Legends

Nottingham Forest fans have enjoyed watching plenty of outstanding players at the City Ground through the years. Icons have emerged during the tough times and the glory days at one of England’s oldest football clubs.

Nottingham Forest News has looked into the top 10 legends of this historic club. From their renowned coach Brian Clough to European conqueror John Robertson.

Brian Clough

It is impossible to talk about Nottingham Forest legends without mentioning the Reds’ iconic manager, Clough. The tactician spent 18 years at the City Ground and guided the club to a number of historic successes alongside his assistant, Peter Taylor.

Clough guided the club remarkably to two European Cups and sole top-flight title that now sit proudly in Nottingham Forest’s trophy cabinet.

The Reds hired the Middlesbrough native while mired in the second-tier in January 1975, and Clough would oversee promotion in his first full season.

Nottingham Forest needed no time to readapt to the top-flight as Clough cemented his place as a club legend. He orchestrated the Reds’ first, and so far only, top-flight title in their debut campaign back in the old First Division during 1977/78.

A maiden top-flight title would also see the Reds return to Europe for the first time since the 1967/68 term. Forest quickly made their mark in Europe too by winning the European Cup despite being huge underdogs. Trevor Francis scored their only goal to beat Malmo 1-0 in the final.

Clough continued to write his legend as Nottingham Forest lifted the European Super Cup in 1979, too. The Reds then retained their European Cup title with a 1-0 win over Hamburg courtesy of a goal from Robertson.

John Robertson

Clough called Robertson the ‘Picasso of our game’ in his autobiography, which tells you all you really need to know about the legendary wide player.

Looks were more than deceiving when it came to Robertson, who despite not looking the fittest, actually played every game in four straight seasons during the club’s peak years.

Robertson’s greatest moment with the club during that four year period came in the 1980 European Cup final. The Scottish international cut inside from the left wing and rifled the ball into the net after a one-two with Gary Birtles, earning his side their second straight European title.

Such was the skill and grace that Robertson displayed on some horrible pitches to become a legend that Nottingham Forest’s fans twice voted him as their greatest-ever player.

Stuart Pearce

When Clough signed Stuart Pearce after two seasons at Coventry City in 1985, the defender was hardly expected to become a legend at Nottingham Forest. Yet the next 12 years would see ‘Psycho’ cement a place in City Ground folklore.

The full-back was both brilliant defensively and offensively throughout his time with the club, plundering 88 goals at one end and regularly scaring the life out of wide players at the other.

Pearce earned the captain’s armband during his time at the club, and was even given a caretaker player-manager role in the 1996/97 season too.

The England legend would return to the club once again in 2014 to manage the club for one rather unsuccessful season, but it did little to tarnish his legacy at the City Ground. That legacy had been cemented already with two League Cup triumphs and countless fantastic performances as a player.

Stan Collymore

While he may have only spent two seasons at the City Ground, Stan Collymore left his mark.

Collymore was a prolific finisher in his heyday and led Nottingham Forest’s promotion charge in 1993/94 with 19 goals. He would then repeat the haul in the forward’s first top-flight term at the City Ground to finish in third. His performances that season would secure the striker a blockbuster £8.5m transfer to Liverpool.

The deal was a British record transfer fee at the time and also marked a profit on the £3.5m that Nottingham Forest had paid Southend United.

Nigel Clough

Clough first joined Nottingham Forest as an apprentice upon finishing school but briefly left for Heanor Town between 1983 and 1984. His father, Brian, would bring the forward back as a first-team player.

The forward earned his place in the squad during the 1985/86 campaign, ending the season as the club’s top scorer by netting 18 in all competitions. It was one of five seasons in which he’d finish as the club’s top scorer on route to 131 goals for Forest – the second most in the Reds’ history.

Cough’s goals were key to Forest winning two League Cups in the late 1980s, with the forward netting a brace in the 1989 final win over Luton Town at Wembley Stadium.

Roy Keane

Roy Keane began his career at Cobh Ramblers before Clough saw the potential in the Cork-born midfielder. His work at the City Ground over the following three years would see Manchester United break the bank to sign him in 1993.

And while Man Utd would ultimately get the best years out of Keane, there’s no doubting the fact that he was quite the player at the City Ground too. After making his professional debut for the club in 1990 against Liverpool, the Irish midfielder never looked back.

Keane was a typical box-to-box midfielder for Clough’s side in the early 90s, scoring at least eight goals a year and regularly breaking up play with authority in the middle of the park.

The volatile Irishman would eventually rejoin the club in 2019 as Martin O’Neill’s assistant manager during a brief spell in the dugout.

Peter Shilton

While Clough was the mastermind behind the greatest achievements in Nottingham Forest’s club history, he built their triumphs on the rock-solid foundations of Peter Shilton in goal.

Shilton’s lightning-fast reactions and command of his penalty box more than justified the £270k that Clough spent to sign him from Stoke City in 1977. The England legend’s five years at the club would prove to be the most successful period in the club’s history, with the goalkeeper helping Forest to a First Division title and two European Cups – famously keeping clean sheets in both finals.

The number one made the PFA Team of the Year in all five seasons he enjoyed at the City Ground.

Des Walker

Nottingham Forest found a young Des Walker plying his trade as a youth in London in 1980. He had previously been on the books at Tottenham Hotspur as a kid. But Clough would give the defender his breakthrough aged 18 as the coach sought to rebuild the Reds come 1984.

Walker’s nine seasons at the City Ground would see Nottingham Forest finish three top-flight campaigns in third place, while he’d also play a vital role in the club’s run to two FA Cup semi-finals in 1988 and 1989.

And while he never managed to get his hands on the FA Cup with the club, Walker did taste Wembley success in the League Cup twice in 1989 and 1990 – winning the club’s player of the year award for his performances in 1990.

His form would eventually peak the interest petrol tycoon Paolo Mantovani and Sampdoria sealed a £1.5m transfer after Euro 1992. The defender had earlier been a target of Juventus after shining during the 1990 World Cup.

Sampdoria would only keep Walker for a season before he left Serie A to return to England with Sheffield Wednesday. Nottingham Forest then brought the legend back home in 2002 for the last three years of the pacey and tough-tackling enforcer’s career.

Viv Anderson

Viv Anderson was a footballing pioneer, and is rightly regarded as a legend for both Forest and England. The defender broke down barriers to be the Three Lions’ first full international black player, earning 30 caps with the Three Lions.

At club level, Anderson was utterly brilliant for Forest too, helping them to their two European Cup wins.

Anderson had great pace and power despite his awkward build, cementing his place among Clough’s many Nottingham Forest legends. The Reds’ season ticket holders also named the iconic former defender in the club’s greatest-ever XI in 2016.

Trevor Francis

Francis is a Nottingham Forest legend because of one fateful night in Munich in 1979, when the striker netted the only goal of the game to earn the club their first European Cup triumph.

Forest had forked out to make Francis the first ever £1m player in British footballing history, and while his skillset was never fully utilised by the club – thanks in large part to Clough and Taylor disagreeing over where he should fit into the starting XI – that one goal in Munich made the £1m money well spent.

Francis would leave the club not long after that goal, joining Manchester City in 1981 having played just 93 games in all competitions for the Reds.