Early Doors - Your morning briefing blog

Cloughie cannot win

Thu Jan 08 08:57AM

'Ooh great', thought Early Doors yesterday, 'Derby are playing. Haven't had a chance to rip it out of them for a while.'

What's more, they were playing Manchester United - a certain defeat and a chance to pour cold water all over the Nigel Clough era.

And what happened? They only went and won. Easily too. United's best chances came in the form of Cristiano Ronaldo free-kicks, which were duly whacked straight over the bar.

Ronaldo's free-kicks are now so bad they may soon start to have the precise opposite effect of Rory Delap's long throws.

While teams have started conceding corners rather than face a Delap throw-in, they may now start deliberately fouling United players on the edge of the box, safe in the knowledge that they are almost certain to win a goal-kick.

The worst thing that can happen is that somebody ends up with a concave face if Ronaldo shoots into the wall.

United never looked like scoring, despite playing against a side that narrowly beat non-league opponents 4-3 in the Cup on Saturday.

Four days earlier they conceded three goals against Forest Green Rovers, and yet here they were repelling the champions of England, Europe, the world and probably parts of other galaxies too.

Maybe it was that United fielded a 'weakened' team featuring Tevez, Scholes, Vidic and Anderson, with Ronaldo, Rooney and Carrick coming off the bench.

Or maybe it was the difference in managerial ability between Chris Hutchings - who presided over the Forest Green near-debacle - and nobody.

Clough sat in the stands having been given the 'watching brief' that is increasingly fashionable for new managers.

New Nottingham Forest boss Billy Davies did something similar in the FA Cup on Saturday and saw his team thrash Manchester City at Eastlands.

Although the watching brief is meant to help managers settle into their job, all it really seems to do it exhibit the utter pointlessness of the profession - the way to seal an unlikely and famous victory is to make sure the gaffer comes nowhere near the dressing room.

So, what does Early Doors have against Derby? Nothing really, except that Pride Park is the only football ground it has been to that has a Starbucks in it.

Despite that nod to early-noughties consumerism, all the Frappuccinos in Seattle cannot disguise the unpleasantness of the location - an industrial estate sandwiched between a railway line and a water treatment facility on the outskirts of town.

Incidentally, Atletico Madrid's Vicente Calderon stadium encompasses a car showroom - possibly to help the club drive their manager to the dole office every three months.

Either that or it was a dodgy sideline set up by the late, lamented Jesus Gil to flog the sports cars of his unwitting players during games.

Anyway, Early Doors doesn't mind Derby - it just can't help but be massively cynical about the Nigel Clough hype.

Clough Jr cannot possibly be a success, simply because of the weight of family history weighing on him.

Anything short of promotion within 18 months, European qualification within 5 years and global domination inside a decade will be deemed a failure.

Ask Jordi Cruyff how easy it is to follow in the footsteps of a famous father. Mind you, Jordi Cruyff was rubbish.

Later this month Clough takes on Forest in the FA Cup - the team that named a stand after his dad.

The Cloughs are in the unlikely position of being revered by fans of both Derby and Nottingham Forest, despite the surprisingly hostile rivalry between the two clubs.

Brian Clough is loved by Forest fans for leading the team to a league title and two European Cups; Nigel Clough is loved because he scored a few goals, but mainly because his dad led the team to a league title and two European Cups.

And that is his problem. He will be forever in his father's shadow, and has no hope of emulating him, even if he puts on a green jumper, starts drinking too much and calls everybody 'young man'.

- - -

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "It was Chelsea's fault. Real Madrid did not want me to go there, but Chelsea did not help themselves. Everything would have gone ahead but they put that picture of me on the website and Madrid were very upset," Robinho confirms what everybody knows - it's Peter Kenyon's fault he didn't sign for Chelsea.

FOREIGN VIEW: Gazzetta dello Sport must have been watching Ronaldo at Pride Park last night. They ask who is the player of the decade - Kaka or Lionel Messi?

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MMMMM and you all wonder why Ed doesn`t comment on your comments anymore?
you would all @#$% up a good @#$%.
From mikewwfc on Thu Jan 08 10:28AM
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From jediknight20001 on Thu Jan 08 10:31AM
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From jediknight20001 on Thu Jan 08 10:31AM
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I am an open-mineded single girl who love sports. I want to end my single life by meeting
a guy who likes sports too. Let's mingle at the club ___ kISs M ill iona ireS Co m __
From ememory2056 on Thu Jan 08 10:33AM
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aquapond1 & andyc147 - The last 10 pages of comments are a perfect example of why ED stopped commenting on posts, and you can't really blame them can you? By the end of the day there will probably be about 1000 or more posts, and about 40 (at best) will be on the subject matter. Could you be @rsed wading through over 40 pages of comments (most of which are spam or arguments) just to pick out a few comments you thought were good?
On the football front, any Birmingham fans looking forward to the signing of Kris Boyd?
From kevmun82 on Thu Jan 08 10:35AM
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derby going win at man u as well they r @#$% lol
From samhatt on Thu Jan 08 10:39AM
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From jediknight20001 on Thu Jan 08 10:39AM
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From jediknight20001 on Thu Jan 08 10:39AM
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From jediknight20001 on Thu Jan 08 10:39AM
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From jediknight20001 on Thu Jan 08 10:40AM
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Err.. did I miss something yesterday? What other blog? Send me an email Annie?
From danny_saks on Thu Jan 08 10:41AM
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right!!!! thats it from me...i just wanted to see if there was any enjoyment......the answer is....NO!
Whats the point?! to annoy people?! its saaaad!
From jediknight20001 on Thu Jan 08 10:44AM
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What has happened to so many of you today?
Is there a competition to see how many spams people can post on todays ED blog?
If that's the case, will those who want to discuss other less frenetic subjects relocate elsewhere: just a suggestion for discussion!!
From jonathangrosskopf on Thu Jan 08 10:45AM
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LOSERS!!!!!!!!!!!!
From kevin1985kane on Thu Jan 08 10:54AM
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KGR_H IS KILDARE’S SHAME…..COP YOURSELF ON SIR!
From kevin1985kane on Thu Jan 08 11:03AM
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KGR_H IS KILDARE’S SHAME…..COP YOURSELF ON SIR!
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