Michael sheen's ability to play the role of three iconic englishmen ; Blair [does he count he maybe a closet Scot,I don't know],David Frost and now Brian Clough effortlessly is truely amazing and worthy of the highest praise. But what i find really amazed me most is that Leeds were once a good side . Incredible.
sharesheen is on of my favourite actors
and ur forgetting he did a fantastic job as kenneth williams
any role he does you hardly recognise him.
We weren't good. We were the best.
shareI thought Sheen was excellent too. Timothy Spall was also very good as Brian Taylor (even though he looked nothing like the real Taylor). I know much has been said about the accuracy of this film but it really is a fascinating story. Those of us who remember 1970s football will relate to how appalling some of the pitches were and the Derby one was always very poor (along with the ones at Maine Road and Stamford Bridge both of which were notorious mudslides). If you don't believe me then watch 'The Big Match revisited' on ITV4 next time its on.
I thoroughly enjoyed this film and it shows how much the game misses Cloughie. Leeds must have been furious as they went into freefall in the years after he was sacked and i bet there was serious resentment when 'Old big head' turned Nottingham Forest into English & European champions on a fraction of the resources that the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal had.
"Brian" Taylor? Maybe he did look like him, but he didn't look like Peter Taylor.
My body makes no moan
But sings on:
All things remain in God.
Ah...well spotted. I put that in deliberatly (of course) to see if anyone would spot the mistake. You won!
Love your nickname by the way Bishop Brennan. I salute anyone who is a fellow fan of Father Ted
What is amazing now is that a manager would leave the league champions to coach the England team.
BTW Leeds didnt do too badly after Clough, they got to a European Cup Final at the end of the season. The ageing side needed replacing and any team would suffer after the loss of so many long serving international class players.
Of course the ageing likes of Giles and Bremner needed replacing. But there was very little of quality coming through the youth ranks. This was true elsewhere and one reason why Liverpool dominated over the next decade or so. There wasn't the strength in depth at other clubs, previous rival teams like Leeds, Derby, Man City and Chelsea all went into a steep decline at this point for various reasons. Liverpool kept their heads by promoting from within and were able to sign up the best players. Leeds fans knew the rot had really set in when Jordan and Mcqueen were sold to the red scum. Revie realised that the English game had little strength in depth too late when he became England boss.
shareMan City were in the UEFA Cup quarter finals in 1978 and beat AC Milan on the way. Then they appointed Malcolm Allison and gave him a chequebook hoping to recapture the glory days of the late 1960's. In less than two years he put the club on the road to ruin. Took thirty years and a billionaire Sheikh to get them back to a UEFA Cup QF.
Chelsea bankrupted themselves building the East Stand.
Derby won the league the season Clough was at Leeds. Decline was pretty sharp after that as the good players were sold.
Liverpool didnt sign that many big names in the 70's only Kenny Dalglish from Celtic. The rest Keegan, Rush, Hughes, Clemence all came from the lower divisions. Something else that doesnt happen now.
I think Sheen was amazing here, he is such a sweet person and here he was such an unplesant man, but I stil sympathized with him, I admire ambitious people :)
"Ah da da dah, like this in the background. What the *beep* is it with you?"- Christian Bale
"I think Sheen was amazing here, he is such a sweet person and here he was such an unplesant man, but I stil sympathized with him..."
Lucky!
"I know I'm not normal -- but I'm trying to change!" ~ Muriel's Wedding
Alice Army
'The rest Keegan, Rush, Hughes, Clemence all came from the lower divisions. Something else that doesnt happen now.'
Yes it does, off the top of my head, Lescott was mozing about in wolves a few seasons back, now he's off to Man City for £22M. I sure if i did a quick google I'd get a lot more, the lower divisions have pleanty of great players.
You are wrong - Leeds United were not once good - they were OUTSTANDING. (I am a Crystal Palace fan - so I'm not being biased). The only unfortunate thing for them is that, like Arsenal over the last 10 years or so, they finished runners up in competitions more times than they won it. During that era under Don Revie - they:
*won the League title twice but were runners up 5 times,
*won the FA Cup once but lost the final 3 times and lost in the semi's twice
*lost the European Cup final in 1975 - got to the European cup semi final in 1970
*won the League Cup once and lost the final once
* Were loosing finalists in the 1973 European Cup Winniers Cup Final (this competition no longer exists)
*They won the UEFA cup twice but were loosing finals twice and got to the semi's twice
They were voted best European side 3 times
So as you can see they were an absolutely fantastic side in the 1960's to the mid 1970's.
As a totally biassed Leeds fan I agree with the above. In the same way everyone likes to hate Man Utd. today, Leeds were the hated team of the seventies because of so much success. Even the tag of the dirty cheating team, has no evidence to back it up. Seventies football was much more agressive and whilst its true Leeds had tough players like Jackie Charlton and Norman Hunter, other clubs has such notables as Tommy Smith (Liverpool) and "Chopper" Harris at Chelsea to name but two.
BTW The film was excellent
That was an amazing depiction of Clough. Just bang on from all the footage I saw of the great man.
shareI believe Leeds were not only a good team in the '70s but have had another good run around 10 years ago and then, it seems they ran into serious financial problems and have been penalized points ending up in division 1. One needs to read any number of books that are now out there on Clough and Leeds. Too, it is said Leeds probably lost their European Championship game in the 1970s due to a referee thought to have been bribed, maybe there is even evidence (and there are online petitions, I think it is the 1973 game). Also, in real life, Clough would not talk to the journalists after the Juventus game and thought the team had been cheated and the referee bribed. This is nowhere the way it is in the movie but sometimes, they need to try to make the plot work and furthermore, accusing Juventus of tampering with the referee could have led to an international type incident I think, not really but would not have been a flattering charge to make.
shareWhat amazed me the most was a glimpse of the days when English teams consisted of 11 players who had english as their first language. And that some of the best players in those teams were Scots (though we were as shi*e back then as a national side as we are now :P)
With your feet in the air and your head on the ground, try this sig with spinach!
They didn't do badly in '92 when they beat us to the Championship, either...
Love United. Hate Glazers.