Clough's longevity: landmark achievement or indictment on football?

Nigel Clough: Is Mansfield Town manager's longevity a landmark achievement or an indictment on football? - BBC Sport

Becoming the longest-serving manager at a club takes some doing in the fickle world of football.

Sticking around at two clubs long enough to hold that mantle is just about unprecedented.

But Mansfield Town's Nigel Clough is about to redefine longevity as a manager when it comes to working at sides that make up the top 92 in the English pyramid.

"I don't think it's particularly an achievement; I think it's more an indictment of football that nobody else has lasted that long," Clough told BBC Sport.

This weekend he becomes the longest-serving manager – in terms of active years in the job and league matches at the helm – of the Stags, where he surpasses club great Ian Greaves.

The 16 years Clough spent at Burton Albion, which took in around 900 matches across two spells spanning more than two decades, means the record at the east Staffordshire side is already his.

Former England forward Clough is now six years and one week into the Stags job and is the second longest-serving manager across England's top four leagues - behind only Mikel Arteta at Arsenal - but he does not see his staying power as anything special.

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