Zach Clough is a name that grinds on the teeth of many Nottingham Forest fans. To those that don’t know, he’s our budget Mesut Ozil. Ability, yes, big wages, yes, bomb squad, oh yes… But what happened to the Manchester born Midfielder? Why the years of misery sat undusted on the side lines and why did he become one of the football clubs most expensive ever flops?

Rumours overnight have circled that Wigan Athletic are interested in the 25-year-old (yes he’s still only that young) who is out of contract at the end of this season, and the North-West club will bid to end his City Ground nightmare by taking on the player should he agree a move to the DW Stadium, but the latics are a club themselves in financial disorder, administration means that there won’t be a transfer fee or big wages and there will be more uncertainty ahead for a player that cost Nottingham Forest around £3m four years ago with weekly take home rumoured to be upwards of £30k a week.

Clough was a hot prospect at Bolton Wanderers, then struggling in the Championship before relegation to League One, the youngster nicknamed the Denton Messi would be one of few bright sparks scoring 22 goals in 68 games and alerting some top clubs along the way. Liverpool and Spurs said to be once interested before Forest came knocking with some last bags of Fawaz cash. Clough, along with Ross McCormack (on loan) was signed during Gary Brazil’s second of three interim tenure’s in January 2017, a final gesture from Al-Hasawi perhaps to say, ‘go get what you like’ on the desperate day that the winter transfer window would close shop.

A four and a half year contract didn’t seem unreasonable for one of English football’s most talented 21-year-olds and Clough’s career at Forest started well, scoring four goals in fourteen matches including one in the derby before the season end as Mark Warburton eventually saved the side from relegation.

The following campaign things were tough for Clough who started just four matches in the league and Warburton was sacked as results under the new regime of Evangelos Marinakis ownership were not suffice. Clough played again under interim Manager Gary Brazil and starred in the 4-2 FA Cup win against Arsenal. I remember myself a gunner friend coming up to me after the momentous game and saying “that Clough lad is a good player”… I didn’t have the heart to tell him he wasn’t even a first team regular.

Clough would play his last Nottingham Forest match on Saturday 27^th January 2018 in the FA Cup fourth round defeat at Hull. A second half substitute for Mustapha Carayol. He would never play again in first-team red, three days short of one year at the club, despite the then 22-year-old having a contract for a further three and a half years locked in.

A transfer was made for Clough to return to Bolton on loan, late January 2018, as Aitor Karanka became Reds Manager and the former Trotters Academy graduate played out the season again in white and blue which ended with Bolton beating Forest on the final day to survive relegation themselves.

Clough returned to Forest in that summer but would go to Rochdale on loan during two spells in between injury over 2018/19 and by the time he returned to the City Ground, Karanka had gone, and so too had Martin O’Neill. A new man at the helm, Sabri Lamouchi would give him the same treatment as those who did previous.

Why Clough would not even be considered for selection? Why was he bombed out of the squad and into under-23 football? It is still a mystery for one not short of talent, although those in the know will probably highlight the contract as one of the underlying reasons for a significant lack of football. Was it simply too expensive to play Clough anymore? Or was there something else we don’t know about?

Clough remembers the day that Bolton accepted a bid for him from Forest, unknowing that the Reds were even interested at the time he recalls team-mate Jay Spearing letting him know before picking up his broken phone in Bolton to find a missed call from his agent. Clough was told “it would be a life changing contract” and despite Forest not having a Manager he knew that by leaving Bolton, a club with huge financial concern at the time, he would not just safeguard his own future, but his much-loved teams’ immediate finances too.

Clough, who had previously turned down Bristol City before signing for Forest, stated “If Bolton were in a more stable position, I would probably have spent my whole career there. I was happy, it was risk free, and I was playing football with a smile on my face knowing that the majority of fans loved you. It was nice and that’s when you get the best out of yourself.”

He added at Forest “I had a great start but with all the management changes it’s so difficult to keep a place in the team, all the players they have signed in the years I have been there.”

“When I signed there was completely different ownership and three months later a Greek owner came in. Everything was fine until maybe I made the decision to come back to Bolton. I don’t think there was any way back after that.”

“It was a weird summer after I came back. The club was trying move on about 12 players and that was probably the right time to leave. I went to Rochdale, desperate to play.”

Clough said during the summer, that he had pushed to leave the City Ground on numerous occasions and wasn’t entirely sure himself on why he had been completely exiled over the last three years but stated instead of his decision to return to Bolton on loan in 2018 “Maybe if I’d stayed at Forest and fought for my place I would be in a completely different place now but I am not sure.”

The initial concern in him leaving his beloved Bolton might have seen him secure his finances and who could begrudge him of that, but to the cost of not playing football, Clough now has a lot of lost time to catch up on.

Remembered by some fans (unfairly) as a mercenary and a waste of talent, those willing to remember his early efforts on the pitch, more considerate to the reasons ‘why’ Clough perhaps did not get his chance to continue playing football for Forest? Knowing the whole story will perhaps allow you to make up your mind?

I believe the truth will one day appear, but until then, you should never judge a book by its cover.

*Article provided by Daniel Peacock (Editor).

*Main image @ScottishSun Zach Clough’s Forest career started with a derby-day goal.