SPECIAL CLOUGHIE MEMORIES
It was at half-time in the 1980 European Cup Final when Martin O’Neill finally received the praise he’d been longing for from Brian Clough. The memory of that moment in the dressing room in Madrid’s Bernabeu Stadium is one of the many fascinating insights into O’Neill’s working relationship with Cloughie.
“I’m not expecting such high praise to come in my direction,” recalls O’Neill after receiving Clough’s words of approval and encouragement. O’Neill had offered to move his position on the pitch for the second-half, as Brian considered a positional switch.
“’No,’ he says. ‘I’m not moving you, son, you’re doing brilliantly exactly where you are.’” With those few, but choice, words, O’Neill feels he has validation at last. All the ups and downs working with the Miracle Manager have been worth it.
O’Neill adds: “And with those words, energy of which I thought I was bereft jolts through my whole body like an electric current. I’m ready for anything these next forty-five minutes can throw at me.”
After soaking-up wave after wave of Hamburg attacks, Clough’s Forest win the match 1-0 and retain the European Cup.
Brian Clough once said that, of all the players he managed, the one he clashed with the most was Martin O’Neill. The Northern Ireland international would often challenge the manager when he was left out of the team.
It’s intriguing to read about several examples of their disagreements. In our chat in the Green Jumper podcast, O’Neill – who studied law at Queen’s University in Belfast – reflects that he may have been better not challenging every decision and keeping his counsel.
O’Neill also details the circumstances which led to his departure from Nottingham Forest – including the time he was told to stay at home rather than train with the team – and his final conversation with Clough before he left the club.
O'Neill will always be grateful for the opportunity to work for a football genius. They would meet-up again when O’Neill was enjoying success managing Leicester City.
“Brian Clough was the most charismatic football manager there has ever been,” O’Neill told us. “He had charisma oozing from every pore.”
At Cloughie’s memorial service, O’Neill was one of the famous names who paid tribute on the stage at Pride Park. "This remains one of the biggest honours of my life," he says.
'On Days Like These - My Life in Football' (published by Macmillan) is a fascinating and entertaining reflection on a fifty-year career from one of the sharpest minds in the beautiful game.