Jim McInally: Peterhead boss on learning from Brian Clough & Jim McLean

Peterhead's Jim McInally is currently the longest-serving manager in the SPFL

The Brussels sprouts kept piling up on Jim McInally's plate and he knew he had better keep scoffing them down.

His idiosyncratic host Brian Clough, after all, was not a man to be trifled with. Even on Christmas Day. "You were just in awe of him all the time," McInally recalls of his former Nottingham Forest manager.

"I was never a good eater and wherever we went he made me sit opposite him and have vegetables. So at Christmas dinner he was making me eat Brussels sprouts and his family were all sitting laughing."

Clough wasn't the only master of his profession that McInally learned from. He went on to spend seven years under Jim McLean as Dundee United vied with the European elite.

They were two managerial greats that he describes as "chalk and cheese".

But it was a grounding that served him well - McInally is currently the longest-serving manager in the SPFL with a tenure at Scottish League One Peterhead that will reach nine years in October.

And the best and worst traits of each man have informed the 56-year-old's style of leadership.

"You need to be tactically sound and know all the opposition's strength and weaknesses - that's where McLean was brilliant," he says. "And the other side of it is to let players express themselves. That's where Clough was the master, making players feel good about themselves."

Shouting at the TV & lax training

McInally was a 20-year-old living in a hotel for his first six months at Forest after leaving Celtic.

And, in an attempt to curb the loneliness, Clough invited him to join his family for Christmas. It was never likely to be a sombre occasion.

"Brian did the cooking, he was in his element," McInally says. "After the meal, he told [son] Nigel to put on the video of Forest's Uefa Cup win over Celtic the previous year.

"He had a wee soft spot for Celtic. He always wore a green rugby top and would say that's his Celtic shirt. By this time, he's well oiled shouting at the commentators, 'You thought they would beat us!'.

Brian Clough's 18-year Forest tenure included successive European Cup wins in 1979 and 80

A few days later, a broken leg suffered by Gary Mills offered McInally the chance of a regular run in the team and he blossomed.

The full-back's 18 months at Forest provided him with memories - and anecdotes about Clough, who died aged 69 in 2004 - to last a lifetime. No one was safe from the manager's withering wit.

"The chairman would come into the dressing room to say all the best and Clough would tell him to shove off. The next week the chairman wouldn't dare come in. He would be walking past and Clough would say, 'Oh, are we not good enough for you to talk to us?'"

'We rarely trained; we just walked'

Clough had led Forest from the second tier to a top-flight title and two European Cups, with a force of personality allied to a tactical plan that left players in no doubt about their roles. Even if it wasn't always practised to perfection.

"We went for loads of walks, but very rarely trained," McInally says. "We would play on a Saturday and be off till Thursday. The experienced players would train in their own time, but I was young and naive and would enjoy the days off.

"His psychology was brilliant. He would lose the rag with you more when you'd played well and knew you were up to taking it. And it would be an arm round the shoulder if you had played rotten.

"He didn't over-complicate things. His mantra - which I still believe in - was you only play when it's on."

While Clough's football philosophy was uncomplicated, his treatment of players - particularly those with a sizeable reputation - sometimes wasn't.

McInally was signed the same day as Johnny Metgod, who arrived from Real Madrid. If the Dutch defender expected superstar status, he was in for a shock.

"Clough was awfully hard on Johnny," McInally says. "It seemed he struggled with big-name players. I don't know if he had more power over boys like myself he had brought from lower levels.

"Gary Megson signed a couple of days later for £400,000 and Clough just took a dislike to him. We played Celtic in pre-season and Megson came out of the bathroom with a bright red face. Clough asked if he was okay and Megson replied, 'I just make myself sick before every game, gaffer.' Clough said, 'Well, you'll never make yourself sick again in my dressing room.' He barely played after that."

'McLean crucified us when we needed a cuddle'

Jim McInally spent 10 seasons at Dundee Utd across two spells

After leaving the City Ground for a short and unhappy stint with Coventry City, McInally was relieved to return north when McLean brought him to Dundee United in summer 1986.

It was a "big drop in money" but a sacrifice worth taking. The Tannadice club had reached the European Cup semi-finals two years previously, and remained a force on the continent.

Initially, McInally struggled to break into the team until McLean decided on a whim to reinvent the full-back into a tenacious midfielder.

"I only made my debut because he wanted to rest players for the League Cup semi-final against Rangers," he recalls. "We were playing at Hamilton and he came down the bus and asked me, 'Can you play midfield, chase the ball, press it?'. I had never played midfield before but I got man of the match and we won 5-0. He kept me in the team from then on."

McLean's band of upstarts would go on to defeat Barcelona in both legs of the Uefa Cup quarters-finals as they marched to the final. Having also progressed in the Scottish Cup, it set up a colossal climax to McInally's debut season on Tayside.

United were favourites to win both, but each prize eluded them. A 1-0 first-leg defeat by IFK Gothenburg in Sweden was followed by a 1-0 loss to St Mirren in the Scottish Cup showpiece. Fatigue was catching up with McLean's team as their 67-game season reached a soul-crushing conclusion.

Dundee Utd couldn't overturn the first-leg deficit against IFK Gothenburg in 1987 Uefa Cup final

With the second leg against IFK still to come at Tannadice, McInally believes a calming influence was required from McLean. The reality was quite different, and the Swedes left Scotland with a 1-1 draw and the silverware.

"McLean was a genius, years ahead of his time tactically," McInally says. "But there were times - like that Scottish Cup final - when he crucified us when we didn't need it. We were needing a cuddle. On the Monday, we had a team meeting and there was a big argument. It got out of hand. You think, 'Jeez, we're playing a European final in two days and we're having a barney.'

"Clough wouldn't have gone down that road. It was just man-management. McLean wasn't one for forgiving and forgetting. When there was a barney, that resentment was there for a long time. And that's the biggest thing I've picked up from them - how to treat players. Rollickings don't really work."