Pools captain John Sheridan explained that
Clough and Taylor, whom he’d later join as
a coach at Derby, Brighton and Forest, would
“get you bonding as a squad, demand 100
per cent effort, then fill you with confidence”.
The bonding included cinema nights, golf
days and guitar-led sing-songs on the team
bus, with away-day room-mates decided by
lottery to avoid cliques. Players were paraded
around factories, to boost the club’s profile,
while warning them of a “proper” working life.
It all added up to what The Observer’s Hugh
McIlvanney would describe as “a powerful
sense of integration”.
Clough predicted Pools could finish his first
full season in the top half, for the first time
in a decade. By the end of October they were
11th, but chairman Ernest Ord, citing poverty,
attempted to get rid of Taylor. When Clough
stood by his assistant, Ord sacked both, but
the board rebelled and forced the chairman
out. The manager had learned that loyalty
could dissolve enemies.
Pools eventually came eighth, and would
be promoted the following season... but not
under Clough and Taylor.“Good managers make good sides. There’s
no such thing as a side making a manager”Ever the hustler, Taylor had persuaded Len
Shackleton, the former Sunderland striker-
turned-reporter who’d recommended Clough
to Hartlepool, to find a bigger stage for the
pair. He suggested Derby.
Having spent most of their pre-war years in
the First Division, the Rams had now suffered
a decade in the second tier. Taylor convinced
a reluctant Clough to leave his native North
East for Taylor’s manor in the East Midlands –it was a decision that changed at least two
football clubs forever.
The County squad required reconstruction,
which the duo relished. “Taylor and I were
at our best and fired with enthusiasm when
we were dismantling teams and rebuilding
them,” recalled Clough. Rams chairman Sam
Longson promised them £70,000, so they
spent £21,000 on a 19-year-old. Clough had
coached teak-tough forward John O’Hare at
Sunderland and would later snaffle him for
Leeds and Forest, praising his “heart as big
as a bucket”.
Next to sign up was Roy McFarland, a classy
teenage centre-back Taylor had noticed at
Tranmere. Clough started negotiations by
following the Rovers manager into the gents,
clinched the £24,000 deal by pretending to
phone Longson for an argument, and ended
the evening by shaking McFarland out of bed
at 2am to ink the forms. “Take as much time
as you want lad,” Clough winked when the
youngster asked for more time to consider
the move, “but we’re not leaving this house
until you’ve made a decision.”
McFarland revealed, “One of the first things
Clough ever said to me was that I would be
an international player. Everything he said
came true.” He played 28 games for England- and 500 for Derby.
Then came Alan Hinton, a left winger not
wanted at Forest. An elegant playmaker with
blond hair, white boots and a self-admitted
inability to tackle, he was nicknamed ‘Gladys’
but could cross or shoot with either foot. He
cost £29,000, and five years later he was top
scorer in the campaign Derby were crowned
champions of England.
In their transitional first season under new
management in 1967-68, Derby won eight
of their first 10 matches, but fell away badly
to finish 18th in the second tier. Deciding the
team needed experience, Taylor half-dared
Clough to try to bring in Dave Mackay. Six
months Clough’s senior, the Scot had spent
nine years patrolling the Tottenham midfield
with a winning mix of technique and tackling:
George Best called Mackay his “hardest” and
“bravest” opponent.
Nearing 34, Mackay was set to return to his
native Edinburgh as Hearts boss, but Clough
and Taylor had other plans: recruiting him to
play at sweeper alongside McFarland, letting
the kid do the hard work while the older man
organised and created. “Clough’s enthusiasm
was infectious and his confidence shocking,”
Mackay said of his first conversations with
his new manager.
By early October, Derby were fifth and only
a point off the summit when they welcomed
glamorous Chelsea to the Baseball Ground for
a League Cup replay and came from behind
to win 3-1; Mackay “realised that Clough was
not a complete fantasist and that this team
I’d joined was becoming a bit special.”
Top by Christmas, Derby were promoted on
the first Saturday of April by larruping Bolton
5-1 and finished the season with 63 points.
No Second Division side had collected more
points since 1920. Together with Manchester
City’s Tony Book, Mackay was voted the joint
Footballer of the Year by the Football Writers’
CLOUGH
Below “We’re
not the greatest
Smiths tribute
band, but we’re
in the top one”;
Bottom Signing
Dave Mackay
from Tottenham