[OFF THE POST] With his team stuck in the lower half of the English second division, Coach Nigel Clough decided that the inspirational quotes from famous athletes, politicians and philosophers that adorned the walls of the club's training facility weren't much help. He had them painted over and noted, "most of the players can't read anyway."
The quotes, which included the wisdom of Lance Armstrong, Michael Jordan and Plato, were the idea of previous coach, Paul Jewell, who resigned in December and, the Telegraph pointed out, would have walked right past Winston Churchill's 1941 words of: "Never, never, never quit!"
Midfield Robbie Savage approved of the paint-over, "None of the lads ever looked at them. … Reading a sign on a wall is not going to make you pass the ball five yards to a white shirt."
Clough's crack about his players' literacy recalled what his father, the famous coach Brian Clough, once said: "Being thick isn't an affliction if you're a footballer because your brains need to be in your feet."