To say late football manager Brian Clough was outspoken is an understatement. He was probably the big mouth character of the 1970s and 1980s in sport, and a lot less appealing in many ways than Mohammed Ali, with whom he vied for the title. In a tribute to the footballing legend on BBC1 (Wednesday Oct 13 10:25pm), a much richer picture emerged of a family man, with a sharp intellect, whose highly successful playing career was cut short by a tragic injury. They say that great players don’t often make great managers, but Clough was definitely an exception.

Contributions from chat-show host and sports journalist Michael Parkinson and one of his former players appeared to give some original insights into how he was able to make a difference (it was not cash and top players that delivered his success.) Parkinson highlighted the fact that he could take under-achieving players and turn them into greats. This seems quite important. Other players chimed in with how demanding he was, if not brutal. But perhaps the best intervention which indicated that he was a process driven manager rather than results driven, was in the contribution of one player who said you never quite knew where you were. To paraphrase: “You could be 3-0 up at half time and he’d come into the changing room and give you a right bollocking. Another time, you’d be 2-0 down and he’d come in and say ‘Perfect lads–more of the same in the second half.’”

It takes a huge amount of courage to ignore the short-term result, even when it is positive, in favour of a process that will deliver longer-term success, not least because the wider community of interests, owners, managers, shareholders are victims of their own loss-aversion and will prefer success in the short-term no matter how it is derived.

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