Boycott talks about his close friend Brian Clough who stood like a rock for him. He offered advise and pointed out mistakes. Brian wasn’t a cricketer. He played football. Brian Clough was introduced to Boycott by Brian Close. He used to visit the games that was played at Scarborough and Clough watched the game not for fun but to understand. Boycott and Brian met at the latter’s house regularly. Brian wanted to talk cricket and Boycott wanted to talk football.
Brian became the manager for the club County where he introduced several measures like breaks or holidays for the players and staff. Some of his decisions were revolutionary. They would go off to Spain because the time that the players spent with the coach was 8 months which was a longtime. There is and will always be a need to keep the players and the support staff fresh because constant travelling and exposure to the same set of people is bound to take its toll. Sometimes, the club will block some of Brian’s ambitious holiday plans. He always had the intention of watching Mohammed Ali fight which was fulfilled in 1973.
Managing skills
Boycott praises Brian’s man management skills. When Boycott was going through the 3-year break from playing for England, he used to ask whether Alec Bedser, the chairman of selectors had been in touch. Boycott told him that he calls once in a blue moon. Brian replied that if he were the chairman, he would sit with Boycott and convince him to play for England because at that point, he was England’s best batsman. Brian’s gift was to understand people. Boycott goes onto describe his people skills with an example. Nottingham Forest played Liverpool in 1978. Forest lost to Liverpool in the first leg.
During the 2nd leg, the Forest players were terrified of Liverpool. On the way to the game, Brian asked his players to drink beer and smoke if they were smokers so that they would not think about the game. He took great personal risk knowing that he would be crucified if Forest lost. Forest drew the game and went through to the next round and eventually won the European Cup. It could not have happened if not for Brian’s stroke of genius on that bus trip to the game.
Brian gave players absolute belief in their abilities. He was that good with people. He has this knack of saying what to say and when to say. In a game, Brian played Alan Hinton who was afraid of tackling. He reasoned that he picked him not because he could tackle but because he wanted him to pass the ball onto the centre forward’s head and that Hinton was brilliant in that. Brian clearly saw what a player’s strength was.
Leeds United
Later on, Brian joined Leeds United as the coach. There were reporters beside his office wanting to interview him and Boycott went there too. Brian refused to meet the press and took Boycott with him which goes to show the kind of friendship those two had.
Brian missed the services of Peter Taylor at Leeds. It was always Peter who stayed with the players and he was able to spot trouble quickly. Brian wasn’t liked at Leeds United because of the earlier comments he made about the players. It caused resentment and anger. He did not have a great time at Leeds United and was sacked after just 44 days on the job.
Regret
One sore note in Brian’s CV was that he never managed to become the manager of the biggest club, Manchester United. This was despite the fact that the club went through 4 managers during their troublesome period. Brian said that if he had become the manager of MU, he would have shown the players all the trophies that they won and would have shut the cabinet down. He would have told them that we would have to make new memories and not rest on past laurels. He placed a lot of importance on discipline. No swearing or arguing with the referee. Brian summed up football in a peculiar way. “You get the ball, play it on the floor, not in the sky, you play in their half more than in your own, and you put the ball in their net more than they put it in yours”.
Great coaches know how to breakdown the sport into its component parts. Brian was also quick to own upto mistakes. He once bought Gary Megson for 176,000 GBP but Gary did not get to play a single game and was eventually sold to Newcastle. Brian took the blame on himself for the wrong purchase. Brian’s former players were all praise for him which means he must have done something right.
Towards later stages, Brian was addicted to alcohol and lost all drive in life. While Boycott was away in Singapore for a commentary stint, Nigel, told him that his dad passed away. The family waited for Boycott to deliver the eulogy during the ceremony.
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