Over the Top with Brian Clough - The legendary former Derby and Nottingham Forest manager was a columnist for FourFourTwo from 2001 until his death in 2004 at the age of 69 - not all of his forecasts came true, though he was never short of an opinion...

The legendary former Derby and Nottingham Forest manager was a columnist for FourFourTwo from 2001 until his death in 2004 at the age of 69 - not all of his forecasts came true, though he was never short of an opinion...

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May 2003

I’ve been amazed at the furore about Alex Ferguson’s rage in the Manchester United dressing room that left David Beckham with a graze above his eye. Mrs Beckham didn’t help by encouraging her precious David to parade around Manchester the next day, satisfying the curiosity of the photographers. She should have gone for singing lessons – God knows she needs them.

I’ve kicked thousands of boots across the dressing room in frustration. People need to understand this is instant anger at work. You don’t have time and space to control your tremendous sense of disappointment in what is a passionate environment. Fergie had gone out of the FA Cup to his biggest rival, Arsenal, and I relate fully to how he must have felt. I punched Mark Crossley in the stomach after we lost 1-0 to Portsmouth in the FA Cup quarter-finals. Not because his blunder led to the goal, but because he’d spent the night in a police cell earlier in the week after getting involved in some daft incident in Barnsley. Crossley knew the rules and I thumped him. Probably not hard enough.

I did the same to Roy Keane, as he hadn’t followed my instructions in a game when he should have been listening. He was a loner at Forest and it was inevitable that he’d fall out with someone soon, so it may as well have been me. He did what he was told after that.

January 2003

I was known for putting my foot in it when I was a manager, but not even Old Big ’Ead could top Arsene Wenger’s comment that Arsenal could go through the entire season unbeaten in the Premiership.