Brian Clough Quotes & Sayings

I wouldn't say I was the best manager in the business. But I was in the top one. — Brian Clough

If any one of my players isn't interfering with play, they're not getting paid. — Brian Clough

When I go, God's going to have to give up his favourite chair. — Brian Clough

Saturday comes again, welcome or not, it comes again like it always does, welcome or not, wanted or not, another judgment day - The chance to be saved, the chance to be damned. — Brian Clough

Come and see my coaching certificates - they're called the European Cup and league championships, — Brian Clough

On occasions I have been big-headed. I think most people are when they get in the limelight. I call myself Big Head just to remind myself not to be. — Brian Clough

Anybody who can do anything in Leicester but make a jumper has got to be a genius. — Brian Clough

Players lose you games, not tactics. There's so much crap talked about tactics by people who barely know how to win at dominoes. — Brian Clough

Beckham? His wife can't sing and his barber can't cut hair. — Brian Clough

Walk on water? I know most people out there will be saying that instead of walking on it, I should have taken more of it with my drinks. They are absolutely right. — Brian Clough

I gave my players a version of the same message at ten-to-three every Saturday: 'I would shoot my granny right now for three points this afternoon.' They knew how important it was to give everything in the cause of victory. Every time. That's why my granny enjoyed more lives than my cat. — Brian Clough

We had a good team on paper. Unfortunately, the game was played on grass. — Brian Clough

We used to go to the pictures every Saturday night but we had to leave a little bit early and get home and watch Match of the Day - and my wife still complains she missed the last five minutes of every film we saw. — Brian Clough

I want no epitaphs of profound history and all that type of thing. I contributed. I would hope they would say that, and I would hope somebody liked me. — Brian Clough

For all his horses, knighthoods and championships, he hasn't got two of what I've got. And I don't mean balls! — Brian Clough

I've decided to pick my moment to retire very carefully - in about 200 years time. — Brian Clough

Who the hell wants fourteen pairs of shoes when they go on holiday? I haven't had fourteen pairs in my life. — Brian Clough

I like my women to be feminine, not sliding into tackles and covered in mud. — Brian Clough

It only takes a second to score a goal. — Brian Clough

Resignations are for Prime Ministers and those caught with their trousers down, not for me. — Brian Clough

You don't want roast beef and Yorkshire every night and twice on Sunday. — Brian Clough

Being thick isn't an affliction if you're a footballer, because your brains need to be in your feet. And Beckham works hard, he's brave and he crosses a ball superbly. He treats a football like he does a wife, lovingly, with caresses. — Brian Clough

If he'd been English or Swedish, he'd have walked the England job. — Brian Clough

If I had an argument with a player we would sit down for twenty minutes, talk about it and then decide I was right! — Brian Clough

Don't send me flowers when I'm dead. If you like me, send them while I'm alive. — Brian Clough

Acne is a bigger problem than injuries. — Brian Clough

Bill eventually became Mr Tottenham Hotspur, and produced such a dazzling team at White Hart Lane that they won the double and played the game in a way that was an object lesson to everybody. — Brian Clough

The ugliest player I ever signed was Kenny Burns. — Brian Clough

Telling the entire world and his dog how good a manager I was. I knew I was the best but I should have said nowt and kept the pressure off 'cos they'd have worked it out for themselves. — Brian Clough

The river Trent is lovely, I know because I have walked on it for 18 years. — Brian Clough

They say Rome wasn't built in a day, but I wasn't on that particular job. — Brian Clough

If God had wanted us to play football in the sky, He'd have put grass up there. — Brian Clough

If a chairman sacks the manager he initially appointed, he should go as well. — Brian Clough

I'm sure the England selectors thought if they took me on and gave me the job, I'd want to run the show. They were shrewd, because that's exactly what I would have done. — Brian Clough

My wife says OBE stands for Old Big 'Ead. — Brian Clough

There are more hooligans in the House of Commons than at a football match. — Brian Clough

I can't even spell spaghetti never mind talk Italian. How could I tell an Italian to get the ball - he might grab mine. — Brian Clough

When you get to a certain age, there is no coming back. — Brian Clough

That 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. — Brian Clough