'I got a few kisses and a few rollickings from Brian Clough: I travelled on the bus with Nottingham Forest, but once he marched me out of the dressing room' – Clive Tyldesley on working with English football's most famous managers
Former ITV commentator Clive Tyldesley had a good grounding, working with legend of the game Brian Clough at the start of his career
(Image credit: PA)
Clive Tyldesley has worked in football for 49 years – right at the very start, he had an eye-opening experience with the great Brian Clough.
The famous commentator's first job came at Radio Trent, where he happened to be in the right place at the right time, shortly after Brian Clough had been appointed as Nottingham Forest manager.
The club were going nowhere in the Second Division at the time, but would go on to gain promotion, then win the First Division, then win the European Cup for two seasons in succession – even if Tyldesley moved on to Radio City in Liverpool midway through their rise.
VIDEO: How Liverpool Just Destroyed Man United
"I came out of university in the late 17th century… 1975, and talked my way into a runner’s job at a radio station that was opening in Nottingham, just to make the tea and feel part of the industry," Tyldesley said, in an interview in the latest issue of FourFourTwo magazine.
"I had a late night rock show for a while, but I wanted to work in football. As fate would have it, Nottingham Forest were a mid-table Second Division team who’d recently taken on Brian Clough, little knowing that within five years they’d be successfully defending the European Cup.
"It was an era when a local reporter was much closer to the club – I used to travel on the Nottingham Forest team bus to away games, I socialised with the players.
Get FourFourTwo Newsletter
The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
"The same was true when I got my second job in Liverpool – probably with the best team in the world, but I’d still be out having lagers after the match with these guys, and travelling on the team coach with the mighty Liverpool."
At Radio Trent, dealing with Clough was eventful. "It was a good grounding – he was very difficult and demanding, he was drinking and that did affect his mood swings," Tyldesley said. "I got a few kisses and a few rollickings, sometimes there was rarely anything in between.
"I remember doing an interview with Martin O’Neill at maybe 2pm on a Thursday at the City Ground, we were trying to find somewhere quiet to do the interview and went into the first-team dressing room.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
"Brian walked past, marched me out of there and said 'Are you in my team?' I said 'No, Mr Clough'. He said 'Well, you do not come into this dressing room, this is for the manager and the players of Nottingham Forest, not for anybody else'."
Tyldesley and O'Neill became good friends during that era, and have recently launched a podcast together, The Football Authorities, available to listen to now on Global Player or wherever you get your podcasts, with new episodes available weekly
Chris joined FourFourTwo in 2015 and has reported from 20 countries, in places as varied as Jerusalem and the Arctic Circle. He's interviewed Pele, Zlatan and Santa Claus (it's a long story), as well as covering the World Cup, Euro 2020 and the Clasico. He previously spent 10 years as a newspaper journalist, and completed the 92 in 2017.
