Cloughie

This is a statue of Brian Clough in the centre of Nottingham. Clough was a legendary manager who was a major trophy winner with both Derby County and Nottingham Forest. He won the European Cup in successive seasons with Nottingham Forest. He applied several times to manage England but was never appointed, probably because he wasn't afraid to speak his mind and was considered controversial at times. I suspect he would have had very trenchant views about the levels and sources of funding sloshing around football these days. The statue has a well known quote from him on its base - "if God had wanted us to play football in the clouds, He would have put grass up there". That was Clough bemoaning teams that simply punted the ball up the pitch, rather than playing a passing game searching out the key openings on the opponents' goal. Clough was an excellent player himself, scoring nearly a goal a game  in 270+ matches before injury brought a premature end to his career.