The Art of Management

Watched The Damned United today, without really intending to. A bit of background: the film is about Brian Clough's ill-fated 44 days as manager of Leeds United. I first heard of it (and how good it is) in December when in England. To my gratified astonishment I picked up an iffy DVD of it in Medan last week having seen neither hide nor hair of it in Singapore. I popped it on today just before finishing marking, ostensibly to check whether it played okay. It did, and I was hooked and so watched the whole thing. The marking had to wait.

I suppose part of my being hooked is that I have very strong recall of the actual events - being delighted at Leeds imploding. I was also a huge admirer of Cloughie - the promoted Derby County of 1969 played great, great football, better, I think, than his later Forest outfits, but you could always admire them also for really playing the game. Being given the 'inside story' as it were, was fascinating, especially when Michael Sheen and Timothy Spall recreate the Clough/Taylor axis so convincingly.

The scenes in which Clough insults Peter Taylor just before joining Leeds and apologises to him after the fiasco are superb, managing to be both intelligent and moving. At least part of the genius of Clough lay in his understanding of his flaws and his understanding that Taylor was fundamental to his success. What works wonderfully well in the movie is how we see Cloughie coming to understand that and not just accept it but embrace it.

And what also works brilliantly is the recreation of a genuinely charismatic character. You start to understand just how it (the great management) all worked, something you couldn't legislate for. It would be interesting to screen The Damned United on management/leadership courses. People would be usefully appalled.