of the Second Division to European Champions. Films and books have been

written, endless tales have been told and legends made about his

successes in that half of the East Midlands. But not so widely told is how close he came

to doing exactly the same in the other half.

Brian Clough and Peter Taylor arrived at Derby County in 1967 to find a club in disrepair.

They had been outside the top flight for 14 years, had been in the lower

half of the Second Division for much of the previous decade and finished 17th

the season before they arrived. Their first season didn’t show much improvement: they

finished 18th, but the following summer they put together the core of the team

that would lead them to the top. Alan Hinton, John O’Hare, Roy McFarland,

John McGovern and Dave Mackay all arrived, and the team clicked, winning

promotion to the top flight as champions. ‘I’ve never known a collective spirit

stronger than the one we built at Derby at that time,’ Clough wrote in his autobiography.

The improvement was gradual: ninth in their first season back in the First Division, then

fourth, and by 1971 they had established themselves as a force. But already

the seeds had been sown for the end of Clough and Taylor at Derby:

their relationship with chairman Sam Longson was already beginning to sour, ostensibly

over transfers, but ultimately over who was the real driving force behind

Derby’s revival. The more Clough got the credit, the more Longson resented

him. In fact, halfway through the 1971/72 season,

with Derby on their way to winning their first league tittle, Clough and Taylor

handed in their resignations, in theory because they had received a better offer from Coventry,

but in reality their motivation was probably to secure a payrise,

which they did. Derby were involved in one of the most fraught

title races in history that season, competing with Manchester City,

Liverpool and Leeds United for the First Division crown. So close was it that City won their

final game of the season, taking them top, but they had no chance of

winning the league as Derby still had to play Liverpool, so one would

overtake them. Derby won that game, but the title wasn’t secured: it would all come

down to the last day, as Leeds faced Wolves (two days after they’d played in

the FA Cup final) and Liverpool played Arsenal. With no more games to play, Derby left the

country. Taylor took the squad to Majorca, while Clough retreated to the

Scilly Isles with his family. The players followed the games, nervously, via crackly

telephone lines. Ultimately, despite them going to and fro, results went in Derby’s

favour: Wolves beat an exhausted Leeds, while Arsenal held Liverpool. “I

do not believe in miracles,” said Clough, “but one has occurred tonight...This has

given me far more pleasure than I can adequately express.”

The first part of the miracle was done, and they so very nearly completed phase two. They

reached the semi-final of the European Cup, beating Benfica - Eusebio and

all - on the way, but there they came up against Juventus. This was a

brilliant Juve team, featuring Dino Zoff, Helmut Haller and Fabio Capello, but in Clough’s

words “it wasn’t the result that incensed me.” Clough believed, and did to

his dying day, that the Italians ‘influenced’ the referee that night in the first leg

in Turin, after Haller was spotted going into the officials’ room at half-time. Certainly

a few questionable decisions were made, but nothing was ever proven.

“I will not talk to no cheating bastards,” he told the Italian press afterwards, making

his feelings crystal clear. Brian Glanville, an English journalist who spoke

Italian, feigned ignorance when asked by the home press corp for a

translation. "Tell them what I said, Brian," shouted Clough. Juventus won that game 3-1,

and the return ended in a 0-0 draw, meaning Clough’s first big shot at

the European Cup was over. And so, in a manner of speaking, was their

time at Derby. The following season started well, but by October the

relationship between Clough and Longson was irreparable. Longson tried to ban Clough from

appearing in the media, not a realistic prospect for a man with a

newspaper column and lucrative television punditry work. This was the final

straw and Clough resigned, even though he didn’t actually want to leave. But his bluff

was called, and both he and Taylor were out.

A protest movement was formed, the Derby players considered boycotting that weekend’s game

against Leicester, but in the end they played, and won 2-1. In a typical

act of theatrics, Clough made an appearance at the game, took the ​

applause of the crowd and left. Pressure grew to bring back Clough and Taylor, and some

of the board had second thoughts, but Longson had already appointed

Dave Mackay, by that time Forest manager, to replace them.

Six years later, Clough and Taylor lifted the European Cup with Forest. Somewhere, in

a Derby boardroom, they must have wondered what could have been...