O’Neill must not repeat Clough’s intransigence

Considering how he loved throwing in an old Cloughie anecdote in his last gig, and he now occupies Old Big ’Ead’s old chair at the City Ground, we’ll start with another Martin O’Neill yarn from their time together, albeit one less romantic than the ones he was inclined to recount in recent years.

In Jonathon Wilson’s biography of Clough, Nobody Ever Says Thank You , there’s a passage describing a dressing room scene on the eve of the 1976-77 season where Clough is outlining his plans for the upcoming old Second Division campaign.