Brian Clough Quotes

1. “Rome wasn’t built in a day, but then again I wasn’t on that particular job.”

2. On dealing with player disagreements: “We talk about it for 20 minutes and then we decide I was right.”

3. ”David Seaman is a handsome young man but he spends too much time looking in his mirror rather than at the ball. You can’t keep goal with hair like that.”

4. On aerial football: ”If God had wanted us to play football in the clouds, he’d have put grass up there.”

6. On Martin O’Neil’s success at Leicester City: ”Anybody who can do anything in Leicester other than knit a jumper has got to be a genius. If he’d been English or Swedish, he’d have walked the England job.”

8. On Sven getting the England job: ”At last we’ve appointed a manager who speaks English better than the players.”

9. After a streaker interrupted Derby’s game against Man Utd: ”The Derby players saw more of his balls than the one they’re meant to be playing with!”








19. To the Forest physio after Stuart Pearce suffered a concussion in an FA Cup game: ”Tell him he’s Pele and that he’s playing up front for the last 10 minutes.”

20. After Martin O’Neil asked why he’d been dropped to the reserves: “Because you’re too good for the first team.”

21. “Beckham? His wife can’t sing and his barber can’t cut hair.” 

22. On guessing who nominated him for a knighthood: “I thought it was my next-door neighbour because I think she felt that if I got something like that I would have to move.”


24. On pasty Forest midfielder Brian Rice: “I’m not saying he’s pale and thin, but the maid in our hotel room pulled back the sheets and remade the bed without realising he was still in it!”

25. “Ah yes, Frank Sinatra. He met me once y’know?”

26. “Telling a player to get his hair cut counts as coaching as far as I’m concerned.”

If I went back in time to 2003 and told you everything that happened in soccer over the next ten years, which event would be hardest to believe?

Greece win Euro 2004

New Zealand would be the only undefeated team in the 2010 World Cup Group stage.

Qatar getting to host the 2022 World Cup.

Rangers would be bankrupt and relegated to the lowest league going.

Ryan Giggs would still be playing for Manchester United who are still one of the top clubs in the PL/World

That Spain (the national team) will dominate the footballing world.

England's "golden generation" failed to qualify for euro 08

That Cristiano Ronaldo would become a player with a ~ 1:1 goals to matches played ratio for Real Madrid. And that he'll be the second player in the world while doing it.

Arsenal would go undefeated the whole next season

Liverpool coming back from being down 3 goals in the Champions league final vs AC Milan in 2005 to win it in penalties

Arsenal would go 8+ years without a trophy with Wenger at the helm

Raúl leaving Real Madrid...

Del Piero leaving Juventus.

That we [City] would win the league. We'd just got back into the premier league at this point so the idea of winning the whole thing?

Juventus being relegated in Serie B the same year Italy won the World Cup with several of its players.

Real Madrid hasn't won la decima yet.

Zidane playing hist last official game headbutts an Italian dude in the final of the next World Cup and gets red carded

Chelsea would win the CL vs. Munich at Munich.

The extent of Leeds' fall (they've as good as turned to a feeder club for Norwich, ffs)

Spurs being at least as good as if not better than Arsenal.

A 4th division side (Swansea) playing some of best football in the league and winning a cup. It's been pretty well documented how close they came to exiting the football league in 2003.

Arsenal losing 8-2.

Manchester City would win the Premier League after being down 7(?) points with 6 games left against Manchester United

The scale of this whole Pep and Messi business. Early 2000's were not exactly glorious years for Barca.

That Sepp Blatter is still in charge of FIFA in 2013 and that the FIFA WC 2022 will be held in fucking Qatar of all places.

That Michael Owen would never achieve greatness again.

Le Tallec was not the new Zidane.

Portsmouth would win the FA Cup and then be relegated and put into receivership many times over to the point they'd end up in league two.

That Germany does a 180 and starts to have some of the most promising talent around, yet be no more successful than in the dark years.

Three English teams winning the Champions League finals on Penalty Shootouts.

That Zlatan will bring Juve, Inter and Milan the scudetto.

North Korea actually played in the World Cup

Inter winning a league title (for once proving they are a big team by finally winning league titles. Also Inter winning a CL and becoming the only team in Italian football history to win the treble.

Brazil's arguable best player refuses to move to Europe.