Like Father like Son?

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baller67

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Sheffield United are looking for a new coach after agreeing to part ways with Nigel Clough following the team’s League 1 play-off defeat to Swindon Town.

Clough had guided The Blades to a 5th place finish in the English third tier, but his failure to gain promotion to the Championship has apparently left the board wanting a fresh face at the helm. This decision has left some fans displeased, given that the club are in a much greater position now, than when Clough took over back in 2013.

Regardless, Sheffield United are left looking for a new boss, and Clough, a new job. What next for Nigel?

 
The Plan

Okay, so this story is based around the challenge created by emjay14 a few years back now. The challenge is called 'The Brian Clough Challenge'. I have slightly edited the challenge and come up with my own goals for this story. Feel free to take on the challenge, or my adaptation, and if you do, please let me know how you get on.

I thought I would do this challenge in a slightly more original way, and attempt the challenge as none other than Brian's Son, Nigel.

So,

The Challenge
Start at a League 2 side predicted to come in the bottom half by the media.

Stay there for as long as you wish, but the next side you move to must be one that finished in the bottom half of the Championship in the previous season.

With this team, you must get promoted, and then win the Premier League.

Then, leave this team for another team. Again, this team must have finished in the bottom half of the Championship in the season before.

Lead this club to promotion, and then the Premier League title.

The challenge is complete when you have won back to back Champions League titles with this team.


Additional Tasks
Win four or more league cups throughout your career.

'Find your own Peter Taylor'; keep the same assistant manager throughout your career.

Break the World Transfer Record.

Once the main challenge is complete, acquire the England job that Clough was never offered and win the World Cup.

Those are the tasks, and I am aiming to complete each one of them. For added realism, I have holidayed til today's date, and will begin the challenge from this point.

Here we go;
 
The Number Two

It would appear the Nigel Clough already had somewhat of his own Peter Taylor!

Gary Crosby had followed him from Burton, to Derby, and was sacked with him at Sheffield United.


They are together once more as we have signed him up.
 
First Month and Transfer Window

So we've reached September and the transfer window has slammed shut. Here are the deals we made;

Not much money to spend, that's why we've gone for frees and loans. The acquisitions of Gary Gardner and Ryan Tunnicliffe on loan should prove to be great signings. At 0% wages for RT and only 20% for GG, absolute bargains. The rest are mainly squad players who could come in and do a job when need be.

So far, our new-look squad is performing well above expectations, as shown by these results.


The win against Sunderland being the clear highlight. Their squad was very much a reserve team, but a good result nonetheless.

The league table currently looks like this;


Can we keep up the good form? Hopefully!
 
Gary Gardner on loan! How did you pull that one off?!
 
If only Clough would actually leave haha!
Good luck by the way, sounds a good challenge!
 
No idea hahah! The pair of them were listed but I had to untick 'filter out unrealistic targets', thought it was worth a shot seeing as though my midfield was week and i'm playing a 4-3-3 narrow and here they are hahah!

And I like him as a manager! Wish he'd done better at Derby though, just cause of the whole nostalgia factor haha! Disappointing in the playoffs I guess though. and thankyou!
 
Another couple of months...

After another two months in charge, our results look like this;



Our form has started to dip lately, meaning we have dropped from first in the table and now find ourselves behind surprising leaders, Gateshead.


Also, as you can see, we went on a rather short but quite successful cup run! The win against West Brom was certainly satisfying, and to be drawn away to Man Utd was brilliant - Franksy and Woods even managed to bag goals in what was my favourite game as boss so far.



Further updates to come soon!
 
We're now into January and our pretty consistent form is continuing. We even did the double over Clough's old team Burton Albion in the last two months!


For those who are interested, our strongest 11 looks like this;



Our 3 central midfielders have definitely been the stars, and it's going to be difficult for us when Gardner and Tunnicliffe go back to Villa and Fulham respectively.

Luckily for us, our rivals have had less consistent form, meaning that we now find ourselves at the summit of League 2, and things are looking good.

Next Update will be after the transfer window shuts.
 
The great form continues and we find ourselves pulling away from the pack at the top of the League!


Given our very limited options in central defence, I decided to make 100% sure we were covered and signed four centre backs on loan, yes four, just to be safe! I also brought in a backup striker from West Ham.


We also find ourselves in the North Final (semi-final) of the JPT, i'll keep you updated with that!
 
BREAKING NEWS
View attachment 265665​

Also, another two months have passed and the form just appears to be going nowhere!!


It's official, we're up!

With 7 games to go, we have been promoted to League 1. Unfortunately for Hartlepool (;)), we have decided that it's time to start hunting for that bottom half Championship job that we need for the next stage of the challenge! I'll keep you updated!
 
Either that or Derby ideally haha! Was shocked to see Clough has been sacked in real life this morning!
 
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