Shelly Webb, wife of professional footballer Neil Webb, gives an account of the parallel lives of star players better than any of the usual official biographers whose work we have come to bin almost immediately. Remembering when former Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough was trying to sign her husband, she recalls the idiosyncratic boss on their first meeting: " `Excuse me young man,' Brian Clough moved to the telephone at his desk. `My shoes need a clean.' An apprentice was duly summoned and the offending footwear removed. `Now where were we?' asked the Nottingham Forest manager, padding around in his socks. "Well, where we were was bizarrely, at the point of Clough trying to get my husband to sign a blank contract. Totally bemused Neil and I couldn't look at each other as we were possessed by a mixture of mirth and terror. Terms had been offered but the contract as offered to Neil was blank. . . when I'd tried to contribute to the initial contract talks, I was given short shrift: `I wasn't talking to you Miss Busy,' said Clough. That put me in my place.

"The contract was signed and I was dumbstruck. In fact Neil's contract was honoured in full."

In another episode when the Forest players trooped into the changing rooms at half-time, dejected and 2-0 down after a poor first half, Clough simply popped his head around the door and said: "I'm sorry lads, I've picked the wrong team." Then disappeared.