Chelsea v Liverpool

@Blood-On-The-Tracks
Moving on, I would be interested on your take on the whole Brian Clough and Peter Taylor thing. There seem to be a range of theories on the market.

Perhaps Brian Clough was a genius, but needed Peter Taylor's calming influence to function and when Taylor got sick of that role and left, Clough hit the bottle?

Perhaps Clough was taking the credit for what were Taylor's achievements and Taylor got sick of that and left to expose the reality of the situation?

Rafa Benitez got off to a great start at Liverpool in 2005 winning the European Cup after winning La Liga against the odds at Valencia. A year later his long time assistant walked out on him and made some public comment about a lack of winning mentality. Rafa hasn't achieved too much since. Interestingly Rafa is a chess player who I have heard described as setting up teams like pieces on a board, but relying on others completely to fill gaps in man management and motivating players.

@Relentless-Red

Put simply, I think Taylor was the great 'buyer', the one who spotted the talent, often in lower League. Once at the club, Clough used his legendary man management/motivation to turn many sow's ears into silk purses.

Obviously, once they parted ways, they each lost a strength. Forest's transfer success dipped dramatically after Taylor left (although there were still notable exceptions, Pearce, Webb, etc).

I think the roots of Clough's drinking go way back, to his mid/late 20s and the injury that ended his playing career. Duncan Hamilton's book on Clough pulls no punches on his drinking in the late 80s/early 90s

-Removed-

-Removed-

-Removed-

-Removed-

-Removed-