Can a football man ever-be more football? Born in 1966 the year England won the FIFA World Cup to the father of a famous footballer who by then had already played for England, Nigel, since the early 1970’s and the days when even before he were called a young man, was often seen enjoying and learning the game he was born into and emphatically loved whilst watching ‘Dad’ go about his daily business.

‘Learning from the best’ is something that Nigel Clough had no option to ignore. From being seven or eight years old wearing full Derby kit whilst sitting next to his old man in the dugout at the Baseball Ground, Nigel has pretty much been involved in the game ever-since. But for a short break between the summer and now of course.

His return to action as Manager of Mansfield Town comes after little more than a few months out of over 40 years of almost continuous football, from watching with Dad to playing in Forest’s youth team and making his debut with Heanor Town in 1982. Clough junior even played for his brother Simon’s Sunday team, AC Hunters, with his father regularly attending. It would be an understatement to say football is in the Clough’s blood.

From regularly scoring goals at Forest to signing for Liverpool for a huge fee, capped 14 times for England, Clough never fulfilled his potential at Anfield and was relegated with Manchester City after moving to Maine Road in 1996. Two years later aged just 32 he took on player/manager duties with non-league Burton Albion. 20 plus years and two clubs (Derby & Sheffield United) in-between, he would be Managing Burton in the semi-finals of the League Cup against Pep Guardiola, Kevin De Bruyne and Manchester City, having helped them from part-time football to England’s second tier.

As soon as the rumours flew in following Graham Coughlan’s understandable departure, it always seemed Nigel would be the right fit, at the right time, for Mansfield Town Football Club and those at the helm who needed someone reliable to take charge. Perhaps Graham Coughlan, Clough’s predecessor was not the right man at the right time? His previous success at Bristol Rovers ensured his CV looked great, but as we know, football isn’t played on paper.

Clough proves longevity works, he has a system that is tried and tested over time, he’s always got on with his Chairman, music to the Radford’s ears of course, he has a strategy for the better of the football club, to improve it over time, and not just whilst he’s there.

Clough’s first requests was that former-team-mate and best friend Gary Crosby joined him as Assistant, his second appointment was to ask brother Simon to be head of recruitment. Clough explaining “We’ve been watching football, me and Simon, for about 40 to 50 years now. We’ve been watching games since growing up with my dad and Peter Taylor.”

“What to look for in a player and what we don’t like in a player. Simon joined us at Derby because I couldn’t think of anybody better to be the head of recruitment.”

“We’ve all got to share the same views, which we do. We all see the same thing, and if we all tick that box, it’s a guarantee that we’ll try and bring that player in.”

“It just works. I think there is a good chemistry between us and we know our roles. We complement each other well.”

Clough is a week in charge of Mansfield Town and having seen the side beat Sunderland in the FA Cup, a competition he has done well in himself as Manager, reaching the semi-finals with then third-tier Sheffield United, he then took the dugout for the Football League Trophy win at Scunthorpe, in a game where he was able to experiment.

“We’re thrilled with the welcome everybody has given us here at the club. I think the players are responding well.”

“But we’re not getting carried away. It’s fantastic that we’ve had four games unbeaten and brilliant that we’ve won the last two, but there is a lot of hard work to do.”

“The work ethic of the players has been great. If you’ve got that, you have something to work with straight away.”

Clough said of his team “They seem to be a very honest group of players as well, and I think there is a quiet determination amongst them to try and get away from this position we’re in and to improve.”

“When you haven’t won in the first 11 league games, there’s room for improvement there. There are some good players in the dressing room to achieve that.”

“I still think in January, it will be a natural process of two or three coming in and two or three going out, just to try and help and freshen things up a bit.”

“But in the next six or seven weeks, we have a lot of points to play for and it’ll be the squad that we’ve seen over the last few games that will be trying to achieve that.”

Ahead of Saturday, Clough takes his Mansfield side to Forest Green who are going well towards the top of the League Two table. “I think it’s one of the toughest we could’ve had, especially as a first league game away from home.”

“I think the way that Mark Cooper’s teams play provides you with a different sort of test than a lot of League Two sides.”

“The confidence we can take from the last two games, we can take that into another game away from home. We want Forest Green to be thinking about us as well – ‘what are Mansfield going to do against us?’”

“As much as we can worry about Forest Green, we concentrate first and foremost on us doing our jobs.”

To see Mansfield Town’s first league game under the stewardship of Nigel Clough you can stream for £10 on iFollow by clicking here with kick off 3pm on Saturday afternoon from the New Lawn Stadium.

*Main image @mansfieldtownfc Nigel Clough back in familiar surroundings barking orders.