Editing Brian Clough (section)

====Resignation from Derby County====

On 27 April 1972, less than two weeks before taking Derby to the league title, Clough and Taylor had briefly resigned for a few hours to manage [[Coventry City F.C.|Coventry City]] before changing their minds after Longson offered them more money.

During the [[1973–74 Derby County F.C. season|1973–74 season]], on 11 October 1973, Longson called for the sackings of both Clough and Taylor at a board meeting, but did not gain the support that was needed. Earlier that week, Longson had demanded that Clough stop writing newspaper articles and making television appearances, and prohibited both Clough and Taylor drinking alcohol on Derby County premises. Two days later, following a 1–0 win against [[Manchester United F.C.|Manchester United]] at [[Old Trafford]], club director Jack Kirkland demanded to know what Taylor's exact role within the club was, and instructed Taylor to meet him at the ground two days later to explain. On the same day, Longson accused Clough of making a [[V-sign]] at Matt Busby and chairman [[Louis Edwards]] and demanded that he apologise. Clough refused, and admitted later that he did make a V-sign, but it was aimed at Longson, not Busby or Edwards: he blamed Longson for providing too few tickets and seating for players' and staff's wives, including his own and Taylor's.

Clough and Taylor hoped to oust Longson as chairman, as they had done with Ord seven years earlier, but failed. Both Clough and Taylor resigned on the evening of 15 October 1973, and the resignation was accepted by Sam Longson the following morning, to widespread uproar from Rams fans, who demanded the board's resignation along with Clough and Taylor's reinstatement at the following home game against Leicester City four days later. That evening, Clough appeared on ''[[Parkinson (TV series)|Parkinson]]'' and attacked football directors for their apparent "lack of knowledge" of football.

That week, Clough, as a television football pundit, memorably called [[Poland national football team|Poland]] goalkeeper [[Jan Tomaszewski]] a "circus clown in gloves" before the crucial [[FIFA World Cup|World Cup]] qualifier with England at Wembley.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/oct/12/jan-tomaszewski-poland-clown|title=Jan Tomaszewski: A man haunted for ever after being called a clown|first=Maciej|last=Slominski|date=12 October 2013|website=The Guardian|access-date=3 April 2018}}</ref> The match, which England had to win in order to qualify for the [[1974 World Cup]] finals, ended 1–1, and Tomaszewski made numerous magnificent saves, some of them unconventionally, to ensure his nation qualified for the finals at England's expense. When commentator [[Brian Moore (commentator)|Brian Moore]] said "You call him a clown, Brian, but he saved his side", Clough insisted "Would you want him in your team every week?"{{citation needed|date=May 2013}}

The six years at Derby County had brought Clough to the attention of the wider football world. According to James Lawton, "Derby was the wild making of Brian Clough. He went there a young and urgent manager who had done impressive work deep in his own little corner of the world at Hartlepools. He left surrounded by fascination and great celebrity: abrasive, infuriating, but plugged, immovably, into a vein of the nation."<ref>James Lawton, ''The Independent'', 10 January 2009</ref>