2008-10-09 Genius

This book is fantastic. Not a biography, not exactly a memoir, but instead a series of reflections of twenty years spent with Ol Big Ead himself. Clough was a one off - brilliant, impossible, bonkers, infuriating, despicable, loveable, untameable. He took a nothing provincial club and went and won the European Cup. Twice. Unbelieveable.

And this book does the man justice. Crucially, it also does Peter Taylor justice; describing their symbiotic partnership. It also brings back a real nostalgia for the times when footballers weren't pampered prima donnas earning £150k a week. They liked a pint, and a fag, when apprentices had to clean the pros boots, and the game was simpler, less bloated. And when there was room for real characters. And this is a loving but seemingly honest portrait of the biggest character of them all. Demands to be read alongside "The Damned United".