News about Nigel Clough

ONE CALL STADIUM ROSS HEPPENSTRALL: John Radford, a local businessman, bought Mansfield Town for £1 in September 2010, he celebrated with a 4-0 home win over Eastbourne Borough. Just 2,312 fans turned up. At the time, the Stags were languishing in the Conference. Mansfield's fourth decade, some significant investment, and three sons later, the chairman and his glamorous wife Carolyn are trying to push Mansfield into the third class.

LEWIS STEELE — As Brian Clough was under media pressure to withdraw his son Nigel from the Nottingham Forest XI, a difficult situation in which the younger Clough later admitted he regretted not to put his dad through, the boss said, 'Well, I think he's a nice young man.' Give Him A Ball (And A Yard Of Grass), the Irish band Sultans of Ping, later wrote a B-side about the Forest era, which included the phrase, "He's a nice young man with a lovely smile." Clough is still a kind man with a lovely smile, but the 57-year-old isn't young anymore. He celebrated 25 years as a manager this year. And with his Mansfield team flying, 2024 might be able to bring another fine achievement to the dugout.

During a minute's silence ahead of Notts County's 4-1 loss at Meadow Lane on Saturday, spectators appeared to be overheard screaming "f*** Palestine." It comes amid the escalating war between Israel and Palestine, which has claimed the lives of thousands of civilians. The Magpies had already announced on their club website that there would be a moment of silence in honor of those who had passed away.

IAN LADYMAN: About every one of us in football management has fallen at some point. And if you do, it's all about your ability to bounce. And that, in turn, is dependent on your hunger, your passion, and your willingness to devote a substantial portion of your life and energy to football. Some people can't do it. Or not will it be. We're out of them. Or they appear on television. Some people refuse to allow go, so they will be kicked off the ride. They continue to do the best they can and hope that it brings them right where they want to be. Owen Coyle did just that. He followed the course. From England to the United States and back to England. To Scotland, India, and, now, Scotland, where something much more significant is being introduced.

LEWIS STEELE: As the Football League returned from its World Cup hiatus last month, Sportsmail published a column in which each division addressed the promotion and relegation fights. Unlike previous years, League Two does not have a basket-case team,' it read. It's time to rewrite that argument. Crawley Town (pictured): Welcome to the band of basket cases. Macclesfield, Southend, Oldham, Bury, and Scunthorpe fans deserve a bit more. We know the script: a lack of judgement by a charlatan owner and, in the correct direction, a team that is ineffective enough to stay in the Football League. In a revealing chat with Sportsmail, owner Preston Johnson, the maker of a cryptocurrency sports company, says, 'It's been a tough first year.' We were thrown into the deep end and have been trying to learn to swim on the fly for the first time ever.' Crawley is flopping against the tide without a life raft and is in danger of sinking.

Maguire scored an own goal on the forward's debut against Coventry aged 17, while his own future seemed to be promising following a call-up from the Italian youth team. In the end, the Manchester United captaincy and World Cup herodom was more concerned with his Mate rather than De Girolamo. But when non-league Buxton visits Ipswich Town in the FA Cup second round on Sunday in the hopes of a victory, he might make some of his own headlines.

GRAEME SOUNESS: Nigel Clough died this week, and football is a different place now than the one where our team and his team went head-to-head this week - no quarter has been spared. We have directors of football, as well as heads of scouting and recruitment committees. There's no chance that Clough would have accepted any of them. He was a boss in the full sense of the word. He ruled and oversaw virtually every facet of that football team. And he did all the talking. It's difficult to imagine him at the modern Forest, who has signed 22 players in the summer. Steve Cooper's incredible job of moving the team from the bottom of the Championship to the Premier League in fewer than eight months, and club owner Evangelos Marinakis was screaming that the team was'ready for trophies'.