Dean Saunders played just one season for Nottingham Forest on the downside of his career, but in 1991, Brain Clough tried to sign him. Saunders shared a colorful version of the story about his encounter with Clough — a brilliant manager who battled alcoholism — on TalkSport and his audience ate it up with a spoon.
Saunders’ story takes place at the home of Clough’s assistant, Alan Hill. I’d summarize it here, but I couldn’t do it justice. Just watch the video above and take it all in.
Done? Pretty crazy, right? Well, it’s not true. At least, that’s what Hill said when the Guardian asked him about it. Daniel Taylor writes:
“It’s a good after-dinner speech but unfortunately most of it isn’t true,” he told me. “Brian wasn’t drunk, he wasn’t crawling on his hands and knees, he didn’t sit facing a wall, he didn’t mention the carpet once and there was no flowerpot … it just feels like he [Saunders] has put this story through a very imaginative scriptwriter and this is what they’ve come up with.”
This wasn’t the only made-up tale to be believed during the slow international break, though. A story purportedly from Andres Iniesta’s autobiography about Ronaldinho was also widely shared…
An extract from Andrés Iniesta new autobiography just confirms how much of a legend Ronaldinho really is… pic.twitter.com/lHfj1AeQyl
— BigSport (@BigSportGB) September 5, 2016
…it was also very fake. But in lieu of actual happenings during the break, lies really are the next best thing.