Cloughie & Jose - two peas from the same pod

Premier League / David Croft / 26 September 2007 / Leave a Comment

David Croft thinks Brian Clough would have approved of Jose Mourinho...

"Jose Mourinho, there's a bit of the young Clough about him, for a start he's good looking and he doesn't believe in the star system. He's consumed with team spirit and discipline. The players have to fit in with his vision and pattern of play, which is right."

Not my words, but the words of an extremely perceptive Brian Clough a short while before he passed away in September 2004, words that came just a few shorts weeks after Jose had arrived at Chelsea and shortly after Cloughie had watched Mourinho win the European Cup as manager of Porto, a team that you could describe as unfashionable and by today's standards, cheaply assembled - just like Nottingham Forest were back in 1979.

I wouldn't say that Old Big 'Ead and The Special One came out of the same mold, but it would be stupid to ignore the similarities between the pair. It's certainly also fair to say that the absence of both is a loss to the English game. Certainly to the media who feasted on the ease of both managers in its company, enjoying the sound bites that flowed effortlessly and frequently from their lips, to the fans of the clubs they took charge of, and to those like me, neutrals who love a good character who speaks his mind for what he perceives is the good of the game.

As to the events at Stamford Bridge in recent days, it's clear as to whose side Brian Clough would have taken on this one and of course he had a little experience in the matter. Just a year after he led Derby County to the only league title in their history Cloughie found himself at loggerheads with his chairman, he was out of the club the year after that to the dismay of the Rams fans.

Cloughie was never one for authority, although he didn't have to contend with a billionaire as a boss of course. Whether he would have handled the Chelsea situation differently had he been in Jose's overcoat is a matter of opinion, but you'd have liked to think that like Mourinho he'd have stood his ground and walked out of the club a few million quid the richer.

Where Chelsea go from here of course only time will tell but here's a few clues from my side of the fence. It wasn't Pini Zahavi, Peter Kenyon, Frank Arnesen or Avram Grant that led Chelsea to two successive league titles now was it? Roman's roubles provided the platform but Mourinho was the man who turned them into champions and now he's gone they look nothing of the sort. To be honest they didn't in the weeks leading up to Jose's departure and I'm not the first to question whether Avram Grant is the man who can turn things around - especially if, as has been suggested, the owner is calling the shots on and off the pitch. If you agree you can lay Chelsea at 5.5 with Betfair in the Premier League winners market. Maybe the blues will be up for the cup and if you fancy them in the FA Cup the price is 5.2.

But what of Nottingham Forest these days, a quick glance at Betfair's price has Cloughie's old boys at 5.9 to finish as League One Champions come May. They're currently 10th with a game in hand but in such a competitive league if you fancy Forest it may be better and certainly less risky to take the 2.1 on offer for Promotion instead, especially with Leeds United motoring up the table. Leeds of course another of Cloughie's old teams, all be-it one he managed for only 44 days. Could it be that despite their troubles before the start of the season and 15 point deduction, they end up as Champions, 4.2 says they do