Nigel Clough: Is Mansfield Town manager’s longevity a landmark achievement or an indictment on football?

While Mansfield missed out on promotion when they took their bid all the way to the national stadium in 2022, they went up automatically two years later when they finished third in the table.

It ended Mansfield’s 21-year absence from the third tier. And when he kept them up in their first season back, Clough did what no-one had done for 35 years.

Last season they finished 10th, the club’s highest league placing since 1987 when Greaves guided them to exactly the same position in the standings.

Stags supporter Dean Foulkes says it “has been an incredible journey” at Mansfield since Clough took the helm in November 2020.

The feeling tracks.

At Burton he is a club legend for the way he transformed the Brewers as a non-league side in his first spell there before taking them to the Championship during his second stint.

He leapt a number of divisions when he left Burton the first time to manage Derby – a particularly poignant job as his father took the Rams to their first English title in 1972.

Even at Sheffield United, where Clough had the shortest stint of his managerial career, he guided them to the semi-final of the FA Cup when they were a League One side in 2014.

“He is really good football man to have around. We should be proud that he is Mansfield Town manager,” Foulkes told BBC Radio Nottingham.

“Look at what he has achieved, promotion, and we now have players coming to Mansfield Town because they want to play for Nigel Clough.”

It is why prolific veteran forward David McGoldrick moved there in the summer, and how the club has enticed former Leeds United forward Tyler Roberts, as well as ex-Preston forward Michael Smith to the Nottinghamshire town while also landing highly-rated Tottenham midfielder George Abbott on loan.

Ryan Sweeney says the chance to play for Clough was “the main reason” he decided to return to the club last summer.

Former Nottingham Forest and Southend striker Stephen McLaughlin says Clough “manages differently to any other manager” he has worked with.

“He doesn’t treat you as a number, he treats you as a person and you want to run though bricks walls for him,” McLaughlin said.

“It’s hard to explain what he does for you on and off the pitch as well. You are not on the grass too long in training because he trusts you to get your work in and to be ready for Saturday.

“He doesn’t give too much tactical information to people because the message is ‘just do your job and work hard’.”

Jordan Bowery has been asked to do that more than most, having been transformed from a striker to a defender and is now seen as ‘Mr Versatile’., external

“He is incredibly loyal and trusts me in those positions,” Bowery said. “A lot of managers wouldn’t do that, but he’s had my back and I appreciate that.

“He can get onto you, but that is like most managers. He expects and demands the best out of every single one of you each day.

“He has obviously been around the game a long time, played at the highest level – he knows the game and he knows the players.”