Mark Hughes, who last week shamefully defended Adebayor's stamp on Van Persie's face, has again attempted to defend the indefensible.

"The guy shouldn't have been on the pitch, that's just not acceptable," he said. "I seem to remember Brian Clough clipping someone around the earhole because he was being daft, and maybe that's what Craig has done.

Roy Keane has spoken about the continuing saga regarding Stephen Ireland's self inflicted exile from the Ireland international squad and the criticism of Trapattoni regarding Andy Reid's exclusion from the squad during the present World Cup qualifying campaign.
"I remember hearing about Brian Clough trying to get Archie Gemmill to sign for Forest – he slept on his sofa.

Arsene Wenger: the best manager England never had By Simon Bailey. No work today, the wife was out getting last minute school uniforms, books, bags, and whatever else they need, so I decided to put on The Damned United, the story of Brian Clough's six week tenure at Leeds United. It's not really a 'Football' film in the [.

The Manchester derby was a joy to behold for football fans around the globe, but in the aftermath of the match all of the focus is on Craig Bellamy and his violent outburst.

Pictures prove that Bellamy punched a spectator that entered the field, and there is no covering up his blemish.

Video footage of the Bellamy incident After the jump you can watch the Brian Clough punch-up which Mark Hughes compared the incident to. Hughes said: "I did not see it but the guy should not have been on the pitch. That is not acceptable. Brian Clough clipped someone's ear. He was lauded a national hero.

In April 1988, Liverpool played a trilogy of games against Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest side as they sought to secure another league and cup double. The third game in the trilogy saw one the finest –if not the finest – performances Anfield has ever witnessed.
Going into the third game on April 13th it was all square: Forest had beaten Liverpool in league – one of only two defeats in the 87-88 championship winning season – and Liverpool had dumped Forest out of the FA Cup in an exciting semi-final at Hillsborough.

One of the most eagerly anticipated movies of the year is scheduled to debut on March 27 when "The Damned United," the story of Brian Clough's 44-day reign as manager at Leeds United, hits the silver screen in the United Kingdom. This promises not to be just another football movie. Based on the novel by acclaimed [.

The young Brian Clough?Just seen Michael Sheen on Jonathan Ross (that's me crazy guy, crazy Friday night) and I'm looking forward to The Damned United film. And I enjoyed the book.I'm sorry that the Clough family have been upset but it is, essentially, a fictionalised account of real events involving Brian Clough.

The Australian Financial Review ran a great story in its Review pages this Friday, 'Pitch black: England and its national game in the 1970s' by Dominic Sandbrook. It was inspired by David Peace's book 'The Damned United' which will be released here in August.
I was very young in 1974 playing for the Redbacks.

1974. This is the story of the Match of The 70s 1974-75. A fantastic retrospective Series by the BBC chronicling the professional game in England in the 70's. And i loved it.I discovered it on Youtube by accident. A wonderful bloke named PaulMagicflute...Has posted a whole decades worth of the series and i am going to devour it.

"The man who taught us the way football should be played" Pele

Well if you're going to start a series like this, there is only one person to start with in my opinion, Sir Stanley Matthews, the wizard of dribble. Matthews is a name that will always be mentioned as one of the greatest footballers of all time, never mind a legend of the English game.

As it's all about Brian Clough, the most talented manager never to manage England, we'd thought we let life long Forest fan Nicholas Briggys pick his best ever Forest 11. It may not be the best team of all time, but it's certainly in the top 1!

No, sadly not Canberra, not yet..but Burton Albion.
I was born in the Brewing Capital of the World, surrounded by Brian Clough League Champs Derby County, European Cup winners Aston Villa, and Notts Forest, and the super Baggies of the 1980's.
Burton is just eight miles from Derby, 21 from Nottingham, 25 from Birmingham, 30 Stoke, 25 Leicester, 25 West Brom, 25 Wolves so plenty of local football around over the years.

Earlier this year, we sent Ted Carter to the cinema with a paper bag containing some crab paste sandwiches and a ticket for the movie version of David Peace's 2006 novel, "The Damned United". The film is released on DVD next Monday, so we thought that it was time to revisit this interpretation of Brian Clough's forty-four days at Leeds United.

Brian Clough's managerial career has been well documented, but it often completely overshadows the success Clough had as a player. Whilst he was often accused of nepotism towards his son Nigel whilst he was the manager of Nottingham Forest, it wasn't hard to see where the younger player got his footballing talent from.

Well you've got to hand it to him, Gary Megson must have the thickest skin in professional football. I've seen him barracked by his own fans at 4 different clubs over the years and that's some going, even in the fickle world of the football supporter. At a Nottingham Forest game, I saw fans come to blows trying to get to him, at Leicester I saw a fan throw his season ticket at him in his 3rd game in charge.

Read the column here.

(Sadly the wit and wisdom of Brian Clough - or at least my attempted tribute to it in the last line of that column is apparently lost on the copy editors here; it should read "the top one," singular, not plural).

Check out the trailer.

I had the pleasure of speaking recently with actor Michael Sheen about the film and his role as Brian Clough.

A sprinkle of French fairy dust and all of a sudden you find yourself in football heaven.
Lovely!
And talking of football heaven, have you booked your seats for this yet? Released 27th March.
Not that Leeds United could ever really be described in the same sentence as 'heaven'.

More reliable than an internet connectionThe glamorous life of the international football journalist? Not quite. As Christopher Davies shows in Behind the Back Page: Adventures of Sports Writer there are drawbacks. True you get to see the best games (in theory) and talk to the superstars (not always a pleasure) but along the way you have to deal

Brian Clough's ill fated 44 days at Leeds United. The legend even had Muhammad Ali talking on TV about him. But true to Clough's nature, he was going to fight even that passing reference. Tearing down institutions. Shaking up the cozy old boys club that ruled football. Leeds United was just that.

Merseyside footballing greats have recalled their reactions to the horror of Hillsborough on the eve of the disaster's 20th anniversary.
Speaking ahead of today's emotional memorial service at Anfield, Kenny Dalglish, the Reds' boss at the time, told the BBC the authorities should have delayed the game.

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So Malcolm Crosby believes Arsene Wenger is a fan of Gareth Southgate and the job he is doing:

Arsene Wenger is very complimentary towards Gareth and what he's trying to do and if he thinks that then maybe we're doing something right.

I am personally of the belief that Southgate is a good young coach but that maybe the current Boro job is too much for such an inexperienced manager.

Tottenham manager Harry Rednapp was, amazingly, cleared of corruption allegations raised in the book I mention below in the previous post.
With managers on the take the "Brian Clough" or "George Graham" syndrome of getting $100,000 in cash or in Graham's case maybe $500,000 in a Jersey bank account for a player transferring in or out of their club makes for interesting reading and many football fans will have followed these stories.

It is unlikely that very many fans of English League Football will have never heard or read one of the many famous football quotes attributed to the late, great Brian Clough. The legendary former Nottingham Forest and Derby County manager certainly never minced his words - and was arguably as famous for his outspoken, bullish personality and outrageous opinions of himself, his team mates, players and colleagues as he was for his long lasting reputation as one of the all time great managers in the long and fruitful history of the English game.

Hartlepool United Football Club are an English football team from Hartlepool playing in League One. The club was once manager by legendary English manager Brian Clough, who went on to achieve glory with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. Clough began his managerial career at Hartlepool in October 1965 before moving on to Derby two seasons [.

The Damned United will be making its cinematic debut in the United States on a limited release this September 25, 2009 in New York City and Los Angeles.

And now Sony Pictures has officially launched the movie trailer for the film. It's quite a bit different than the UK version.

Before their insipid performance against Arsenal Celtic managed 26 years without losing to an English club at home.Of course some European records are misleading because games don't come up that often. You could say Motherwell haven't lost to Third Lanark for 40 years. Probably true but equally meaningless.

Last night was apparently a good night to skip watching Chivas USA get thrashed 4-0 by an unReal Salt Lake and head to a screening of The Damned United at Sony Studios in Culver City although I did think checking in four times (parking lot security, visitor's center, screening room guard and finally screening room PR flak) and getting the car trunk searched on the way out to boot (sorry, English humor) was more than a little excessive.

Oh the irony of it all: One of the wealthiest football clubs in the world, with a proven world-class manager who is yet to splash some serious cash at his new club, and suddenly the bank has been forced to involuntarily shut its doors until January 2011. All due to a little unknown reserve team player (unless you play Football Manager.

Last year you could argue that with West Brom, Stoke and Hull were the favorites to go down, however Newcastle and Middlesbrough filled their places.Were they too good to go down? Maybe, but there are 10 good teams above these two, who made a hash of it even more.

10. Reading, 2007/08

They say the second season is the most tricky for a newly promoted club.

Episode 140 of the EPL Talk Podcast features an interview with Michael Sheen, the star of The Damned United, the new motion picture about the life of Brian Clough.

The podcast episode also features a discussion with EPL Talk correspondent Eric Altshule who gives a mini-review of the film.

I was sitting in a plush screening room at the Sony Pictures Lot in Culver City, CA just a short walk down the hallway to anything and everything Spider-Man (hell, Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst may have been on premises for all I know – the studio lot was so infested with Spider-Man promos) but when The Damned United kicked-off I was no longer in warm Los Angeles.

Dirty, dirty Leeds. Dirty fucking Leeds. After reading David Peace's novel The Damned UTD these words cycled through my head for days. They work as an obsessive refrain in David Peace's account of Brian Clough's infamous 44 days as the manager of (dirty, dirty) Leeds.
I knew nothing about Clough, Leeds, and this bizarre story before reading Peace's novel - that I enjoyed the book, and felt as if Clough himself, in all his puerile genius, had wormed his way into my head is as good a testimony as I can give to the intensity and distinctiveness of Peace's writing.

Dirty, dirty Leeds. Dirty fucking Leeds. After reading David Peace's novel The Damned Utd these words cycled through my head for days. They work as an obsessive refrain in Peace's account of Brian Clough's infamous 44 days as the manager of (dirty, dirty) Leeds.

I knew nothing about Clough, Leeds, and this bizarre story before reading Peace's novel.

Sir Alex Ferguson is assured legendary status in football and his achievements have been recognised by football fans worldwide - even those that prefer spending their days playing Football Manager than playing football.

Ferguson topped a poll carried out by Sports Interactive (makers Football Manager 2010) with 26 per cent of the vote.

Man United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has been voted as the greatest football manager of all time. Sir Alex came ahead of some of the football greats such as Sir Alf Ramsey, Sir Bobby Robson and Sir Matt Busby.
This poll was carried out by the makers of Football Manager 2010, here are the top 10 football managers of all time, voted for by the public.

"The Damned United" is a movie that has been much talked about in the soccer community but hardly marketed within the soccer community, which will surly be their most interested group in a soccer hungry nation as the United States.

The film profiling the legendary Brian Clough will be opening tonight October, 23 at the Uptown Theaters with multiple play times and will continue through Thursday October, 29.

Sir Alex Ferguson has won 33 trophies in 22 years at the helm of Manchester United, and he was recently recognized for his tremendous success. The makers of Football Manager 2010 had Ferguson topping their poll of the Greatest Manager of All-Time.
The poll features other Knights of the Realm such as the late, great Sir Bobby Robson, Sir Matt Busby and Sir Alf Ramsey but despite their fine records, none of them can match Sir Alex's two decade long domination of the English game.

Limited edition print of Nottingham Forest legend Brian Clough The original portrait was painted by Nottingham artist Neil Heath in 2004. Each glossy print is numbered and signed by the artist. Sold unframed. Full Size: 42 cm x 31 cm Image Size: 30 cm x 21 cm £7.00 (inc UK P&P) Please allow up to 14 days for UK delivery.