Viv Anderson: ‘Clough was better than Ferguson’

Dubai: Brian Clough was a better coach than Sir Alex Ferguson, according to former defender Viv Anderson, who played under both managers at Nottingham Forest and Manchester United.

Clough and Ferguson both won two European Cups each and regularly divide opinion as to who was the better manager.

But speaking at ‘an audience with’ at West Beach Bistro at the Movenpick in Jumeirah Beach Residence on Saturday, Anderson attempted to draw a line under the debate. His comments coincide with last week’s release of a film on Clough’s reign at Forest called ‘I Believe in Miracles’.

“Both Ferguson and Clough were very similar, they both wanted to play football in the right way, on the floor and always entertaining, but if I had to pick the best manager it would be Cloughie, just because for that period in time he pulled off an unbelievable ask,” said the 59-year-old who made over 300 appearances for Forest between 1974 and 1984 before becoming Ferguson’s first signing at United in 1987.

“United had the best players, the best training ground and the best methods for doing things, whereas at Forest we were like Rag, Tag and Bobtail. We had to share the pitch with cows and all sorts.

“We had average attendances of 19,000, and players came in like Ian Bowyer and Frank Clarke on loans and free transfers. It was with those types of players that we went on and won back-to-back European Cups in 1979 and 1980.

“Having said that, Clough’s most successful spell at Forest only lasted five years, whereas Ferguson’s lasted over 20 years.

“Neither were tacticians,” he added of Clough, who died in 2004 aged 69 and Ferguson who retired in 2013 aged 71. “They were man managers, ask anyone at Forest or United, when the coach said ‘well done’ you thought ‘wow, I must have played well today’, players would run through walls for them and that tells you what was demanded of players and what they’d do for their coach.

“Clough would come in at quarter to three, pick up a ball, throw it at someone and say ‘you pass to him and that’s how you’ll win’ there were no tactics, just good players who knew what was expected of them. My job was to keep the wing,” said the former right back. “If I kick my marker and he doesn’t play we’ve got a chance of winning, it was as simple as that”.

Forest went 42 league games unbeaten to claim their only first division title in 1978. Arsenal, another of Anderson’s former sides, beat that record in 2004 when they went 49 games unbeaten. Asked which side was better, Anderson replied: “Have you seen the state of the pitches we used to play on? I don’t think that Arsenal team would get on the pitches we played on and win as many games. We thought at the time that record would never be beaten but that Arsenal side was a decent team.

“Everyone says: ‘it must have been great to have won two European Cups’ and of course it was, but in those days it took eight games to win it as opposed to the 13 it takes now with the group process. If you played badly on the night then you were out, it was cup tie all the time. So, out of all my achievements my proudest moment would have been winning the league because you can be lucky one week, but you can’t be lucky for nine months.”

Another of Anderson’s achievements was becoming the first black footballer to play for England in 1978, another triumph he holds Clough partly accountable for.

“In my second game under Clough we played Carlisle away and there were not that many black faces in Carlisle. I was sub and he told me to warm-up, so I warmed up and within five minutes I sat back down again. He said: ‘I thought I told you to warm-up,’ and I said: ‘I am but the crowd keep throwing bananas, apples and pears at me’. He said to me: ‘you get back out there and get me a pear and a banana’.

“There was a moral to that story, he said: ‘if you are going to let people like that rule your life you’ll never make it as a footballer, you’ll have to forget it and start playing football, which is what I’ve picked you to do’. So after that day it never worried me again what people said to me.

“It was clearly important,” he added of becoming the first black player to play for England, going on to win 30 caps from 1978 to 1988. “But first and foremost I just wanted to play for my country and that’s what every footballer wants to do, so I was delighted to be in the squad and determined to stay there.”

While black players are now in abundance thanks to Anderson’s pioneering, black managers are still a rarity however, and Anderson believes more needs to be done to encourage diversity in management.

“It’s an issue, 15-20 years ago I was a manager and it was only myself and Keith Alexander, who is sadly no longer with us. At the time they said we were the start of black managers taking full responsibility, but 20 years on and I think we’ve still only got three [it’s actually six] black managers. The Football Association need to look into this and whether it’s the Rooney Rule or whatever, we have to try something,” he said in reference to a NFL intervention named after Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, which requires clubs to at least interview a certain amount of ethnic minority candidates, in order to encourage equal opportunity. This rule does not enforce a quota or give preference to ethnic minorities however.

“It’s all about the owners,” he adds. “Whether you are black, green or purple, as long as you’ve got the qualifications to say you can manage a football club you should be given the opportunity. And that’s got to come from the top of whoever runs football.”