‘Pete was the only bloke who could stick an arm around my shoulder and tell me – straightforwardly, mate to mate – that I was wrong or right or to just shut up and get on with the job. When I rang him to say I’d got Hartlepool, and did he fancy it, we’d barely spoken for four years. We were football people and, like the circus, sometimes you have to travel to scrape a living. But I knew I needed him. I knew we were right together.’ 1991

‘It was as if he could read minds. He’d nudge me and say: “So and so needs picking up – can’t you see the droop of his shoulders?” Or: “That bloke is too cocky by half. He needs yanking down a peg or two.”’ 1991

‘We were the first to introduce the two-man job. Now everybody’s copied it. And nobody needed a steadying influence more than I did. When I wanted to leap to my feet and fight somebody or tell them to fuck off, Taylor would say: “Hang on, I’ll deal with this.”’ 1988

‘Without him, my job would be impossible.’ 1966

‘I object to the word ‘assistant’ when he is talked about. He’s my partner – the only man in football who can spend big money without the manager’s sanction.’ 1969

‘I’m the shop window – he’s the goods at the back.’ 1971

‘We were arrogant at the bottom and we are arrogant at the top – that’s consistency.’ 1979

‘He wouldn’t have shifted a copy without my mug on the front, my name alongside it and my thoughts on every page.’

Incandescent that Taylor had written a book – With Clough, by Taylor – without telling him about it 1980

‘He said: “We’ve shot it, haven’t we?” I said: “No, you have!” ... But when he sat in his office and told me he wanted to get out of the game, I cried.’

When Taylor broke the news of his retirement 1982

‘I would not dream of having anyone else to work alongside me as close as Peter did. I couldn’t find anyone as good for a start.’

Asked whether he would ever again appoint an assistant manager 1982

‘I would have thought that the logical thing to do, after Peter decided retirement wasn’t for him, would have been to come back to Forest. The door was still open – and still is. But if he wants a lift from his home to the Baseball Ground, he can have one.’

On Taylor’s decision to manage Derby six months later 1982

‘One call. Two lines in a letter. That’s all it needed.’

His lament after Taylor signed John Robertson for Derby without telling him 1983

‘If I saw him on the A52 thumbing a lift, I’d run him down. He’s lost the one friend he had in the world. And that’s me ... In my book, the man is a rattlesnake.’

His angry response to it 1983

‘They wouldn’t have come through the front door unless they saw my mug. There was a myth here that someone else was doing it, but I was the one who wheeled and dealed for players.’

On who was the dominant partner in the transfer market 1984

‘What a waste. All those years when we could have been sitting together having a beer. All of those years when he could have come as an honoured guest to watch us play. All those years without the laughter he was capable of providing.’

On Taylor’s premature death in October 1990 and the feud which broke their relationship 1990

‘My son Nigel, the one who plays centre forward for me at Nottingham Forest, asked me recently if I had any regrets. It was when Peter Taylor had died. I told my son: “He should have seen you play at Wembley the last couple of times.”’ 1990

‘No. Easy. Barbara said, “we’re going.” Peter Taylor had carried my children on his back.’

Asked whether it had been a difficult decision to attend Peter Taylor’s funeral 1992