Former Burton Albion head coach Nigel Clough has told BBC Radio Derby that his job loss is nothing compared to the others happening across the country right now.
In what was very shocking news for the football world, Nigel Clough resigned from his position as the Burton head coach. This was his second spell in the club and had guided them higher up the league ladder than they had ever been before when they were promoted to the Sky Bet Championship. At the time of the season suspension, Burton were 12th in Sky Bet League One.
Unusually, Clough did not resign for footballing reasons. Instead he, alongside staff members Gary Crosby and Simon Clough, quit in order to keep safe the jobs of other people who work for Burton. Due to the Coronavirus shutting down football clubs and stopping their main source of revenue of ticket sales, several teams are set to struggle financially. Clough’s resignation is said to have helped several backroom Burton staff keep their jobs.
Clough has said though that his job loss is not important, especially compared to the news this week that Rolls-Royce, whose UK base is in the nearby Derby, will be letting go of 9,000 people due to the downturn in the aviation industry.
Clough said: “It seemed so unimportant what we were talking about compared to the news from Rolls-Royce this week. “We were talking about a few people losing their jobs in football at Burton, and then you’re talking about thousands of people.
“We’ve lived in Derby for 50-odd years and we know how important Rolls-Royce is for everybody. It’s just absolutely devastating news this week and I think everybody’s thinking about it in Derby and beyond.
“I know so many Derby fans work at Royce’s going back to the Baseball Ground days with my dad. It was always the railway and Royce’s, that’s what packed the stadium out, people from those places.”
