Brian Clough (1975-1993)

The man whose name will be forever etched in the folklore of Nottingham Forest.
He arrived in January, 1975 and departed in May, 1993 and in those 18 years he led Forest to unprecedented levels of success.
Under his colourful and often controversial leadership Forest reached the height of European football, capturing the European Cup in 1979 and 1980 following victories over Malmo and Hamburg in Munich and Madrid respectively.
But that was only the tip of the mountain of success that Clough brought the Club.
He and his long-time assistant Peter Taylor led Forest to promotion from the old Second Division in 1976 and from that moment the Club moved onto a different plane.
In their first season back in the old First Division Forest ran away with the League title as well as winning the League Cup for the first time. In all Forest won the League Cup four times under Clough's management and finished runners-up on two occasions.
The one trophy that eluded him during his marvellous managerial career was the F.A. Cup. In 1991, however, Forest came so close to completing the set for him but were beaten by Tottenham Hotspur after extra-time in the Wembley final.
In addition to his great achievements at Forest, Clough had also been in charge of Hartlepool, Derby, Brighton and Leeds, whom he left after just 44 days. Outside of Forest his other great success story was at Derby, whom he led to the First Division title and Europe.
As a player Clough was a predatory centre forward of the old school and enjoyed a remarkably successful career with home town club Middlesbrough and Sunderland.
He scored 251 goals in 274 League goals for the North East pair before his career was tragically cut short by a knee injury suffered while playing for Sunderland against Bury On Boxing Day, 1962.
During his playing career he won two England caps against Wales and Sweden in 1959, made three appearances for the England Under-23 side, one for the England B side and he also represented a Football League XI.

He returned to the City Ground in 1999 after a six year absence when the Executive Stand was renamed in his honour. He has been a welcome guest on a number of occasions since then.
Brian Clough sadly passed away on September 20th, 2004 after suffering from stomach cancer. Tributes came from around the world and the great man will be sadly missed but remembered forever as the greatest manager Nottingham Forest has ever had.

Paul Hart 2001-2004

Before he joined Forest in 1997 as Youth Academy Director, Paul Hart built up a huge reputation working in a similar capacity with Leeds United.
He had a long and distinguished playing career, starting with Stockport County, making his debut for them as a 17 year old in a match with Lincoln City. Paul played 90 games for Stockport in a three-year spell before moving on to Blackpool for five seasons. That's when his career really took off and brought about a record £330,000 transfer to Leeds United. After five years at Elland Road he joined Forest for two years under the management of Brian Clough and moved on to Sheffield Wednesday and then Birmingham, where he sadly broke a leg in his first game. He then joined Notts County in a player-coach capacity before being appointed as manager of Chesterfield in November 1988.
He left Saltergate to join the coaching staff at Forest and in 1992 returned to Leeds United to become their Director of Youth under Howard Wilkinson's overall management. He had five highly-successful years with the Yorkshire club, bringing on the likes of Harry Kewell and Jonathan Woodgate, before joining Forest in 1997 and supervising the launch of the Academy at The City Ground.
He took over as Manager of Nottingham Forest at the start of the 2001-2002 season, bringing many of his Academy players through into the first team squad. It was his second season in charge that saw the most success with Forest finishing in the final six and being knocked out of the promotion play-offs by Sheffield United.
The 2003-2004 season saw Hart suffer from a depleted squad and no money and when Forest went into the bottom three, after going 15 games without a win, the Chairman Nigel Doughty called time on his Forest career.
Paul Hart will be remembered fondly by thousands of Forest fans and by the many young players at the club whose careers have flourished during his time at the City Ground.

Joe Kinnear 2004

Joe Kinnear has done most things in football & from being an integral part of the 'Culture Club' to being leader of the 'Crazy Gang'.
And throughout his time in the game his career as player and manager has been littered with moments of drama, humour and considerable success.
He has proved himself a fire-fighter on countless occasions in the past, starting at a very early age when, after being born in Dublin, he came across the Irish Sea with his family to settle in Watford.
He struggled to make a break into professional football until he was asked by the manager of St. Albans, Dick East, who had watched his trial for Watford, whether he would train with them.He agreed and by the time he was 16 he was in the first team and earning £2 a week expenses!
By the time he was 18 had been offered a professional contract at White Hart Lane and little more than a year after joining the full-time staff, he made his debut against West Ham in April 1966.
He quickly became recognised as one of the game's top right backs and his entry onto the international stage with the Republic of Ireland was something of a formality.
By the time his left Spurs in 1975 he had played more than 250 League games for them and after one season with Brighton, he moved into coaching.
He worked in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates from 1975-1987 and had a short spell with Doncaster before moving on to Wimbledon in 1989. He became manager in January 1992, taking over from our former striker Peter Withe.
Wimbledon were looking certain relegation material at the time but the managerial talents of Kinnear and the famed spirit of the 'Crazy Gang' took The Dons to 13th position by the end of the season.
He overcame one of his biggest personal battles in 1999 when he had a heart attack and although he made a complete recovery he thought it was time to end his association with the club after ten brilliant years.
In February 2001 he was persuaded back into the game as Director of Football at Luton Town and in his first full season he took them to promotion from the Third Division.
A year later he consolidated Luton's position back in Division Two - they finished ninth - but with financial and ownership problems tearing the club apart, he left in May of last year.
Brought in to save Forest from relegation in the 2003-2004 season, he did a successful job.
However, the 2004-2005 season went badly for him and he alienated himself from the fans. In the end he decided to leave in December 2004.

Gary Megson 2004 - 2006

Gary Megson had been out of football since October 2004 when his hugely successful spell in charge of West Brom came to an end.
Megson, who had been manager at The Hawthorns since March 2000, had led The Baggies to promotion to the Premiership twice in three seasons.
But he parted company with the West Midlands club shortly after announcing his intention to quit at the end of this season.
His appointment at the Nottingham Forest helm represents his sixth managerial appointment - he has also taken charge of Stoke, Stockport, Blackpool and Norwich.
As a player, he spent 18 years in English football as a hard working midfielder for Plymouth, Everton, Newcastle, Sheffield Wednesday, Manchester City and Norwich.
He also had a brief spell on Forest's books in the 1984-85 season but failed to make an impact at The City Ground.
Having played in Norwich's famous European victory over Bayern Munich during the 1993-94 season, Megson became assistant manager to John Deehan at Carrow Road when Mike Walker left the club for Everton.
His first experience at the helm was as caretaker boss following Deehan's departure in 1995 but he was unable to prevent the team from being relegated to the First Division.
Following Martin O'Neill's short time in charge, Megson returned to Carrow Road - after spells as a player with Shrewsbury and Lincoln - as full-time manager but made way for Walker's return in 1996.
He moved on for a one-year stay with Blackpool before returning to the North West to manage Stockport County.
He guided County to a respectable 8th place finish in their first season in Division One, but the following season saw the club slip down the table and Megson left in June 1999.
He was soon in charge of Stoke City but his reign at the Britannia Stadium lasted just four months. That, however, opened the way for Megson to join West Brom and launch the most successful period of his managerial career so far.

Colin Calderwood 2006 - Dec 2008

Colin Calderwood added another promotion triumph to his already impressive managerial CV in 2008.
The likeable Scot guided Nottingham Forest to automatic promotion to the Championship and more than made up for the disappointment of play-off failure 12 months earlier.
It represented Calderwood's second promotion success as a manager as two years earlier he had master-minded Northampton's rise from League Two.
Within weeks of that triumph, he was appointed manager at The City Ground - in the process he rejected the opportunity to leap straight into the Championship as boss of Ipswich.
Calderwood was already no stranger to life at Forest by the time he checked-in as manager.
He was coming towards the end of his playing career when he joined The Reds in 2000 and made only a handful of appearances before suffering ankle and knee injuries in a game against Birmingham.
He battled his way back to fitness but called time on his playing career after a spell on loan with Notts County.
Another of his former clubs Tottenham offered him his first backroom job, as coach of their reserve side and he gained valuable experience before linking-up with Northampton.
As a player, Calderwood launched his career as an assured central defender with Forest's Nottinghamshire neighbours Mansfield.
He then helped Swindon secure a Premiership spot before moving to Spurs, where he played alongside the likes of Jurgen Klinsmann and Nicky Barmby.
He had a spell with Aston Villa before getting his first taste of life at The City Ground.
Calderwood won 36 Scotland caps and appeared in Euro '96 as well as the World Cup finals in France in 1998.

Billy Davies 2009 - 2011

The East Midlands has played a prominent part in the career of Billy Davies - as both a player and manager.
He's well known in the region for his managerial exploits with Derby and, of course, Forest.
But as a talented midfielder he also had a spell with Leicester City, where he met his current City Ground assistant 'Ned' Kelly.
Davies also played for home town club Glasgow Rangers, Swedish side IK Elfsborg, St Mirren and Motherwell.
In 1998 he took his first steps along the managerial route, being appointed player-boss of Motherwell and, at the age of 33, becoming the youngest ever manager in the Scottish top flight at the time.
Six years later he was asked to take over as caretaker manager at Preston -after a spell as first team coach at the club - before landing the job on a full-time basis.
He guided the Lancashire outfit to within a whisker of a place in the Premier League in 2005 as they lost to West Ham in the play-off final.
The play-offs were their destination again 12 months later (although they slipped up at the semi-final stage against Leeds) before he left Deepdale to take charge at Derby.
Success at Pride Park was almost instantaneous for the ambitious Scot, who guided The Rams to promotion to the Premier League, via the play-offs, in his first season at the club.
Widely viewed as a victim of his own success, he parted company with Derby just months later.
But after 14 months out of the game, he returned to management in January 2009 by succeeding Colin Calderwood as Forest boss.
Charged with the job of keeping The Reds in the Championship, he achieved his objective with something to spare - a feat he insists is his greatest managerial achievement to date.

Billy Davies Factfile

Born: Glasgow, 31st May 1964
1980-1998 - as a midfielder, he plays for Rangers, Swedish side IK Elfsborg, St Mirren, Leicester and Motherwell.
1998 - appointed player-manager at Motherwell - at the age of 33, becoming the youngest ever manager in the Scottish top flight at the time.
2004 - after a spell as first team coach at Preston, he takes over as caretaker manager before being given the job on a full-time basis.
2005 - Preston narrowly miss out on a place in the Premier League as they lose to West Ham in the play-off final.
2006 - guides Preston to the play-offs again but this time they lose to Leeds in the semi-finals.
2006 - he leaves Preston in June to take over as manager of Derby.
2007 - guides The Rams to promotion to the Premier League as they beat West Brom in the play-off final at Wembley.
2007 - parts company with Derby in November.
2009 - returns to football management as he takes charge at The City Ground.

Steve McClaren June 2011 - October  2011

1961 - He was born on May 3 in Fulford, York
1978 - Joined Hull City as a player.
1985 - Left Boothferry Park to join Derby.
1988 - Next stop was Bristol City.
1990 - Joined Oxford where he brought the curtain down on his playing career.
1995 - Was appointed assistant to boss Jim Smith at Derby.
1999 - Became assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and in his first season at Old Trafford United won the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup.
2000 - Helped United land another Premier League title.
2001 - He was appointed manager of Middlesbrough after helping United retain the Premier League title.
2002 - He was a member of Sven-Goran Eriksson's England coaching staff at the World Cup in South Korea and Japan. Later that year he left his position as assistant to Eriksson to concentrate on his job at Boro.
2004 - He led Middlesbrough to their first major trophy - the Carling Cup. He returned to the England set-up for Euro 2004 and was subsequently made Eriksson's right hand man on a permanent, though part-time, basis.
2006 - Led Boro to the final of the UEFA Cup. A month later it was announced he would succeed Eriksson as England boss after the World Cup.
2007 - Left his post as England manager after the nation failed to secure qualification for Euro 2008.
2008 - Returned to management as manager of Dutch side FC Twente.
2010 - Led Twente to their first ever Dutch title before leaving to take charge of German side Wolfsburg.
2011 - His reign at Wolfsburg came to an end but he returned to management with Forest.