‘I’ve left the human race and rejoined the rat race.’
On returning to football after four months away 1975
‘There is only one thing in the club’s favour. It has got me.’
On Forest’s parlous mid-table position in the old Second Division 1975
‘We couldn’t have beaten a team from Come Dancing.’
On the Forest team he took over 1989
‘When I started at Nottingham Forest, there was an empty row of seats at the back of the box – ’cos some idiots were spitting at the committee.’ 1990
‘The people who said the Anglo-Scottish Cup was nothing were crackers. It was something to us ... It provided us with a cup, and players who hadn’t won anything got a medal. They tasted the champagne ... and they liked it.’
Looking back on winning the club’s first trophy (in 1976) since the FA Cup of 1959 1981
‘Gentlemen, no swearing please – Brian’
The sign he had erected in front of the Trent End to curtail bad language 1977
‘I knew it would be bad at Forest. I just didn’t know how awful. Our training ground was about as attractive as Siberia in mid-winter without your coat on, our training kit looked like something you got from the Oxfam shop. We barely had a player in the first team who I thought could play ... I even had to teach one of them how to take a throw in. I also had to teach them to dress smartly, take their hands out of their pockets and stop slouching.’
On his first season at Forest 1981
‘I thought we’d do it before Peter arrived. The second he walked through the door, I knew it.’
On promotion to the First Division after Peter Taylor rejoined him in the summer of 1976 1981
‘We are the Wembley virgins.’
Description of his team before the 1978 League Cup final against Liverpool. Forest won the replay at Old Trafford 1-0.
‘It’s not meant to be disparaging, but I felt more satisfaction after clinching it at Derby. Perhaps it was because it was the first time ... I don’t know.’
On winning the 1977-78 championship with Forest 1981
‘Not as good as the Derby side and not as close knit.’
Comparing Forest to Derby’s championship sides 1990
‘We treat our European matches like seaside holidays, a break from the factory floor of the Football League. We enjoy ourselves, even though we pack our boots rather than a bucket and spade.’
On the way to winning the European Cup 1979
‘If you’re a club manager – and only a club manager – the way you can partly play at being an international one is to win the European Cup. All hopes had gone for me and the England job by then [1979]. If I wasn’t getting it in 1977, I was never getting it. All I had left was the European Cup. Winning it was my equivalent of the World Cup.’
On the importance of Forest’s European Cup wins to him 1981
‘The Red Cross sent us parcels at Christmas ... I think the board probably thought about sacking me at least once a week.’
On Forest’s parlous financial position in the early 1980s, when the club’s glory years began to fade 1990
‘We took one sugar in our tea instead of two, we used margarine rather than butter, and we all drank Tizer instead of Scotch because we got thruppence back on the empty bottle.’
On scraping together the pennies in those hard-pressed days 1990
‘Listen, our lot are so young most of ’em still believe in Father Christmas. I haven’t the heart to tell them the truth.’
On the average age of Forest’s team 1984
‘Our problem isn’t injury – it’s acne.’
Dwelling again on the youthfulness of his players 1984
‘My action, no matter how misguided, was taken with the right motives. I was concerned about a possible confrontation between our supporters and the other lot ... If I catch spectators on my pitch in future, I know exactly what I’ll do. They’ll get another clip around the earhole. I hit five pitch invaders – and I would have got all 300 if I could.’
On striking fans who came on to the pitch after a Littlewoods Cup tie against QPR 1989
‘I stuck the Cup on the TV and watched a replay with my family. I kept it there for two days, actually. Sometimes you wake up and think whether you’ve dreamt something. I went into our lounge and knew I hadn’t.’
After Forest’s Littlewoods Cup win at Wembley over Luton 1989
‘It doesn’t affect me. Other people want to win it for me more than I want to win it.’
On the FA Cup 1990
‘The FA Cup? A perk. A lovely day out. It’s that gala occasion when thousands of people who never watch football throughout the year suddenly turn up in the best seats and the biggest hats.’
Before the 1991 FA Cup final against Tottenham
‘Whoever succeeds me at Forest will upset me if he does less than I have done. I want him to win more.’ 1988
‘No one will ever do what I did at Nottingham Forest. Now that’s something to keep you warm at night.’ 1994