January, 1975 – May, 1993
After leaving Leeds, Brian said immediately: ‘I’m thick enough to believe I’ll get back into football.’ Asked why he’d returned to the game, he replied: ‘At 39, I am too young to retire.’
A job that began on a grey winter’s morning was to last more than 18 years. During it, Nottingham Forest won one League Championship, two European Cups, four League Cups (in various guises) and the admiration of everyone who saw them play fluently and with a high-minded moral obligation to pass the ball on the floor. ‘We played the game the way it ought to be played,’ he said. ‘Our passes brushed the grass.’