Nigel Howard Clough (born 19 March 1966) is an English professional football manager and former player who is currently the manager of Mansfield Town. Playing predominantly as a forward, but later in his career used as a midfielder, Clough was capped by England 14 times in the early 1990s. Born in Sunderland and raised in Allestree, Derby, Clough is most notable for his time as a player at Nottingham Forest, where he played over 400 times in league, cup and European matches in two separate spells, mostly under the managership of his father Brian Clough, and scored 131 goals throughout his career making him the second highest scorer in the club's history. He subsequently had spells with Liverpool, Manchester City and Sheffield Wednesday before moving into non-league football at the age of 32 when he became player manager with Southern Football League Premier Division side Burton Albion in 1998. Over the next decade, during half of which he continued to play a regular role on the field, Clough took Burton up from the seventh tier of the English football league system to the brink of promotion to League Two. He left halfway through the 2008–09 season to follow in his father's footsteps as manager of Derby County, being dismissed in September 2013. He was appointed as manager of Sheffield United a month later, guiding them out of the relegation zone and taking the club to FA Cup and League Cup semi-finals. He was dismissed in May 2015 and returned to Burton in December, leading them to promotion to the Championship for the first time in the club's history in May 2016 and the League Cup semi-final in January 2019. He stepped down in May 2020, and returned to work in November at Mansfield Town. Playing career Club career Clough joined Nottingham Forest as an apprentice on leaving school in 1982. He left after two seasons to sign for non-league Heanor Town, but was back at the City Ground on a professional contract in December 1984. He became a regular player in the 1985–86 season, being Forest's top scorer with 15 goals in the First Division to help them finish eighth in the league, a position they repeated the following season when he found the net 14 times in the First Division. In April 1988, he was the subject of a £1.5 million bid from Italian side Pisa, but the bid