Be Good, Love Brian: Growing up with Brian Clough

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It's being published by Mudlark (Harper Collins) who are one of the worlds major publishing houses. Apologies for the huge delay in publication but it really was out of my control. Craig Bromfield, who grew up with the football manager, recalls being with him on the most devastating day in the sport’s history It was the catalyst for this book. "I started writing it as a thank-you letter to Mrs Clough and it just transformed." He asked permission to write it, but knows they are a private family. "A lot of people have said things that did not need to be said. I hope that I haven't.

We are all ushered into the dressing rooms. Somebody says there has been a death. Later, we are told five people have been killed and that the club gymnasium is being turned into a morgue. Brian was at the front of the Forest bus, slumped in his seat. The deaths had left him distraught Working for Simon in his shop, Craig found out that money was being taken by his colleague and friend. Instead of reporting it to Simon, he was persuaded not only to remain silent but take a cut, trying to justify it to himself on the basis that they were being underpaid. The Clough's did nothing wrong and nothing to deserve what I did. But what rhey did for me should be known. When discovered by the Clough family, it was handled delicately. The authorities were not involved, there was even severance pay. Don't feel the need to do things because you have to make amends for something decades ago when you were a child. Do it because you want to, because you're a good person, and then realise you are that person.

If I come out of it badly I deserve that as well. The book isn't a tribute to me. It's a tribute to Brian, Mrs Clough and their kids. A gratitude-filled, heartwarming story about the kindness, generosity and grace of the Clough family shown towards the author. Lots of funny, touching and poignant anecdotes, that are guaranteed to bring a tear.

In 2018, he saw Nigel at a match. They hugged and talked. Nigel told him he was sorry to hear about Aaron. Craig didn’t know that his brother, by then an alcoholic, had died a few weeks earlier after drinking heavily and taking too many antidepressants. Craig insists Aaron hadn’t intended to kill himself – his clothes were laid out, neatly pressed for the next day. Friends of Aaron had told the Cloughs, but not Craig.Craig Bromfield was just 13 years old when Brian Clough, on a whim, took him and his older brother, Aaron, in. Be Good, Love Brian, tells a fabulous true story about one of the legends of our game, someone we thought we knew everything about, but now know we didn't. This is an amazing, meticulously entertaining insight into what Brian Clough was really like, from the tiny details to the big FA cup finals. It also gives a fascinating, impressively disarming insight into Craig himself, how he grew up, and how he came to be part of Brian Clough's family. Even now, I struggle with what happened. There are days when it hits me more. Days when I just sit there and wonder who I am. Am I the person I have grown into, who I think is predominantly good, or is that a mask? Underneath it all, am I still that scruffy little kid?" Oh, but most of all, you will fall in love with the family behind the man you all thought you knew. It's a love letter, an IOU for emotional kindness given and an apology all in one.

Nowadays, he says, the only true happiness he gets is from following Nigel Clough around the country, watching whichever team he’s managing. Now Nigel is at Mansfield, with Simon alongside him as chief scout. He doesn’t talk to the Cloughs when he goes to the matches; he doesn’t even tell them he is there. “Brian used to say, ‘You’re either loyal or you’re not’ and for a while I was not. The only way I can show him I’m loyal now is by following Nigel. I love any club he goes to. I immerse myself in it.” I love Brian Clough, he was the Forest manager when I was growing up. I might romanticise my childhood memories but he was one of the best things to happen to the club. I walk up the drive and tell Brian, who marches out, looking for the man. For the next three days, there are journalists and photographers in the garden. Soon enough, he was sitting in the dugout with Clough as Forest won two more League Cups. “Imagine what it’s like for someone to come from where I came from and suddenly be in the dressing room at Wembley on Cup final day, and to be surrounded by heroes,” Craig says. “I had goosebumps. The players made me feel like I was part of the team. I felt like a little king.” How do you follow life with Brian Clough? I thought I wanted success, money, a great house, and none of it’s filled the holeBeen looking forward to this since I was able to read a bit of a preview. Some of the shite you've had to overcome is ridiculous! It was a tough upbringing. "I never felt safe in my own home." His father, technically his stepfather, would beat his mother and had been a somewhat notorious figure. "He did not exactly make it easy on himself or us by becoming a drug dealer," says Craig. It was a life transformed. Time spent on the team bus with England internationals Stuart Pearce and Des Walker, taking part in training sessions, witnessing Wembley cup final wins. Memories to cherish. "Growing up around heroes and having amazing experiences." The reason I wrote the book is 2 fold. One, up until the point I turned into a shit, it was a beautiful story and one I felt should be told to show exactly what an incredible person BC was and what a beautiful family the Clough'a are. While he talks to Nigel now, there was no reunion with his father. He came close once. At Burton Albion during Nigel's first spell there, but stopped himself. "It was totally my fault. I just bottled it at the last minute because I did not know what to say."