Review of The Damned United

Brian Clough was one of Britain's greatest personalities. I am just about old enough to remember the buzz generated when he was interviewed on TV. Life and TV were grey but Cloughie was not. He sparkled and spoke his mind freely, where other pundits were too scared to do so; with so few channels many could not risk upsetting the status quo. For that reason a grateful nation admired and loved the bright young manager. Whatever his insight about football you respected it because he'd proved he knew what he was talking about. His teams won. And with limited resources he won big. This tells of the years Mr Clough achieved his greatest success and how through belligerence, pride, passion and belief he threw it all away. It does not however give insight into the man himself, which I believe should have been the core of the story. I am still non- the wiser as to what made Clough such a great team manager. Yes he had beliefs and conviction but his real talent was getting Derby County to play his way on the field, not his gift of TV chat. All of Mr. Clough success was based on his ability to motivate a team to outplay and outwit the wealthy and powerful. Watching the recent ITV Documentary 'Clough' calls attention to this point. Only one scene in the film touches on this, when he has a quiet word with players in the changing room before sending them out to do exactly what he'd asked against Leeds United. For me these scenes were real highlights I'd have liked more. Instead Dammed United leans heavily on the topsy-turvy relationship between Manager and Assistant Manager during this time to give the story narrative. To its credit this is not a film about football - but then even a few weeks after seeing it – I'm still not sure what it is about. It fails to give a insightful portrait of the man, manger or times. One last though is it did not make any attempt to compare today's soulless media controlled game with the old days – I'm sure Mr Clough would have had a lot to say about that.