Jonny Gould Interviews: Peter Withe Part 4 (of 4)

Here's the concluding part of the Peter Withe Story in which he covers his highly successful coaching career in the Far East, never afraid to take on and complete a faraway football mission.

And he answers this: who was the greatest coach he played for, Ron Saunders or Brian Clough!

As a Villa fan, I'd love your feedback, so drop me a line below and thanks for watching.

Please share if you like the video. Many thanks!

Jonny Gould Interviews: Peter Withe Part 2 (of 4)

Here's the part 2 of our four-part series chronicling the remarkable career of Peter Withe. In this episode, Peter discusses his departure from Nottingham Forest, soon after winning the League and League Cup, his move to Newcastle - and the background to his Aston Villa transfer, which saw him scale the heights of European football.


Part 1 is available here

This is a Sportsmedia co-production with John Warrington. Peter's life story written with Simon Goodyear is out now.

Is Appleton really Blackburn's Messiah?

Jobsite! It's Appleton's favourite website

As Blackburn Rovers appoint Michael Appleton as their new boss, where's this hyperactive game of managerial musical chairs taking us? 

Blackpool granted him permission to speak to Rovers - despite only being at Bloomfield Road two months.

Before that, he spent 10 minutes at Portsmouth and had a quick trip round West Bromwich Albion on the coaching staff.

Fans on Stadium Tours get more accustomed to the surroundings!

Collecting a CV quicker than you get your holiday snaps developed is a symptom of trigger happy chairmen's impatience. They're sacking bosses because they’re perceived not to be big enough characters. It used to just be about getting results. Now bosses get boned because they’re not more famous.

Stepping into that vacuum is someone like Michael Appleton, highly rated in the game largely because he’s not got anything wrong yet – because he's not done much except drive around the country signing coaching contracts.

Sean O'Driscoll left Nottingham Forest on the edge of the Championship play-offs having beaten Leeds 4-2 - and replaced by Alex McLeish. Flippin' Eck, you might say!

He's got more tracksuits than Sports Direct

The former Birmingham and Aston Villa boss is supposed to be more capable of dealing with the rigours of the January transfer window.

Next thing, Forest get beaten 3-2 at home by Oldham, a team further down the Football League and the decision looks cack-handed to say the least.

The Championship's jittery because owners and chairmen all realise the riches of the newly-capitalised Premier League would provide their club with even bigger cash injections than before. Television revenues are set to increase by a whopping 70%.

Leeds United and Nottingham Forest have both changed ownership because of it and the inexperience of the new custodians makes the manager's life even more precarious than it was before.

So as Rovers sign up Appleton, they seem perfect bedfellows. Neither has a gameplan.

Play-offs would've stopped English football's greatest story

I overheard a conversation about Nottingham Forest last night. A casual observer asked if Forest had finished third in this season's Championship, why Blackpool, three places and nine points behind them would be in the Premier League instead of them next season?

The Tangerines, who on the last day of the season clinched the final playoff place, beat two teams in a knockout competition at the end of a rigorous campaign. Basically, Blackpool came into form at the right time as Forest got tired. The team who finish sixth often win promotion. When it was explained to the observer why the playoffs existed, "money" was the predictable, but truthful answer given.

Which reminds me. In 1977, Forest also secured third place in the same division to claim their place among the elite. There were no playoffs then. The rest, as they say, is history.

What came next was one of the most extraordinary ascents to the game's summit ever seen.

Brian Clough's men stormed all before them: signing Peter Shilton and Kenny Burns in the close-season, Forest went on to complete an astonishing League Championship and League Cup double followed by a successful defence of the League Cup and the first of two successive European Cups. Trevor Francis became the first million pound player and journeymen like John Robertson, Archie Gemmill and Tony Woodcock became football's biggest stars.

I'm not saying Billy Davies' charges would have done the same thing had they been promoted, but it's highly questionable if the extraordinary events would've unfolded for Cloughie's men had they been forced to play three more games at the end of a tough campaign, and just to earn the promotion they'd already won on merit.

There aren't relegation playoffs anymore as defeat for the vanquished is too painful, the drama too acute. Remember the riots at the Chelsea v Middlesbrough game at Stamford Bridge all those years ago? The conventional wisdom is that playoffs should be about a positive prize - promotion to the higher league. And that tired metaphor about the Premier League's Promised Land.

But given the history of Nottingham Forest, I am not sure about the play-offs at all.

Click here for the current Top Story

Soccermongery's all about your feedback, so write away, right away!

The Clough name lives on at Derby

By JOE MORRIS (making his Soccermongery debut). Joe takes a look at the Cloughs, their bond with each other - and Derby.

The relationship between father and son is always a special one, but for Nigel Clough the bond with his dad, Brian, could never be broken. Father and son were never less than best friends and you somehow knew that one day Nigel would do exactly; the same job as his doting dad.

Earlier this month, Nigel Clough became the new manager of Derby County, 42 years after Ol' Big 'Ead breezed into the old Baseball Ground. In 1967 Clough senior was an unknown, Derby were struggling at the wrong end of the old Second Division and a band from Liverpool were conquering the world.

After serving a stern 10-year apprenticeship at non-league Burton Albion, a boy called Nigel has been catapulted into the deep end at Championship club Derby County. Which is roughly where Clough senior came in. By the end of Brian Clough's career both Derby County and Nottingham Forest had become household names with trophies galore.

Brian Clough won League championships in abundance with both Derby and Forest, boasting one of the most identifiable of voices. He was forthright, opinionated, an infuriating nuisance at times but always accessible to both the public and media alike. He once called an eccentric Polish goalkeeper a clown, hollered obscenities at his players when close season training wasn't going according to plan, and in a League Cup match against QPR, lashed out at Rangers supporters.

In their Carling Cup semi-final against Manchester United last week, Nigel Clough sat quietly in the Directors Box remembering the good times with dad. In contrast to his controversial father, Nigel, it would seem, is an altogether different footballing boss. It remains to be seen whether Nigel will tell his players exactly what he thinks of them and whether cups and saucers are thrown in the dressing room.

Clough junior, apart from bearing an uncanny resemblance to Ol' Big 'Ead, is also a devoted family man. He will set out his footballing theories, put a sympathetic hug around his players when things go pear-shaped and then undoubtedly demand three points and the Champions League trophy

When he was at Burton Albion all Clough had to deal with was a postage stamp sized ground, little or no money for new players and the electricity bills. Non-league clubs are the poor relations in football's great pyramid, so when he takes his place for his first match as Derby boss the culture shock may just startle him.

He will climb into the Pride Park dug out, take in the glamorous surroundings and wonder what he's letting himself for. In the old days Derby's Baseball Ground would often resemble a gravel pit. Brian Clough would walk out on the pitch, politely applaud his adoring supporters and then watch his much revered side including John McGovern, Archie Gemmell, Kevin Hector and John O'Hare.

The task that faces son Nigel is entirely different and this time there are no European cups or League Championships on the immediate horizon. There is no Peter Taylor to confide in when the boys are under-achieving, only a reliable back room staff to hand out reassurance.

When Nigel the younger was growing up, dad Brian would often take him to to all the matches. You can still see the little boy in shorts sitting excitedly next to his dad and just smiling. True Brian Clough was a master motormouth, tactlessness personified and a man with no regard for the niceties. But he taught his players all of the game's finer virtues and he also encouraged them to treat the ball like a favourite uncle.

If Nigel Clough can make half the same impact as his monumentally successful dad then Derby County could well be back in the big time in no time. During one League encounter against Manchester City, a groundsman had to run on to the pitch to paint a penalty spot.

From the resultant penalty Derby scored. Brian Clough would have seen the funny side of that one isolated incident. If Nigel Clough can keep looking at the bright side of life then Derby County could be grinning from ear to ear.

Soccermongery's all about your feedback, so write away, right away!

No takers for Everton. Liverpool in financial danger. The Premier League promises to look very different in the future.

Keith Harris, who's sold five Premier League clubs in his time admits to having two hopes of selling Everton:

No Hope and Bob Hope.

Everton chairman Bill Kenwright instructed Harris of merchant bank, Seymour Pierce, to find new investors after admitting the club couldn't keep borrowing. They've yet to finance the new stadium at Kirkby.

Harris explained it's not a rich city and Everton's cause isn't helped by sharing it with Liverpool either. Which brought him onto Liverpool and the subject of this piece: Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United really do play in the red!

Harris is concerned that the Reds' huge £350million debt with two stricken banks Wachovia and RBS, are due for repayment in January. They've an option to renew for another six months - but time is running short for Liverpool owners Messrs. Hicks and Gillett, to transfer the debt from done-for banks to other super-rich individuals.

Manchester United are £two-thirds of a billion in debt, following the Glazer takeover although United is probably the most multi-layered football business in the world, so it should be okay. They've just got to keep winning!

Chelsea's debt is owed to Roman Abramovich and is interest-free, so they're either here to stay or will fall like a house of cards.

So as the swirling winds of economic turmoil threaten to blow the tops off football's leading houses, it's time for a lofty prediction!

Football's great believers and idealogues will start winning trophies at the expense of debt-laden monsters.

Who couldn't have been immensely impressed by Wenger's kids mashing up all before them in the League Cup this season? And by the time they're 21-year-old first-teamers, Liverpool's debt will have been re-structured and some of their best players may have been sold off.

Arsenal with only £260million of debt, and that to pay for the Emirates (at 5% per annum) are so well-poised to dominate.

That's "good debt" compared with other big three. Huge matchday revenues, increased sponsorship opportunities and secondary rights sales. Looking good, Arsenal.

I take them to win the title either next season or definitely the year after! And once they do, they can dominate for a while.

Aston Villa can take advantage too. The very best chairman - supportive, committed, low-profile. A manager who's been there and done it, as both a player and a boss. Huge supporter-base. Non-controversial. Aston Villa have also done it before!

As football evolves from a debt-led orgy of win today to a more egalitarian lesser-leveraged future, football's great planners and dreamweavers will win the day.

We may never return to a period of such austerity that allowed Nottingham Forest to jump from 3rd in Division 2 to Champions of Europe in two years, but one thing is for sure, football men with football ideas will have more chance of producing winning teams without always being trumped by Big Spending Giants.

In the spirit of Brian Clough, the sport may be about to become much more competitive. As football fans, we can all raise a glass to that!