Brian Clough vs Don Revie, the endless rivalry

Never having loved each other is one thing, but having chased each other and even taken advantage of the related missteps is another. There is hostility between Don Revie and Brian Clough which seems to go beyond football rivalry. Two winning coaches, two strong personalities but also two different playing philosophies. Almost irreconcilable. But also two people who have some points in common. For example, having both been excellent strikers before sitting on a bench. But also coming from Middlesbrough, north-east of England. And to think that it all began due to a misunderstanding that was never clarified. The reasons for hatred are often banal. The consequences, however, can also be significant.

BEWARE OF THOSE TWO

As per long tradition, the game was played on Boxing Day 1962. They call it “boxing day” because presents are unwrapped. Under the tree of Brian Clough, born in 1935 and ruthless center forward of Sunderland ex Middlesbrough, there is a nasty surprise. A fortuitous clash with the Bury goalkeeper effectively puts an end to his career. Clough will drag on for a couple of years but his average will no longer be that of a goal per game. However, he has precise and very personal ideas on how to make a team play and wants to be a coach.

He began to gain experience in 1965 managing Hartlepool United, waiting for the right opportunity. He supports Derby County but for career purposes any good team would do, more or less. The colleague Donald George Revie, known as Don, is eight years older and just in 1962 he just stopped playing. A little less prolific than the other player in goal, he still has a career of some importance behind him. As well as playing for Leicester and Manchester City, he ended his playing days at Leeds. Like Clough he comes from Middlesbrough, like Clough he also played for Sunderland.

He made himself loved in Leeds and seems to have put down roots there, to the point that in his last years of activity he signed a player-coach contract. In a few years the team reached the First Division and then it becomes one of the great realities of English football. Under the guidance of Don Revie, long ball and pedal, Leeds he will win the British title twice, the FA Cup and twice a beautiful and somewhat useless international title except for statistical purposes such as the Fairs Cup (a title which today UEFA does not recognize on an official level). Even though they are fellow citizens, Clough and Revie do not know each other (or at least that's what they have always said). Until one day fate puts them face to face. It all begins then.

“GOOD MORNING MR. REVIE, WELCOME”

17 January 1968, League Cup semi-final. They face each other at Baseball Ground of Derby the home team, Derby County, and the most popular opponents of Leeds United. Don Revie is a successful manager who leads one of the strongest teams in the English championship, Brian Clough is coaching his favorite team but his name has yet to make its name. When the entire Leeds team gets off the bus, the emerging manager awaits his more famous colleague for a ritual greeting. According to Clough's versionRevie would pretend not to see him to avoid the handshake. And even at the end of the match, the scene would be repeated.

Don “it stinks under the nose” Revie talks to journalists but not to the opposing coach. In fact, this time he shakes his hand but without even looking at it in your face. Which is even worse.

With the air of someone who doesn't mix with provincial people, or at least that's the feeling his opponent has. The lack of recognition (or presumed such) is the basis of a feeling that initially opposes antipathy to indifference. Then, give and take, it will turn into mutual hatred. Also because Brian Clough is not the type to let hypothetical lack of respect towards him pass. A snubbed coach is about to turn into the other's most bitter detractor. Over time, Brian Howard Clough will also become an important name but it will be as if one's career were to clash with that of the other. By decision and with determination. A full-blown obsession.

TO THE LAST BLOOD

Years pass and in the meantime Brian Clough has become a successful manager. Not exactly a universally funny guy but certainly a winner. A very self-reported innovator. He is despotic towards everyone, often unbearable. It seems like the combination of a Mourinho with decades in advance and a Helenio Herrera in English sauce. Only he exists, no one is better than him. Don Revie, least of all.

«I wouldn’t say i was the best manager in the business, but certainly i was in the top-one». (I wouldn't say I was the best manager in the business but I was certainly in the top one).

From his words it is difficult to deduce who between him and God is the boss and who is the deputy. But there is no doubt that he is a coach who keeps what he promises. With interest. He will manage to win a championship with Derby County, a feat that very few would have ever bet on. It's 1972 and the fight at the top is intense. The surprising Derby is fighting for the title in a tight sprint with Manchester City, Liverpool and above all Leeds. Revie's team has a greater technical level and a competitive quality pushed to the limit of hooliganism on the pitch. According to Clough, most of the time he wins dirty.

From his point of view, the “bad teacher Revie” teaches his team to hit systematically, to waste time when they win, to pretend, to gather around the referee when a decision is not satisfactory. And he is convinced that when Leeds lose, the rest of England enjoys greatly. When he won the four-man sprint on May 2nd and the Derby County will be champions of EnglandBrian Clough will appear almost happier with having made Leeds United lose than with having won a national title. Revie's response lies in an attitude of superiority and team results but also in a recurring belittling of his colleague's exploits.

Maybe it's true that in general Leeds aren't nice but in the city the manager is the idol of the crowds, woe betide anyone who touches him. The truth is that both Brian and Don are excellent coaches who are getting just as great results as they are. Just as it is equally true that such a ferocious and methodically manifested antipathy was born due to a failed handshake. True or presumed. Public opinion is divided: the traditionalists side with Revie, on the side of the contender are those tired of functional but monotonous football.

YOUR HOUSE OR MY HOUSE?

«Gentlemen, I am pleased to announce that I will be the next manager of Leeds United». July 1974, Brian's words leave everyone stunned. But how, right at Leeds, the most hated team? The idea is simple: to bring a winning and clean model to a place where victories have always been achieved in a murky and arrogant manner. Arrogant? Maybe it's the classic ox saying cuckold to the donkey. Don was selected by the Federation as manager of the England national team. He has just won the title with Leeds and is about to leave a place that adores him as a winner.

For Clough's ego the opportunity is tempting: to demonstrate that he is better (and more successful) than Revie in Revie's home. History will tell otherwise, the 44 days at the technical helm of Leeds United will represent the worst moment of his career. There are things that are difficult to subvert: right or wrong, the people of Leeds love Revie, the players themselves are attached to their former manager and do not intend to be pawns in a personal war deemed unacceptable. Also because, if they really have to choose a side, they are certainly not on Brian Clough's side.

Given the poor results and the need to ease environmental pressures, the presidency is forced to fire the new manager after a month and a half of defeats and bad impressions. Even with a large severance package, the former Derby County manager will have to find another position. End of the war between the two? Not even in a dream. A no-holds-barred television debate right around that time will mark a round in favor of the new England manager. Clough's fresh failure represents an assist to take advantage of on live TV.

IT AIN’T OVER ‘TIL IT’S OVER

It would appear to be the end of Brian Clough's career and the apotheosis of Donald George Revie; however, things will go differently than expected. In January 1975 Nottingham Forest hired an arrogant and ambitious new manager, fresh from a bad experience in a hostile place. The presidency's request is clear and simple: report the “garibaldi reds” in the First Division and then stay there with dignity. It will go much further than initial expectations.

With Clough on the bench it will begin a story that has no equal in the world: in 1978 the NF will be champions of England as newly promoted, then the incredible will happen. The 1979 and 1980 European Cups will go to the trophy cabinet of a team from the East Midlands who play football that is in some ways un-English. The coach is the first to overcome the concept of long balls and crosses in the middle. Nottingham Forest play in a reasoned manner, ball on the ground, fairly fluid formation depending on the opponent and the moments of the match. That's no small thing, especially in a country like England, which is very conservative when it comes to football.

“If God wanted us to play football in the clouds, he would definitely have put grass up there.”

Nottingham Forest are the only team in the world to have won more international titles than domestic championships. Those years therefore represent the triumph of a man who was difficult to bear but also of an undoubtedly tenacious and innovative technician. Just as tenacious as he had been when he was an easy-scoring striker. He would have said about him Bill Shanklythe legendary Liverpool manager:

“It was worse than the rain in Manchester, at least that stopped every now and then.”

Brian Clough remained on the NF bench until 1993. And Don Revie? The experience leading the national team will be anything but positive. The team failed to qualify for the final phase of the 1976 European Championships and then the 1978 World Cup. And it got worse: in 1977, following the failure, Revie left the bench to go and coach in the United Arab Emirates. A betrayal that the English will not forgive. He died in 1989 after a long illness.

Today the critics have fully rehabilitated his choices and deeds, the Leeds fans have never stopped loving him. Ultimately, he deserves it. Brian Howard Clough “football genius”, who passed away in 2004, is an undisputed icon of English football. Both are in the Hall of Fame nationalthe acrimony between the parties has never subsided. Never. A story of great football triumphs and bad feelings that began not only with a failed handshake but also with a serious injury, on a distant and rainy Boxing Day.