Clough Influence On Laws Finally Showing?

With the Owls' capture of Darren Purse, Brian Laws has added both stature and experience to the Wednesday squad and has shown that Laws learned plenty from Old Big 'ead.

Clough was insistent throughout his career that if the spine of the team was good, the rest was easy. Provided that the team had a reliable goalkeeper, a solid centre-back, an influential central-midfielder and a goal scoring forward then you had a good team that was capable of challenging.

Clough set about ensuring that the spine of the team was always right, before anything else. This all seems pretty simple and logical, but as Clough always said football was an easy game and didn't have to be over complicated.

Laws worked under a dwindling Clough from 1988-1993. However, it looks like Laws learned from the legendary manager and with a greater budget Laws can now put what he learned from Clough into practice.

With Goalkeeper Lee Grant committing to the club with a new contract, the reliable goalkeeper is already in place.

Purse definitely fits the bill as the solid defender. His experience and leadership qualities will be invaluable to Wednesday next season.

The next piece in the jigsaw lies in the midfield. The Owls have already been linked with both Tommy Miller and last season's loanee Darren Potter.

There seems to be a lack of urgency to sign a striker at Hillsborough. The Owls are well catered for up-front, but rumour has it that Laws is interested in signing veteran Bristol City striker Dele Adebola.

With an experienced influence running throughout the team Clough won two European cups at Nottingham Forest, with the likes of Kenny Burns, Peter Shilton, Martin O'Neill, Archie Gemmill and Trevor Francis.

Clough took Forest up from the second division by instilling a reliable spine in the team. He then managed to turn Forest into a force that could challenge for both domestic and European titles.

The game has definitely changed since when Clough did this, however, the basic principles still apply. With the experienced new additions to compliment the promising youngsters at the club the Owls look to be moving forward with Laws and the ghost of Brian Clough at the helm.

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