Clough at Leeds makes a top read

Aug 26 2007 by Michael Kelly, Sunday Sun

THE DAMNED UNITED by David Peace is published in paperback by Faber and Faber, priced at £7.99.

WHEN Brian Clough became manager of Leeds United in 1974, it was as unlikely a move as the Reverend Ian Paisley becoming the chaplain at Celtic FC.

Clough, for whom the phrase “controversial manager” was invented, had led unfashionable Derby County to a League title two years before.

He was also a TV pundit and newspaper columnist who reserved much of his venom for Don Revie’s Leeds, labelling them dirty cheats in his kinder moments.

Clough lasted 44 days at the West Yorkshire club, and it is this short time span that author David Peace based this semi-fictional account of the move in his book The Damned United.

Using books, biographies and autobiographies previously published about the principle characters and events as rich source material, it proves a compelling read, as Peace’s first person narrative gives a stark insight into the tortured genius of Clough and the murky, macho world of football.

Interspersing the story with flashbacks to the manager’s previous stint with Derby, it turns out part thriller, part tragedy as, despite his obvious failings, you come to care deeply for Clough who is doomed to inevitable failure due to the Banquo-like presence of Revie that pervades the club and the revolt of some of the senior players.

Billy Bremner and Johnny Giles do not come out of this book well, which will surprise few followers of 1970s football, excluding Leeds fans.

In the end you almost wish that Peace could have re-written history and have the unlikely marriage of Clough and Leeds end happily, despite his arrogance, deceptions, and re-fuelling habits . . . his smoking and drinking leave you feeling hungover and wheezy by the end.

It was not to be of course, though happily he reminds us that the late Boro-born legend did go on to greater glory with Nottingham Forest.

It would be doing it an injustice to call The Damned United a great football book.

It is a great book, one of the best I’ve ever read, and one that sports fans and non-sports fans alike can enjoy. By MIKE KELLY