The damned united

Team talk

THE DAMNED UNITED

Director: Tom Hooper

Cert. 15. 97 minutes

This is the story of the football manager Brian Clough, who died of stomach cancer in 2004. Clough is wonderfully played in the film by Michael Sheen, and his life is seen through the lens of his disastrous 44-day sojourn at Leeds United in 1974.

The film is about a journey to maturity. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that Clough is driven by rivalry with and dislike of Don Revie, the ex-Leeds and later England manager. Clough becomes obsessed with raising his Derby County side to the top flight of football in order to beat Leeds. Behind this obsession is Clough’s big ego, often expressed in very outspoken media interviews. (The use of bad language in the film is frequent and horrid.)

Having clashed with his chairman at Derby and been sacked despite his success, what he learns through the humiliation of his failure at Leeds is that he cannot ride rough-shod over other people and, in particular, that his partner Peter Taylor (Timothy Spall) is crucial to his life and work in football. He is nothing without him. The film depicts this relationship almost as a marriage. There is a divorce. But ultimately Clough has the sense to humbly ask to be taken back.

While Revie’s career nose-dived after leaving Leeds, Clough went on to manage Nottingham Forest to two back-to-back European Cups, and the film declares him ‘the greatest manager England never had’. Wise men learn from their mistakes. There is a path to glory through repentance.