As a player, Clough was a prolific striker for Middlesbrough F.C and Sunderland A.F.C, scoring 251 goals in 274 games before his career was ended by a broken leg. He played twice for England, without scoring.
He then went on to manage Hartlepool United F.C (with Peter Taylor as his assistant manager), before they both joined Derby County as manager and assistant manager in 1967. At Derby Clough and Taylor won promotion to the First Division (then the highest echelon of English football) and then won the First Division championship with Derby in the 1972 season.
After falling out with the board of directors at Derby, Clough and Taylor left the club. Together they spent a brief period at Brighton and Hove Albion F.C before Clough on his own took over as manager of Leeds United F.C when Don Revie was appointed manager of England. Clough was manager of Leeds for only 44 days before he was fired. He was then reunited with Taylor at Nottingham Forest. Forest went on to win one league championship (in 1978) before winning and retaining the European Cup in 1979 and 1980.
Many experts would consider that taking two relatively small and unfashionable clubs to such heights ranks as one of the great -- if not the greatest -- managerial achievements in the history of English football.
During these years, Clough was the English publics pick for manager of England, but he was never given the job by the Football Association, presumably because FA officials were nervous about his outspoken nature and habit of causing controversy.
Clough and Taylor fell out in 1984 when Taylor returned to manage Derby County.
Under Clough Forest also won the League Cup in 1978, 1979, 1989 and 1990, but he never won the FA Cup, losing in the final to Tottenham Hotspur F.C in 1991.
His stay at Forest ended in disappointment as the club was relegated in 1993.
In the year's prior to the relegation Clough's behaviour became increasingly erratic as he battled with -- a now acknowledged -- alcohol problem. In recent years Clough stopped drinking alcohol but in January 2003 a failing liver meant that he had to go into hospital for a liver transplant.
"Players lose you games, not tactics. There's so much crap talked about tactics by people who barely know how to win at dominoes," is one of Clough's many quotable comments.