FA Cup: Trophy that eluded Clough has been Wenger's saving grace

A game of no genuine managers on the touchline, as Arsene Wenger begins a three-match ban, is nevertheless the tale of two.

Nottingham Forest, under the temporary stewardship of Gary Brazil are searching for their 11th manager since 2011 and their 19th of Wenger’s reign at Arsenal. But these are two clubs who are indelibly associated with one figure in the dugout, two who were reinvented by a revolutionary force.

Brian Clough was only 14 years Wenger’s senior, but a man who has been dead for 13 years feels a figure from a very distant age, the most remarkable of a British generation of charismatic, outspoken man-managers. And if there was far more, incorporating some extraordinarily good signings and tactical prowess, to his success than that, he feels Wenger’s opposite in some respects, and not just because he came from an era when English managers dominated.

Wenger, the first foreigner to win Division 1 or the Premier League title, has secured a record seven FA Cups. Clough never won one. Yet a reason why many believe he ranks among the greatest ever managers is that he won the European Cup twice with a provincial club who were 13th in Division Two when he was appointed; Wenger lost the 2006 final to Barcelona but the Uefa Champions League has eluded him.