Brian Clough Quotes

Brian Clough shares bold, humorous critiques of sport and personality, great for those who like candid, cheeky insights.

43 quotes

1. I wouldn't say I was the best manager in the business. But I was in the top one.

2. If God had wanted us to play football in the clouds, he'd have put grass up there.

3. I only ever hit Roy the once. He got up so I couldn't have hit him very hard.

4. We talk about it for 20 minutes and then we decide I was right.

5. It was like moving from Butlins to Belsen.

6. At last England have appointed a manager who speaks English better than the players.

7. 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

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

9. The Derby players have seen more of his balls than the one they're meant to be playing with

10. We (Nottingham Forest) would never drink the tea at Anfield. You don't know what the cheating bastards have put in it

11. Manchester United in Brazil? I hope they all get bloody diarrhoea

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

13. How I wish I had gone on to manage the varna.

14. I can't even spell spaghetti never mind talk Italian. How could I tell an Italian to get the ball? He might grab mine

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

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

17. 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

18. If a chairman sacks the manager he initially appointed, he should go as well

19. I thought it was my next-door neighbour because I think she felt that if I got something like that I would have to move

20. Who the hell wants 14 pairs of shoes when you go on holiday? I haven't had 14 pairs in my life

21. He should guide Posh in the direction of a singing coach because she's nowhere near as good at her job as her husband

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

23. 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.

24. He's got a son in law, and he's a german. And if you've ever been on holiday with them, as I'm certain we all have, they're murder you know, the germans. And if.. if they got on top, can you imagine spending three weeks with them, in parma, if they win the world cup?! they're bad enough as it is!

25. I was never, ever physically afraid. My terms of reference were basic and simple: put the ball in the net. That was my job, that's the way I saw it, and I allowed nothing and nobody to distract me from that purpose.

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

27. 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.

28. You don't want roast beef and Yorkshire every night and twice on Sunday.

29. If any one of my players isn’t interfering with play, they’re not getting paid.

30. We had a good team on paper. Unfortunately, the game was played on grass.

31. 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.

32. When you get to a certain age, there is no coming back.

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

34. The RAF allowed me to play a lot of football, but like England later, they failed to recognise real talent when it was under their noses.

35. Women who choose to stay home and raise their families make one of the most valuable contributions to society. as far as I am concerned.

36. What joy and adventure the youngsters of today are missing as they sit indoors mucking about with computer games and videos!

37. There are more hooligans in the House of Commons than at a football match.

38. The ugliest player I ever signed was Kenny Burns.

39. If a player is not interfering with play then he shouldn't be on the pitch.

40. If he'd been English or Swedish, he'd have walked the England job.

41. It only takes a second to score a goal.

42. 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.

43. 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.