forest and Charlton in FA Cup and against Southampton and Spurs in League Cup plus performance at Wembley v Hull. Signed some players who have turned out to be good for the club Coutts, Freeman, Basham, Adams. Seemed to be able to bring younger players through but with hindsight failed to get the best out of senior players (e.g.Bash, Coutts).

The Bad. Wasted a lot of money. Signed some very poor players some on big (by L1 standards) wages without doing due diligence. Baxter (a nut case), Alcock, McEverley garbage; Coutts injured and never fit for him; James Wallace never played but got paid for 3 years; Brayford good player but not what the club could afford - money should have been spent on other more needed positions. Done, allegedly paid £650,000 for him. Never worth that. McNulty never good enough and NC just slagged off. Seemed to have very limited scouting network - just brother? Left us with bloated, unbalanced and not good enough squad. Very negative tactics and never looked like getting us promoted frankly.

The Ugly. Very arrogant. Fell out with Collins and just side lined him. After Maguire left (and Collins rift) it meant we had no recognised centre half in the club. Refused for some unknown reason to recruit even one. Every supporter of the club could see we were crying out for at least one. Totally ridiculous and unacceptable. Brayford money could have been spent on that.

CW/AK totally other end of the spectrum!!
 
Weir signed Baxter - and Clough also fell out with Butler - but you make a good argument.
 
Just to add something else into the mix, it was stated many times that Clough looked after all elements of the club from youth teams upwards...wasn’t Brooks brought in under Clough’s tenure?
 
hardytm2004 said:
I'm sure he will get a good reception from the Blades fans on friday night but I do feel like he should be held in higher regard in Blades folklore! That FA cup run and semi-final first half against Hull was something special and I'd rate the experience as high as last season. We were two leagues below the Tigers and another set of circumstances in the 2nd half we could have been FA cup finalists. With all the money squandering around in the Prem that was incredible.

There are a few special days we will all look back on as Blades fans and that day at Wembley was certainly one of them, Clough did us proud and made us proud to be a Blade! Cheers Nige
Click to expand...

It was only the intelligent few that saw Freeman as an equal if not better version of Brayford, Clough unfortunately wasn't one. Spent 2m on a right back who ended up earning almost 20k a week when we paid him up.

Has the ignorance of his dad but none of the right to it. Shit manager never done anything except a stabilizing job except his flukey year early on in his career where they had the most money by far. Even carlos would've got the team he inherited off Jimmy FH promoted.
 
hardytm2004 said:
I'm sure he will get a good reception from the Blades fans on friday night but I do feel like he should be held in higher regard in Blades folklore! That FA cup run and semi-final first half against Hull was something special and I'd rate the experience as high as last season. We were two leagues below the Tigers and another set of circumstances in the 2nd half we could have been FA cup finalists. With all the money squandering around in the Prem that was incredible.

There are a few special days we will all look back on as Blades fans and that day at Wembley was certainly one of them, Clough did us proud and made us proud to be a Blade! Cheers Nige
Click to expand...
Spent a fortune on an enormously bloated, unbalanced squad and delivered nothing. There were some good times, but they were outweighed by the carnage that he left behind.

And the negative football in that second season will live long in the memory - shudder. Wilder’s reign only goes to magnify just how dreadful it was.
 
Yewsman said:
The Good, the bad and the ugly....
The good. Took over when we were bottom and got us on a great run just missing out on play offs. FA Cup run to Wembley Semi - but lost. Great League Cup run and semi against Spurs - but we lost. Provided some great moments at home to Forest and Charlton in FA Cup and against Southampton and Spurs in League Cup plus performance at Wembley v Hull. Signed some players who have turned out to be good for the club Coutts, Freeman, Basham, Adams. Seemed to be able to bring younger players through but with hindsight failed to get the best out of senior players (e.g.Bash, Coutts).

The Bad. Wasted a lot of money. Signed some very poor players some on big (by L1 standards) wages without doing due diligence. Baxter (a nut case), Alcock, McEverley garbage; Coutts injured and never fit for him; James Wallace never played but got paid for 3 years; Brayford good player but not what the club could afford - money should have been spent on other more needed positions. Done, allegedly paid £650,000 for him. Never worth that. McNulty never good enough and NC just slagged off. Seemed to have very limited scouting network - just brother? Left us with bloated, unbalanced and not good enough squad. Very negative tactics and never looked like getting us promoted frankly.

The Ugly. Very arrogant. Fell out with Collins and just side lined him. After Maguire left (and Collins rift) it meant we had no recognised centre half in the club. Refused for some unknown reason to recruit even one. Every supporter of the club could see we were crying out for at least one. Totally ridiculous and unacceptable. Brayford money could have been spent on that.

CW/AK totally other end of the spectrum!!
Click to expand...
Bang on.
 
BushBlade said:
Signed a few turkeys but also Basham, Coutts, Freeman, Adams, as you say, a mixed bag.
Click to expand...

If you throw enough shit some will eventually stick! Clough wasted a great opportunity by signing shit load of players on stupid contracts. Yeah the cups were good but the performance in that playoff game at Swindon really does stick out for me. How we didn’t win that I don’t know and to rally back in the second half was a real surprise. But just bored me with the “you always start with a point” quote. Yes Nigel you do start with a point but I’d rsther us have a good go for it give our all and lose 2-0 than go for the nil nil! Wilder is everything that clough isn’t and I love it!!
 
So many slag off his character but coincidentally are too stubborn to see what he DID do for us.
Harry's Game said:
One decent cup run..

Vs

Blowing £2m on a full back,

Signing a player off a YouTube package and making him captain before realising his legs had gone

Signing a Centre back, falling out with him in about 5 minutes and kicking him out the club.

The utterly bewildering pursuit of O'Grady.

Alcock and Maceverly as a Centre back partnership in a play off semi.

Boring negative sterile football.


Yeah good old Nige. Let's give him a big hand....
Click to expand...
Wasn’t “one decent cup run” though was it. And the Brayford signing was a good start, but Coady and a striker needed to have followed as well as not selling Maguire (not Clough’s doing). If we got promoted nobody would give a toss we spent £2m - the injury he suffered knackered it and I’m hindsight a misjudgement. Other than that you’re right. Made a mess of the centre back situation and made some poor signings playing some dreadfully slow football. It was mixed, and despite not agreeing with it at the time, sacking him has worked in hindsight (nobody was saying that during or at the end of Adkins’ reign).

Don’t really care for Clough but too many on here exaggerate his failure to get us up at the first attempt.
 
I prefer facts to fading memories of bad emotions. The graph shows our league position for the last 4 years in League 1 - so is independent of any cup highlights.

Nigel Clough took over after 11 games in 13/14, took a while to settle and then took 41 points from the last 19 games and we climbed to 7th. In 14/15 after the initial period he found his level - 5th, and was dead consistent at that. In 15/16 we saw the performance of Nigel A, a really crap manager who managed to get worse as the season went on - enough said.

It is interesting to compare Clough in 14/15 and Tufty last year though. Both sorted things out over the first dozen games or so and then found their level - difference was that Tufty's level is just that much higher! In my mind though achieving that level of consistency for the second half of the season is the sign of a professional manager - which both are - the level that is achieved is the sign of the quality of the manager.


4 Seasons.jpg
 
I'd go as far as saying the mess he (Clough) left the club in made Adkins job untenable, way too many players on long high wage contracts who we could just not get rid of. Not that Adkins helped himself with the signings he made, it was always going to end in tears. Hard to believe that after Adkins and the players got a round of boo's and abuse from the few who stayed to witness the end of season lap of shame that the club would be 18 months later sat 2nd in the championship.
 
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The fawning rewriting of history, allied to selcetive amnesia on here is frankly nauseating,

Any experienced lower league manager would have kept us up after the failure of clueless 13th choice rooky Weir, who did actual recruit a couple of good players. in Baxter Cuvelier, and Coady.
Clough's crap league form was papered over by a few fluky wins in the cup (yes hand on heart we have to say we had a lot of luck in our cup competitions)
He failed massively despite having the biggest budget in the league. He acquired a woeful 71 points with a 41% win record (CW achievement was 65%wins and gigantic 29 points better)

His time at the lane left a legacy to Adkins of a club with massively bloated piss poor squad on ridiculously high contracts wages, with frozen out players, no defence, no attack, and best players desperate to leave. His player recruitment throughout was the worst of any blades manager when set against our clubs relative bargaining power. Over inflated transfer fees , Over paid contracts for Over rated players was his legacy.We lost millions on the wages/transfer fees on the likes of Wallace, Scougall, Done, Brayford, The scale of these loses dwarf the cup money., added to his very 'dubious transfer dealings' with his mate the bang shady Brannigan.

Clough is NOT a above average manager he is bang shite manager.
His managerial career record is abysmal, his man management skills are nearly zero. His constant winging about officials, makes Warnock look like a monk on a sabbatical.

His record does not stand up to any serious scrutiny

Presided over Derbys worst ever run of lowest sequence league positions in their 130 odd year history FACT.
Inherited Burton who were romping away with the league and scraped up by turning them into a 7th place form club. FACT
In nearly 7 years of management at Derby and Burton his win record is a paltry 33%.FACT
Name me another EFL manager who has been allowed 7 years of utter failure with that record.
Name one player who Clough has discovered and gone on into PL/international level.
Coutts, Duffy and, Freeman are unrecognisable players under Sir Chris's tutelage .
He couldn't even get Mark Duffy to join him in the championship.

Anyone seriously missing a cup run under Wilder?
Anyone missing the shit bore fest crap pedestrian sideways style served up by Clough?
I am not.
I am delighted the over-praised incompetent arsehole, living off his dads name, will not be anywhere near our club ever again..
A sentiment a certain Prince and Mr McCabe who coughed up big time for his bungling, I am sure will concur with
 
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