Goooood piece by Jonathan Wilson here.

Evolution lies at the heart of longevity and Chelsea have spent the past five years simply not evolving. Perhaps Sir Alex Ferguson's greatest act of management was the culling of Paul Ince, Mark Hughes and Andriy Kanchelskis in 1995 after Manchester United had finished second in the league and lost in the FA Cup final.

BBC Sport Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger unhappy after loss to Fulham.

Over the past year or so, football experts have taken a shot at trying to troubleshoot Arsenal's predisposition to losing games which they had already had won. Many comments focused on the squad's lack of defensive strength but I have a different take on the problem

It's not the defenders that cause Arsenal's fragility, it's the attitude of the manager who almost never holds his players accountable for their mistakes, blames everyone else around him when they lose, and so consequently, his players have no fear.

Clough biographies have tended to be personal recollections by journalists who knew or were used by the great man at the time like Duncan Hamilton or Tony Francis. Wilson is a reporter from Sunderland who now writes for the Guardian and this claims to be the first full biography of Clough from birth to death.

Ep.21 Swan-upmanship by Off The Post on Mixcloud Much like Thierry Henry and Paul Scholes (and Jason Euell), the OTP Podcast is back in its rightful place – that place being, of course, one of ignorance, bias and second hand stats. This week the Pod are full of praise for Swansea's dismantling of Arsenal, Alex [.

My dear beloved Forest, what on earth has happened to us? We used to have such great times and were so happy together and now we just seem to be drifting apart. Your flowing moves used to excite me to the point of distraction, and the climax to those moves was often unbelievable. Your passion and commitment used to warm me on a cold Saturday afternoon when we spent time together, but now your caresses have become cold and uncaring.

My dear beloved Forest, what on earth has happened to us? We used to have such great times and were so happy together and now we just seem to be drifting apart. Your flowing moves used to excite me to the point of distraction, and the climax to those moves was often unbelievable. Your passion and commitment used to warm me on a cold Saturday afternoon when we spent time together, but now your caresses have become cold and uncaring.

Reports are reaching us that Nottingham Forest Head Coach (Driver) has landed himself in deep water. It seems that Steve Cotterill sought to emulate the late, great Brian Clough by driving the team coach to the FA Cup 3rd Round Replay at Leicester last week [...]

Let's face it, the most realistic way we have of seeing out this weekend without another defeat is if the weather forecast comes in at the more severe end of the prediction and we get the game snowed off. Rarely have I been able to muster up less optimism for a trip down Brian Clough Way despite a largely awful time of it contesting matches at Pride Park [.

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Larry Lloyd's Hard Man: Hard Game is one of the best accounts of Forest's golden years that I have read. I think Lloyd benefits hugely from having a female ghost writer. At the risk of being sexist, it just allows one of the hardest men I have ever met to admit to all sorts of things that I am not sure he would if he'd have played it safe and used a male sports journalist to help him write the book [.

Trailing MK Dons 1-0 at halftime, Bournemouth needed a kick in the pants to spur them on to victory in the second half. Usually, it's the manager who delivers a stirring team talk to achieve this, but in the Bournemouth dressing room on Saturday, it was the owner's wife who took it upon herself to address the team.

There were a couple of derbies on last week.

Liverpool played Everton in a battle for upper-mid-table supremacy. I'm sure it was on the box, and Liverpool won, but no one outside of Liverpool really cared. It cemented their grip on – what is it, seventh? They must have been delighted to have already qualified for Europe through the Carling Cup.

When I find myself in times of trouble Brian Clough is there for me Speaking words of wisdom Seven Three [...] Read the original post on Pissing Red

It's hard to talk about Nottingham Forest without talking about Brian Clough, no more so when it comes to books. Inevitably, Clough dominates the past four decades of the club so, with a heavy slant towards 'the greatest manager who ever lived', Seat Pitch brings you another 10 of the best [...] Read the original post on Seat Pitch

It was a dull and dreary night But not one week before When 'gainst opponents dressed in white The Forest failed to score Nor even make a half a chance To satisfy their fans And stood as if put in a trance To lose against the Rams [...]

By Chris Wright

It's Friday afternoon and you know what that means. It's 'footballers in daft hats' time...

Gary Lineker

Edwin van der Sar

Paul Ince

Brian Clough

Nigel Reo-Coker

Nicklas Bendtner

Dennis Wise and Geoff Thomas

George Best

Peter Beardsley

Zinedine Zidane

Lothar Matthaus

Bobby Moore

Colin Hendry

Ken Bates

Ken Bates (again)

Sir Alex Ferguson

Kevin Keegan

Garth Crooks and Ossie Ardilles

Ryan Giggs

Sir Bobby Charlton

Kenny Dalglish

Steven Gerrard

Sir Bobby Charlton (again)

Mario Balotelli

Gary Lineker (again)

John Motson

Arjen Robben

Ronaldinho

Roy Keane

Roy Keane (again) Since when has 'dressing Roy Keane up against his will and then arming him with an offensive weapon' been a good idea?

Two time European Cup winner Trevor Francis has suffered a suspected heart-attack.

Francis (57) became the first player to break the £1m transfer barrier between two British clubs when he moved from Birmingham City to Nottingham Forest for £1m and then went on to lift two European Cups with Forest under the great Brian Clough is said to be recovering well at Hospital.

It is now almost forty years since Bristol Rovers ran up one of the most remarkable unbeaten runs in the entire history of the Football League, and their attack at the time was one of the most feared around. Here's Paul Caulfield on a team that is fondly remembered by its supporters, and the strikers that took them to promotion from the Third Division.

Was Brian Clough the best manager England never had? - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

With the England manager's position currently available, and a recent track record of over-paid and under performing foreign managers, the nation is crying out for a talisman to lead the side to Euro 2012.

What next for Harry? - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Sunday night saw the news that Harry Redknapp must have been dreading since that fateful February day when he was acquitted of not paying his taxes and Fabio Capello resigned in a huff over John Terry and god knows what else. Harry, the darling of the press was passed over for the job he dearly longed for.