Line #25 Literature/TheDamnedUnited


1	[[quoteright:305:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_damned_united_poster.jpg]]
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3	->''"Oh, yes, you're the shop window, I grant you that. The razzle and the bloody dazzle. But I'm the goods in the back! Without me, without somebody to save you from yourself, Brian fucking Clough, you're not just half. You're nothing!"''
4	-->--'''Peter Taylor'''
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6	''The Damned Utd'' is a 2006 British novel by David Peace, later adapted into the 2009 film ''The Damned United'', directed by Creator/TomHooper and starring Creator/MichaelSheen. The main character is the famous British [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball football manager]] Brian Clough. The account is a blend of [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory fact, fiction and rumour]], and simultaneously tells two different stories from Clough's career:
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8	* [[TheSeventies It's 1974]], and Clough (Sheen) has just been appointed manager of reigning league champions Leeds United. But Clough hates Leeds, and Leeds hate Clough. Moreover, Clough's loyal and capable NumberTwo, Peter Taylor (Creator/TimothySpall), has opted not to join him. Clough struggles in the face of the hostile Leeds players, who are still loyal to their old boss--and Clough's [[ArchEnemy nemesis]]--Don Revie (Creator/ColmMeaney), and having to cope without Taylor. Ultimately Clough is sacked after just 44 days in the job.
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10	* [[TimeSkip Back in 1967]], Clough is manager of Derby County, a middling Second Division team with no recent history of success. Together with Peter Taylor, they steadily improve the club's fortunes. Derby are promoted to the First Division and then become champions of England at the expense of Leeds. The charismatic and opinionated Clough becomes a household name, but Derby owner Sam Longson (Creator/JimBroadbent) grows weary of his antics and their relationship sours, resulting in Clough and Taylor leaving, [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor without intending to]].
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12	Both book and film end with Clough being sacked by Leeds and (in the earlier timeline) [[WhereItAllBegan being appointed Leeds manager]]. The film's epilogue notes that Clough and Taylor were reunited at Nottingham Forest, and led the club to even greater heights than Derby.
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14	One interesting aspect of both the book and the movie is that it's a rare sport story that subverts/averts/ignores pretty much all the traditional SportsStoryTropes we're so used to: there is no BigGame and the games don't come DownToTheLastPlay, the [[UnderdogsNeverLose underdogs can and will lose]], and the OpposingSportsTeam isn't even a villain! As Creator/RogerEbert summarizes in his review of the movie: "''The Damned United'' avoids all sports movie cliches, even the obligatory ending where the [[MiracleRally team comes from behind]]. Is this the first sports movie where the [[BreakTheHaughty hero comes from ahead and loses]]?"
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16	----
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18	!!Tropes Include:
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20	* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Clough with the Leeds players, which is ultimately why he gets sacked.
21	* TheSeventies
22	* ActorAllusion: The rare instance when an aversion is notable. The film includes most of the key beats of Clough's life, but leaves out his famous television interview with Creator/DavidFrost... who'd been played by Michael Sheen in the film ''Film/FrostNixon'' a year earlier.
23	* AdaptationDisplacement [[invoked]]
24	* AdaptationDistillation: The movie condenses the events of the book and focuses on the key moments, without losing its essence.
25	* AdaptationTitleChange: The last word in the book's title is the abbreviated form "Utd" (no period/full stop), frequently used in UK media as a contraction of the word "United" in football club names. The film's title spells out the word "United".
26	* AnachronicOrder: The film cuts between Derby's victories in the late Sixties and Clough taking over Leeds in the mid-'70s. The book is even more chaotic in this aspect, going through Clough's career from his beginnings as a player all the way to his fateful days Leeds.
27	* AntiHero: Brian Clough. More so in the novel, which portrays him as an arrogant, paranoid and foul mouthed alcoholic, haunted by personal demons.
28	* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Billy Bremner snarkily asks: "did ''you'' ever play at Wembley, Mr Clough?"[[note]]Clough did actually play at Wembley once, for England in a long-forgotten friendly match against Sweden, but Bremner's question nevertheless hits a nerve[[/note]]
29	* BittersweetEnding: One where you'd swear the writer was trying to exaggerate the hell out of this trope if it weren't what actually happened in real life. The story ends with Clough being sacked by Leeds and then coming across as excessively petty and vindictive during a subsequent TV interview with Revie. However, we're then informed that Clough later took over at Nottingham Forest and steered them to even greater success than he enjoyed with Derby, while Revie utterly failed as England manger and breached his contract to quit and take over as manager of the United Arab Emirates, leaving him with a tarnished and incredibly divisive legacy among fans of any club that isn't Leeds. Then, in the early 1980s Clough's relationship with Taylor broke down and they never reconciled before Taylor's death. But despite this, Clough still managed Forest relatively successfully (if not to quite the same extent as when he was working with Taylor) until they were relegated in 1993.[[note]](And just to keep the ending from being ''too'' grim, it tactfully neglects to mention the final fates and comparatively premature deaths of both men, with Revie dying in 1989 after a long, grim battle with motor neurone disease, and Clough battling alcoholism for the better part of two decades before eventually dying of liver failure in 2004)[[/note]]
30	* {{Bookends}}: The novel and film both start and end with Clough's appointment as manager of Leeds.
31	* BreakTheHaughty: Clough's stint as manager of Leeds Utd. is one big breaking moment. The book is slightly more complex on this aspect; Clough's motivations are more diverse and complicated and less clear, although his [[{{Pride}} arrogance]] is evident throughout.
32	* ButForMeItWasTuesday: In the film, Revie is honestly taken aback that Clough has been harboring such a grudge for so long, over an incident he himself didn't even ''notice''. Although Revie was infamous for painstakingly researching his opponents and it seems unlikely he would not have recognized Clough, so it is somewhat debatable whether or not he really didn't notice or if he was trying to play mind games. It is still a lot of emphasis to place on a somewhat minor slight, however. It also wasn't the RealLife reason for the animus between Clough and Revie.
33	* TheCameo: UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli appears in the movie in a RealLife clip of him calling out Clough:
34	-->'''Muhammad Ali:''' (on TV) There's s some fella in London, England named Brian Clough. Some soccer player or something. I heard all the way in Indonesia that this fella talks too much. They say he's another Muhammad Ali. There's just one Muhammad Ali. I'm the talker. Now Clough, I've had enough, stop it!!
35	-->'''Peter Taylor:''' Are you going to stop it?
36	-->'''Brian Clough:''' No I want to fight him!
37	* DidntThinkThisThrough: Clough's gambit in his feud with Longson at Derby. At his behest, he and Taylor tender their resignations, [[VetinariJobSecurity assuming that they are indispensable]] and Longson will be forced out instead. To Clough's surprise, the board happily take the opportunity to get rid of them and he and Taylor find themselves out of a job.
38	* ExactWords:
39	--> '''Manny Cussins:''' Who do you think you are?
40	--> '''Brian Clough:''' Brian Clough. [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Brian. Howard. Clough.]]
41	* FallenOnHardTimesJob: Clough regards managing Third division Brighton & Hove Albion as this after leaving Derby.
42	* AFatherToHisMen: Don Revie calls himself this for his Leeds players, and this is how they view him in return.
43	-->'''Clough:''' They won't play for me, your boys. Your bastard sons.
44	** Clough to his Derby players, who were willing to go on strike to get him back as manager. That Clough was able to inspire such loyalty was one of the reasons why Leeds wanted him as manager.
45	* TheFilmOfTheBook: The 2009 film starring Creator/MichaelSheen, Creator/ColmMeaney, and Creator/TimothySpall.
46	* {{Flashback}}: Half of the novel takes the form of flashbacks to Clough's earlier, more successful spell at Derby.
47	* {{Foreshadowing}}: In the film, Taylor foreshadows real life's more DistantFinale when, at the end, he makes it up with Clough but says that he knows Clough will "fuck things up" between them again.
48	* FreudianTrio:
49	** Id -- Clough. For all his good qualities as a manager he lets his emotions get the better of him, first costing him and Taylor their roles at Derby, before things go spectacularly wrong at Leeds.
50	** Ego -- Taylor. While Clough doesn't want to admit it, he was perhaps the most vital component of Derby's success, and would go on to do so again at Nottingham Forest.
51	** Super Ego -- Jimmy Gordon. An excellent trainer and a nice guy, but proves to be completely out of his league in the assistant manager's role at Leeds.
52	* GilliganCut: Clough is adamant that the Derby board will never accept his and Taylor's resignations. In the next scene, he bursts into the boardroom stunned that the directors have accepted their resignations.
53	* TheGrovel: Brian at the end of the film. "Okay, I'm grovelling!"
54	* HappilyEverAfter:
55	** The film ends with Clough and Taylor reconciled and they go on to surpass their successes at Derby by winning the league title and two consecutive European Cups with Nottingham Forest, while the villain of the piece, Don Revie, is said to have failed in the England job and left in disgrace. This is based on real events. Reality was more of a [[DownerEnding downer]]. The film omits Clough and Taylor's final bitter falling out, and Clough's anguish over Taylor's early death; the two men had not spoken for years when Taylor died in 1990.
56	** The final title card in the film reads "Brian Clough remains the best manager [the English national team] never had." so it's kind of [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]] regardless.
57	* HateAtFirstSight: Clough and Revie. Revie doesn't shake Brian's hand after their first meeting in an FA Cup tie, and from then on Clough seems to be motivated solely by his determination to beat Revie above all else.
58	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Clough and Taylor
59	* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Almost everyone.
60	* HomoeroticSubtext: Clough and Taylor. The whole movie could be considered a bromance between them. They both have wives and children but they seem to spend more time hugging and kissing each other. Not to mention their reconciliation, which plays out like a AnguishedDeclarationOfLove.
61	* HypercompetentSidekick: Peter Taylor for Clough, specially in the movie. It's not that Clough isn't competent, but he wouldn't have gotten very far without Taylor's expertise. The film's ending has him realizing this.
62	* IdiotBall: The Leeds board. Appointing the club's number one critic as manager was TooDumbToLive territory.
63	* JerkassHasAPoint:
64	** Revie's TheReasonYouSuckSpeech at the end brings about the reconciliation of Clough and Taylor.
65	** Clough's TheReasonYouSuckSpeech speech to the Leeds players would also resonate with many English football fans of that era. They [[EarnYourTitle weren't known as "Dirty Leeds" for nothing]].[[note]] Where most of the other top clubs had perhaps one or two players who were known for aggressive fouling on the pitch - Chelsea's Ron "Chopper" Harris, Arsenal's Peter Storey, and Liverpool's Tommy Smith to name just three - Leeds had ''an entire first eleven'' of such players.[[/note]]
66	* KnownOnlyByTheirNickname: Clough always refers to Johnny Giles as "the Irishman".
67	* MiserAdvisor: Sam Longson.
68	* NotSoDifferentRemark: Clough notes that he and Revie actually have a lot in common. Both were from Middlesbrough, both played for Sunderland and England, both were centre-forwards, and as managers both enjoyed huge success with a previously undistinguished club.
69	* OnlySaneMan: Peter Taylor. Jimmy Gordon tries to take up the role when Clough goes to Leeds, but isn't quite as adept as Taylor in that regard.
70	* OopNorth: Clough is a Northerner and proud. He doesn't want to manage [[UsefulNotes/TheGreatBritishSeaside Brighton & Hove Albion]] because it's so far south "we're practically in ''France''!"
71	* OpposingSportsTeam: Clough thinks this of Leeds United under Revie's management, but it's a case of WrongGenreSavvy.
72	* {{Pride}}: The impetus for Clough's obsession with Don Revie is Revie's damaging his pride by unknowingly snubbing Clough before their teams' first match.
73	* RagTagBunchOfMisfits: Derby County.
74	* RealityIsUnrealistic: Yes, Clough really did deliver ''that'' speech to the Leeds players on his first day ("Throw your medals in the bin, because you won them all by bloody cheating!"). According to Peter Lorimer, there were people who couldn't believe he actually said that and thought it was an invention of the film. If anything, the real life version was worse, because he apparently singled out each player in turn and told them what he thought of them. [[note]] For example, he called out Alan Clarke for being chippy and grumpy when clobbered by opposing players, but expecting them to take it when he did the same to them. In a slight aversion, however, Clarke wasn't offended like the other players, and was actually almost as supportive of Clough in RealLife as in the book, because he conceded that Clough might have had a good point. [[/note]]
75	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech:
76	** Clough gives one to the Leeds Utd players in his first training session, telling them they have won all their cups and titles by "bloomin' cheating" and that they can just throw them in the bin. It's a reflection of how far his own self-regard has taken him over that he thinks this will actually work.
77	** Clough himself is on the receiving end of two big ones, first from Sam Longson and second from Peter Taylor. Both are deserved. Longson's is a warning about the direction football is going and how Clough isn't quite as untouchable and brilliant as he thinks he is:
78	--->"I'm going to give you some good advice, Brian Clough. No matter how good you think you are, how clever, how many fancy new friends you make on the telly, the reality of footballing life is this: the Chairman is the boss, then come the directors, then the secretary, then the fans, then the players, and finally, last of all, bottom of the heap, the lowest of the low, comes the one who in the end we can all do without - the fucking manager!"
79	** Taylor, on the other hand, calls out Clough's egotism and lust for glory, and his extremely self-destructive tendencies, by pointing out how Clough has cost him personally and abused his loyalty. Brian doesn't take it well, giving a rather less-fair salvo in return..
80	--->'''Taylor''': Without you, I'd still have a job in Derby! A job and a home that I love. Oh, yes, you're the shop window, I grant you that. The razzle and the bloody dazzle. But I'm the goods in the back! Without me, without somebody to save you from yourself, Brian fucking Clough, you're not just half. You're nothing!\
81	'''Clough''': I'm nothing? I'm nothing? Don't make me laugh. What does that make you then, Taylor? Something? You're half of nothing! Nothing's parasite! A big fat pilot fish that feeds on nothing. A bloody nobody! The forgotten man! History's fucking afterthought!
82	* ReassignedToAntarctica: How Clough regards managing lowly (and [[UsefulNotes/HomeCounties very southern]]) Brighton after leaving Derby. Taylor sees it differently, which leads to them falling out.
83	* TheRival: Revie to Clough. [[ButForMeItWasTuesday Not that Revie knew]] he was actually Clough's ArchEnemy.
84	* RivalTurnedEvil: How Clough views Revie, he originally considered him a WorthyOpponent, but after meeting (or pointedly ''not meeting'') the man, he changes his view of him.
85	* RunningGag: Clough keeps buying players without telling Longson.
86	* SmugSnake: How Clough views Don Revie, and presumably what the Leeds player think of Brian Clough. Along with KnowNothingKnowItAll.
87	* TookALevelInJerkAss: Clough is so consumed by his rivalry with Revie that he becomes a {{jerkass}} towards anyone who gets in his way.
88	* UnreliableNarrator: The book is seen through Clough's eyes, making the true nature of the characters more ambiguous than the movie.
89	* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: While some aspects of the story are portrayed accurately, both the writer and the filmmakers also used artistic licence to fill in the gaps.
90	** Clough's RealLife dislike of Revie had nothing to do with the latter supposedly snubbing a handshake after a match.
91	** Pat Murphy, a BBC journalist and friend of Clough, pointed out [[http://sabotagetimes.com/football/leeds-derby-17-bogus-damned-united-facts 17 factual inaccuracies]] in the film.
92	** In the book Clough chops up Revie's old desk with an axe and then burns it. His son Nigel said he did not recall this incident, even though he is meant to have been present when it happened.
93	** Johnny Giles complained about the way he was portrayed in the book and sued the publishers. As part of the settlement, several lines were removed from the book and his role in the movie was much reduced.
94	** Dave Mackay had retired from playing two years before he was appointed manager of Derby; he was actually manager of Nottingham Forest at the time. Mackay was unhappy with the film's suggestion that he stabbed Clough and Taylor in the back by becoming Derby manager and received damages from the filmmakers.
95	** The film omits Clough's spell as Brighton & Hove Albion manager and implies that he reneged on a deal to join them. He actually did manage Brighton for nine months, albeit unsuccessfully: he won only 12 of his 35 games in charge.
96	** Clough is seen blaming Derby's European Cup semi-final defeat to Juventus on Leeds injuring their players. He actually blamed the Italian side, whom he accused of having "bought" the West German referee. Furthermore, the match in question against Leeds took place before Derby's quarter-final tie against Spartak Trnava, which Derby won.
97	** Derby's FA Cup game against Leeds actually took place in Leeds, not Derby, making the sequence where Clough goes to great lengths to clean up Derby's ground and welcome Revie an invention. While Clough and Taylor are shown to be elated at the prospect of facing Leeds and Revie for the first time, in fact Derby had already played Leeds earlier that season in a League Cup semi-final.
98	** A few matches seen in the film are either invented, have incorrect scorelines or are shown taking place at the wrong times. Derby did not lose 5-0 to Leeds in their first season back in the First Division; they did lose to them by this scoreline several years later. Derby never beat Leeds 2-1 under Clough. His first win over Leeds (where he is shown hiding in the changing room) was a 4-1 victory in March 1970. Far from being happy, he was annoyed that Leeds had fielded their reserves, as they had to play a European Cup semi-final days later. Text on the screen has Clough's Leeds losing 0-1 to Luton Town. This match actually ended 1-1.
99	** While Clough and Revie did indeed face-off in a television debate hours after he was sacked, the dialogue they have in the movie [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTiIdbDBmZc doesn't bear much relation to the real one]].
100	** In the film, Clough is shown angrily throwing the keys to his Derby company car at Sam Longson after being let go. In real-life, Clough and Taylor actually refused to return the keys, as their contracts entitled them to keep their cars should they be dismissed -- which they claimed Longson had done by accepting their resignation letters despite their not actually having intended to leave. Longson in turn cancelled the insurance for the cars and reported them as stolen property, and Clough and Taylor returned them a few days later after the police informed them that, if they could not prove they were entitled to keep the cars, they would both face criminal charges.
101	* VetinariJobSecurity: An inversion. Clough and Taylor ''think'' they're indispensible at Derby, so to strengthen their position in their feud with Longson, they tender their resignations, not expecting the board to accept them. To their surprise, the board does exactly that.
102	* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: See the HappilyEverAfter entry.
103	* WhereItAllBegan: The story finishes where it started, with Clough being appointed manager of Leeds.

Context Literature / TheDamnedUnited