Nigel Clough

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nigel Clough
Personal information
Full name	Nigel Howard Clough
Date of birth	19 March 1966 (1966-03-19) (age 43)
Place of birth	Sunderland, Tyne & Wear, England
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing position	Striker, midfielder
Club information
Current club	Derby County (manager)
Youth career
1983–1984	Heanor Town
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1984–1993 1993–1996 1996–1998 1996–1997 1997 1998–2009	Nottingham Forest Liverpool Manchester City → Nottingham Forest (loan) → Sheffield Wednesday (loan) Burton Albion Total	311 (83) 039 00(7) 039 00(4) 013 00(1) 001 00(0) 09100 (2) 4940 (97)
National team
1986–1988 1989–1993 1990–1991	England U21 England England B	015 00(3) 014 00(0) 003 00(1)
Teams managed
1998–2009 2009–	Burton Albion Derby County
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Nigel Howard Clough (born 19 March 1966) is an English former footballer and the current manager of Derby County. He played predominately as a striker, but later in his career was used as a midfielder.

Contents 1 Playing career 2 Managerial career 2.1 Burton Albion 2.2 Derby County 3 Honours 3.1 As a player 3.2 As a manager 4 Statistics 4.1 Manager 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Playing career

He is most famous as a Nottingham Forest player, where he was coached by his father Brian Clough, who publicly referred to him as "The Number 9". He made a total of 403 appearances in two spells at the club and is the club's second highest goalscorer of all time with 131. He also won 14 caps for England.

Clough joined Forest on leaving school in 1982 but did not become a regular first team player until the 1986–87 season, when he was the club's joint leading goalscorer with 14 league goals. He helped Forest win two League Cups in successive seasons (1989 and 1990). In the 1989 Final, he scored two goals as Forest came from behind to beat holders Luton Town 3–1. He was also on the losing side for Forest in the 1991 FA Cup final and 1992 League Cup final. He received great plaudits from football writers who appreciated the unhurried intelligence of his play and unflappable demeanour and was touted by some as a possible replacement for Gary Lineker, who retired from the England team in 1992 although he seemed the absolute opposite of the type of player favoured by manager Graham Taylor.

However, a steady decline in his career began in that year perhaps adversely affected by the scandals which marred his father's departure from the game. He was also one of the Forest players who had to cope with the horrors of the Hillsborough disaster during the opening minutes of their FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool. Clough played in the rescheduled game at Old Trafford, which Liverpool won 3-1.

He was Forest's leading scorer with 10 league goals in the inaugural FA Premier League campaign (1992–93) but the club finished bottom of the league and were relegated after 16 years in the top flight. Clough senior retired as manager while Clough junior was sold to Liverpool in a £2.75 million deal, but the evergreen form of veteran striker Ian Rush and the emergence of Robbie Fowler saw Clough struggle to hold down a first-team place at Anfield. His most memorable Liverpool performance was in the 3–3 draw with Manchester United, scoring two goals, leading to Martin Tyler's shout of "It's Nigel Clough again!"

He did not feature in their 1995 League Cup win over Bolton Wanderers at Wembley, and the subsequent arrival of Stan Collymore further reduced his chances of first team action, and in January 1996 he agreed to move to Manchester City in a £1.5 million deal.

However, Clough was part of the Manchester City team that was relegated from the Premier League in 1995–96, and after their relegation to Division One could not hold down a first-team place partly due to a degenerative heel injury. He made a handful of appearances in 1997–98 when they were relegated again, to Division Two - and was given a free transfer at the end of the campaign.

He had been loaned back to Nottingham Forest during the 1996–97 season, but was unable to prevent their relegation from the Premier League.

Nigel also appeared for Derby County on 28 April 2009 to face his former club Burton Albion in Aaron Webster's testimonial.

[edit] Managerial career

[edit] Burton Albion

In October 1998, he moved into management when he accepted the role of player-manager at Burton Albion in the Southern League Premier Division. In his fourth season, 2001/02, Clough's side were champions of the Northern Premier League and gained promotion to the Conference. On 8 January 2006 his side held FA Premier League side Manchester United to a 0-0 draw, earning a replay at Old Trafford. The replay was staged on 18 January, ending with a 5-0 loss for Clough's side, but Burton battled bravely and Clough said he was extremely proud of his men.

Having passed his 42nd birthday, Clough was still registered as a player which possibly explained his apparent lack of ambition to move into League management (his father bitterly lamented the premature curtailment of his own playing career). However, Clough had not played regularly for Burton since the early stages of the 2005/06 season, though he did play in the team's 6-3 win over Sutton Coldfield in the Birmingham Senior Cup on 27 October 2008. ^[1] Coincidentally, Burton Albion was the first team to be managed by his father's long-term managerial colleague, Peter Taylor.

Clough won the Blue Square Premier Manager of the Month for December 2008, after completing 11 straight wins in the division and guiding Burton to the top of the table.

[edit] Derby County

On 5 January 2009 he was officially approached by Derby County, the club his father famously managed, to take over as their manager as a replacement for Paul Jewell.^[2] He was appointed the next day,^[3] prior to his taking charge, on 8 January,^[4] Academy Head Coach David Lowe guided Derby to a victory over Manchester United 1–0 in the first leg of the League Cup semi-final.^[5] His first victory in charge of The Rams came on 31 January 2009, when Derby beat Coventry City 2–1. On 4 February 2009, Clough's Derby side found themselves 2–0 down after just fourteen minutes of a fourth round FA Cup replay at the City Ground against Nottingham Forest. Derby recovered and went on to win the game 2–3.^[6] Results improved after Clough's arrival, with a run of four consecutive wins. However,a series of injuries to key players such as Miles Addison, Dean Leacock, Steve Davies, Jordan Stewart, Chris Porter, Nathan Ellington Kris Commons and Paul Green saw a loss of form for the Rams. Safety in the Championship was not confirmed until the penultimate game of the season against Charlton Athletic, with a 1-0 victory.

[edit] Honours

[edit] As a player

Nottingham Forest

• League Cup winner (2): 1988-89, 1989-90 League Cup finalist (1): 1991-92
• FA Cup finalist (1): 1990-91

[edit] As a manager

Burton Albion

• Northern Premier League Premier Division Championship winner (1): 2001-02
• Conference National Championship winner (1): 2008-09 leaving in January 2009 to manage Derby County As he was in charge for a majority of the club's season he was awarded a medal

Football mad Irish band The Sultans of Ping FC have written a song about Nigel Clough. It was given away free as a one track flexi-disk with a Nottingham Forest fanzine. Entitled "Give Him a Ball and a Yard of Grass'", the lyric is from a quote by his father Brian about former Forest and Scotland winger John Robertson.

[edit] Statistics

As of 3 May 2009.

[edit] Manager

Team	Nation	From	To	Matches	Won	Drawn	Lost	Win %
Burton Albion	England	October 1998	7 January 2009	709	310	101	298	43.7
Derby County	England	8 January 2009	Present	24	8	5	11	33.3

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Nigel Clough career stats at Soccerbase
• Nigel Clough management career stats at Soccerbase
• Nigel Clough profile at the Liverpool website

v • d • e England squad – UEFA Euro 1992 1 Woods • 2 Curle • 3 Pearce • 4 Keown • 5 Walker • 6 Wright • 7 Platt • 8 Steven • 9 Clough • 10 Lineker • 11 Sinton • 12 Palmer • 13 Martyn • 14 Dorigo • 15 Webb • 16 Merson • 17 Smith • 18 Daley • 19 Batty • 20 Shearer • Coach: Taylor

v • d • e Burton Albion F.C. – Managers Unknown (1950–5?) · Weston (195?–57) · Crooks (1957) · Bill Townsend (1957–62) · Taylor (1962–65) · Unknown (1965–70) · Norman (1970–73) · Guttridge (1973–74) · Bodle (1974–76) · Unknown (1976–78) · Storey-Moore (1978–81) · Warnock (1981–86) · Fidler (1986–88) · Halom (1988) · Hope (1988) · Wright (1988–89) · Blair (1989–90) · Upton (caretaker) (1990) · Powell (1990–91) · Fidler (1991–92) · Kenning (1992–94) · Barton (1994–98) · Clough (1998–2009) · McFarland (2009) · Peschisolido (2009–)

v • d • e Derby County F.C. – Managers Newbould (1896–1906) · Methven (1906–22) · Potter (1922–25) · Jobey (1925–41) · Magner (1944–46) · McMillan (1946–53) · Barker (1953–55) · Storer, Jr. (1955–62) · Ward (1962–67) · B. Clough (1967–73) · Mackay (1973–76) · Murphy (1976–77) · Docherty (1977–79) · Addison (1979–82) · Newman (1982) · Taylor (1982–84) · McFarland (1984) · Cox (1984–93) · McFarland (1993–95) · Smith (1995–2001) · Todd (2001–02) · Gregory (2002–03) · Burley (2003–05) · Brown (2005–06) · Westley (2006) · Davies (2006–07) · Jewell (2007–08) · N. Clough (2009–)

v • d • e Derby County F.C. – current squad 1 Carroll · 2 Connolly (c) · 3 McEveley · 4 Green · 5 Stewart · 7 Commons · 8 Savage · 11 Hulse · 12 Price · 13 Bywater · 15 Varney · 17 Leacock · 18 Barnes · 19 Nyatanga · 20 Davies · 21 Davis · 23 Teale · 24 Addison · 26 Zadkovich · 27 Pearson · 28 Albrechtsen · 29 Dickinson · 31 Hanson · 32 Porter · 34 Prijović · 35 Beardsley · 37 Dudley · 41 O'Brien · -- Buxton · -- Croft · -- Moxey · Manager: Clough

v • d • e Football League Championship Managers Adkins · Blackwell · Clough · Coleman · Davey · Davies · Di Matteo · Ferguson · Holloway · Irvine · Johnson · Jones · Keane · Laws · Mackay · Magilton · O'Driscoll · Pearson · Rodgers · Sousa · Southgate · Sturrock · Warnock