Brian Clough was Nottingham Forest’s driving force during 18 years in charge at the City Ground, which delivered one league title, four League Cups and famously two European Cups.
While Clough dominated proceedings with the force of his personality, his assistant manager Peter Taylor was often regarded as the brains in the background, also crucial to the club’s success.
Today, owner Evangelos Marinakis has similarly been a driving force via his strong personality, as the club have not only returned to the Premier League, but now qualified for Europe.
Nuno: the new Peter Taylor?
Head coach Nuno Espirito Santo has done a fine job at the City Ground but in a lower profile way than Clough, while Marinakis has taken most of the headlines.
In many ways, while their respective roles at the club are far from the same, Marinakis has occupied the brief of the more combative Clough, while Espirito Santo has been the astute Peter Taylor figure.
“Nuno’s role is more akin to that, it would be fair to say,” Forest legend Stuart Pearce told FourFourTwo, having spent much of his City Ground career under Clough.
“When I was there with Cloughie, he dominated the board – that’s gone now, that’s finished in football.
“We’ve got an owner at Forest, he’s hands on, he’s put his money into the club, he’s achieved great things at the club.
“After 23 years outside of the Premier League, you can’t knock what he’s done and the finance he’s put into the club. He’s passionate about the club and the success he’s bringing to it, so credit to him.
“The other side of that is that Nuno has handled it brilliantly – maybe the working relationship might not be easy, maybe Nuno pulls his hair out at times, but it seems to be working and Nuno handles it brilliantly well.”
Pearce was speaking as part of the launch of CLUB game, a free-to-play next-gen football owner mobile game from Formation Games – allowing players to become the owner of the club rather than merely the manager, like many games in the past.
It’s indicative of the shifting balance of power in football, between managers and owners.
“We’re very aware of who owns football clubs now,” Pearce said. “Going back years, as a player, I wasn’t sure who owned certain other clubs around the league. Now we’re acutely aware who owns most clubs right through the Premier League and beyond.
“The profile of ownership has got bigger, owners want it as part of their profile as well, there’s a more visible and vocal presence from the ownership, and the power of the owners have become vast.
“In fact even the name ‘manager’ now, they call us coaches instead, which tells you everything.
“But when I managed Manchester City for example, I always liked to involve the owner in the process anyway, they’d always get invited to the training ground.
“The two people I worked with there, I used to invite John Wardle and David Bernstein in on a Friday morning, when we were doing our prep meetings, to come in and have a listen to our focus on the opposition.
“That way, they were aware of the process rather than turning up on a Saturday, sitting there and thinking ‘Have we not worked on set plays? Have we not done this?’.
“I was always very open as a manager and I enjoyed their company coming into the training ground to know the process, because everyone was part of what we were trying to achieve.
“Also from my point of view it was an easier selling point, when I was saying to them, ‘Look I need this piece of equipment’. They could come in and see why we needed it.”
Gibbs-White key for Forest
Marinakis helped Nottingham Forest to retain Morgan Gibbs-White this summer, despite Spurs attempting to trigger his release clause.
"Maybe behind the scenes they’ve given him the odd assurance of ‘Look, if an offer comes up for you next summer...',” Pearce said.
“But from a player’s point of view, and from someone who’s got Forest at heart, I think Forest have been good for Gibbs-White, he’s played the best football of his career there.
“The club are on the up, they’re in Europe and to keep hold of him was the right thing for him and the right thing for the club.
“He’s given good service, but sometimes you have to repay loyalty to the fans as well, so hopefully everything’s settled down and he’ll be driving on in Europe this season.
“I think Forest have got a tough season ahead of them with the European campaign, I saw it for myself when I coached at West Ham, it’s not easy to run both campaigns.
“If they finish lower in the league it wouldn’t surprise me, but I think they’re equipped to have a really good run in Europe.”
Pearce was speaking on behalf of next-gen Fantasy Football mobile game CLUB. Download CLUB now and start building your football legacy. Available free-to-play from the Play Store for Android and App Store on iOS
