The Demise of the Former Euro Kings
admin February 23rd, 2010
"How A Former Toilet Paper Thief Became A Happy Millionaire—And
How YOU Can Too"
On Monday 21st August and in front of a crowd of only 2146, Nottingham Forest were dumped out of the Carling Cup (formerly the League Cup) by lowly Accrington Stanley. How times have changed for this former super power of european club football.
Struggling to come to terms with life in League 1 (division 3 in old money) it is has hard to imagine a comparable fall from grace in modern sport. The glory years for this east midlands team started on January 6th 1975. Why this date you may ask? Did the club power its way to league titles or knock out famous glamour clubs on the way to european success. No, neither, this is the date that Brian Clough took the reigns of this unfashionable sinking ship.
Clough started to weave his magic immediatley. In February he acquired John O’Hare and John McGovern from Leeds and shortly afterwards doubled the imports by signing the enigmatic John Robertson and Martin O’Neil (now manger of Aston Villa). Not content with his early work, the ambitious Clough completed this first season recruitment drive by persuading Frank Clark to sign for the club from Newcastle at the end of the season.
In July of 1976 the most famous management partnership in English Football was created by the arrival of Peter Taylor (who had just resigned the managership at Brighton). It was from this date on that the real success began. Armed with an additional one year contract extension the Clough and Taylor dream partnership set out on a magical adventure which would include the capture of the football league championship, league cup, european cup (2 years on the bounce), european super cup and the charity shield. All this between the years of 1978 and 1980.
That golden era included such players as Kenny Burns, Larry Lloyd, Trevor Francis, Peter Shilton, Colin Barrett and David Needham.
In 1980 the Clough-Taylor partnership ended acrimoniously. A new era began under Clough which saw moderate success (2 league cup wins) between the years of 1981 and 1993. Clough retired from Forest and football in May, 1993. The end was a tragic relegation in front of a full City Ground. The club never fully recovered from this hammer blow.
The next 20 years saw managers come and go, and the club even went into administration in 1996. As it stands today Forest have a new manger in Colin Calderwood and maybe a new Clough era is on its way again. (The club is currenlty in second place and undefeated in the league after 4 matches).
Another false dawn at this famous old club? Maybe, just maybe not this time.
Popularity: 88% [?]
- General
- Comments(0)