KING CLOUGH MAKES HIS FOREST EXIT

BRIAN CLOUGH announced his retirement at the end of the 1992-93 season, as his Nottingham Forest team were relegated from the Premier League.

But nobody could dispute the incredible success ‘Old Big ’Ead’ had brought to the City Ground during his 18 years in charge.

He led the the East Midlands club out of the old Second Division and transformed the whole set-up. With his sidekick Peter Taylor in tow, they stunned English football.

In Forest’s first season in the top flight – 1977-78 – they won the First Division title and the League Cup. Clough became the first manager since Herbert Chapman, more than 40 years earlier, to win the league title with two clubs.

The following year, Forest won the European Cup, a feat they repeated the next season. Clough’s audacious management saw Forest make striker Trevor Francis the first £1million player, when he joined them from Birmingham.

Clough (above) always maintained his greatest achievement came with the recordbreaking run Forest set by going 42 league games undefeated.

That record stood until August 2004, a month before Clough’s death, when Arsenal went 49 league games without defeat.