Motivation Quote by Brian Clough

Brian Clough’s genius here is that he praises a river by admitting, almost proudly, to an impossible act. You can’t literally “walk on” the Trent for 18 years unless you’re performing a miracle, a stunt, or a lie. Clough knows that, and the joke lands because it’s a football man’s way of doing poetry: a deadpan exaggeration that sounds like local affection but doubles as a jab at anyone taking language too literally.

The context does the heavy lifting. Clough’s Nottingham Forest years made the River Trent part of his personal geography: the stadium on its banks, the city’s identity, the weekly ritual of matchday. “Lovely” is a plain, almost stubbornly unromantic adjective, which fits his public persona - the straight-talker who distrusted pretension. Then he undercuts the sincerity with that absurd credential: “I know because…” It’s mock expertise, the classic Clough move of asserting authority while exposing how flimsy authority can be.

Subtext: this isn’t about hydrology, it’s about belonging. Clough is staking a claim to place through repetition and time served. The “18 years” is a badge: I’ve been here long enough to love it, to be synonymous with it, to talk about it like I own the right. And by choosing an image that veers into messianic territory, he also pokes fun at football culture’s tendency to canonize its managers. If you’re going to treat me like I walk on water, he implies, at least let me pick the river.