The Brian Clough Challenge

[Linecoigne1998]

One of the greatest success stories in football: Brian Clough
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View attachment 145266Brian Clough was an English manager who was mostly known for taking Championship side Nottingham Forest to the Premier League title in 1977 and two back-to-back Champions League titles in 1978 and 1979. Before that, he managed Derby County and also got them promoted from the Championship before winning the Premier League and going all the way to the Champions League semi-final. I've been seeing a lot of Sir Alex Ferguson challenge threads lately and I thought why not start another challenge but not with Ferguson because that one is so common. Brian Clough's story with Nottingham is probably the most incredible story in English football after Sir Alex Ferguson in terms of how impressive his achievements were so I decided to start this challenge. I've seen a few threads from a couple of years ago who had their go at this but I'm going to change the rules a little bit.

Rules:

- Simulate until the 6th of January (he took over at Nottingham on the 6th of January 1975) - Take over the team in 13th place in the Championship (Nottingham were 13th when he took over) - Win the Premier League within 3 and a half years - Win the Champions League within 4 and a half years - Win back to back Champions Leagues - Do the Premier League-Capital One Cup double when winning first Premier League

It's going to be a tough challenge, especially to get a double just 3 and a half years into the save so it'll require a lot of work but if Brian Clough did it in real life, who says I can't in Football Manager! Without further ado, let's get started.

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UP NEXT: THE CLUB I'LL BE TAKING OVER ALONG WITH A SQUAD OVERVIEW
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[ekul785]

I'm interested to see which team you get

good luck mate, sounds like a great challenge especially with the time constraints.

 

[Nomadic]

Never seen someone attempt this challenge before, but am liking the sound of it!

Will be following

 

[Kobe631]

Sounds awesome!
Don't know if you know the movie "The Damned United" but saw it again recently, absolutely loving the Clough story!
Good luck!

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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Championship club welcomes new manager

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So my new club is Fulham FC. Arguably the strongest team in the Championship, I couldn't have landed on any better team. They already have a strong squad and getting promoted to the Premier League shouldn't be too hard, the challenge will be the win the first division! Coming up next, squad overview.

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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Meet the team:

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Goalkeepers

View attachment 14479720 Maarten Stekelenburg 33 years old Dutch 197 cm 84 kgs View attachment 144763

Backup: Marcus Bettinelli

Centre-backs

View attachment 1447956 Essaid Belkalem 27 years old Algerian 191 cm 88 kgs View attachment 144792	View attachment 1447945 Richard Stearman 28 years old Irish 188 cm 78 kgs View attachment 144791
Backup: Tim Ream, Nikolay Bodurov, Michael Madl, David Wheater	Backup: Tim Ream, Nikolay Bodurov, Michael Madl, David Wheater

Full-backs

View attachment 14479013 Tim Ream 28 years old American 186 cm 73 kgs View attachment 144788	View attachment 1447897 Ryan Fredericks 23 years old English 182 cm 70 kgs View attachment 144787
Backup: Sean Kavanagh, Kay Voser	Backup: Michael Madl, Kay Voser, Ashley Richards

Defensive and centre midfielders

View attachment 14478515 Michael Madl 27 years old Austrian 182 cm 77 kgs View attachment 144783	View attachment 1447848 Scott Parker 35 years old English 180 cm 70 kgs View attachment 144782
Backup: Scott Parker, Lasse Vigen Christensen, Emerson Hyndman	Backup: Lasse Vigen Christensen, Emerson Hyndman, Tom Cairney

Attacking midfielders (and wingers)

View attachment 14477817 George Williams 20 years old Welsh 172 cm 73 kgs View attachment 144772	View attachment 14477644 Ross McCormack 29 years old Scottish 175 cm 88 kgs View attachment 144770	View attachment 14477523 Chris Burke 32 years old Scottish 176 cm 69 kgs View attachment 144767
Backup: Luke Freeman, Ross McCormack	Backup: Luke Freeman, Emerson Hyndman	Backup: Ross McCormack, Tom Cairney

Strikers

View attachment 14476216 Cauley Woodrow 21 years old English 184 cm 78 kgs View attachment 144760

Backup: Ross McCormack, Moussa Dembélé, Adam Taggart

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A very strong side already in what looks like a very decent tactic to keep for now. Our first game against Reading will give us a good reason to try out some things and hopefully get a win. Woodrow and Ream have been in fantastic form this season already so I intend to use them to their full ability and potential so we can really get this season started and bring some cheer to the fans. Next up, the rest of January and maybe some transfer updates if we make any moves in the transfer window!
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[Linecoigne1998]

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View attachment 144575 January review

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A good start to my Fulham career and we manage to advance to the next round of the FA Cup which is satisfying. I was really expecting a win though so it's good that we got one in my first game in charge.

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A disappointing defeat for my first league game in charge but we were very good on the field out there and Wolverhampton basically won because Afobe is an amazing striker. Congratulations to him he played really well but now we just need to look ahead and work hard for our next game.

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A very solid win to make up for our loss last week. Luke got some game time today since McCormack got a small injury and he did really well. I'll definitely consider playing him in the future and again, great away performance from the lads today. Cauley getting injured is a big blow for us but Moussa Dembélé can come in now and prove me why he deserves a place in the first-team.

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Absolutely smashed em'! Really good performance from the lads again and I can't believe Richard of all people got 2 assists! When I came in I said we had one of the strongest teams if not the strongest team in the league in my opinion so it's really good to see that we can actually show people that now. The fans were really happy about the result and so was I so happy days.

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Well, at least we tried. It gives me a lot of hope for the future if we get promoted to the Premier League at some point and I'm just very proud of the boys today, they gave it their all and gave Swansea a really tough time so I can't wait till we face another Premier League team again.

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So we've gone up 2 places in the league table since I took over on the 6th of January which is definitely promising. We're not that many points away from the promotion spots so I'm excited for the next few months at this club and see how far we can go!

View attachment 144545A pretty good month for us if you don't include the loss to Wolverhampton. Really great performances against Hull and Huddersfield though and those are the kind of matches that make me think that we really are a great side capable of great things in this division and even the Premier League.

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So our player of the month is Ryan Fredericks . He's been working really hard down the right-hand side as our right-back and has definitely been our best performer this month. A 6.8 minimum rating really does go to show how good he's been and now I just can't wait till next month to see how else is going to play so well and bring us some points.

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[Nffcgem91]

I'm a massive die hard Nottingham Forest fan so I will enjoy reading this. Sounds like a good challenge, Watch the I believe in miracles film it's based on Brian Clough's success.