One football legend wasn’t known for his spell at Sunderland but admitted he was at his ‘happiest’ on Wearside.
Throughout the club’s history, Sunderland has been the home for many football legends, including Kevin Phillips, Niall Quinn, Jermain Defoe, Kevin Ball, Charlie Hurley, and Bobby Gurney, all of which made their name at Roker Park or the Stadium of Light, writing their names into Wearside folklore.
Rolling back the years to the 20th century, Sunderland’s Ball and Hurley take centre stage, but another man who spent time on Wearside during his career was the great Brian Clough.
The Nottingham Forest and Middlesbrough legend only notched 61 competitive appearances during his time at Roker Park, but one thing he said about his tenure in Sunderland showed just how much he loved the club and the fans.
Sunderland fans will love what the great Brian Clough said about his time on Wearside
Clough joined Sunderland back in 1961 for a sizeable £55,000 fee at the time after a prolific spell at Middlesbrough, where he scored 197 in 213 games, and he continued in that vein of goalscoring, bagging 54 during his 61 games for the Black Cats.
Unfortunately, Clough’s career was brought to a standstill after an injury that saw him tear his cruciate ligament, putting him out for the foreseeable until playing three games two years later, which signalled the early end to his career at just 29.
Despite the difficult ending to Clough’s time on Wearside, he still thought of his time at Sunderland incredibly fondly, having said: “The happiest time I ever spent at a football club was when I played for Sunderland.”
Brian Clough – The legendary manager that Sunderland never had
Clough was very vocal in the fact that he felt as though he missed a chance to manage Sunderland during his managerial career, spending a short period of time in the youth coaching set-up before moving on to Hartlepool United.
Apparently, per Roker Report, Clough once said he’d ‘crawl up the A19 over broken glass’ for the top job on Wearside, a brilliant quote that simply underlines the passion he had for the club.
The former Sunderland man certainly would have been a perfect mould for the Black Cats, but it’s safe to say that the European Cup-winning coach didn’t struggle for success elsewhere in his managerial career.