Chris Fairclough ⭑ From A-Z since '92

This is part of my (eight year long, it'll fly by) attempt to write about every Leeds United player since 1992. For more about why I'm doing this, go back to Aapo Halme, and to read all the players so far, browse the archive here.

The same sort of adjectives were being used about Chris Fairclough's last games, for Bolton and York City, as about his first for Nottingham Forest. Calm. Efficient. Commanding. Steely. Composed. Elegant. All that had changed was that nobody, as he neared retirement, could claim he was mature for his age anymore. Instead it was hard to believe his babyface held so much experience. Behind his headline qualities of consistency, reliability, the sort of low maintenance high performance player Howard Wilkinson loved, was a ruthless streak and an indomitable temper that helped make him a strong defender, a benchmark of the art.

Brian Clough picked him out from the start. Seventeen-year-old Fairclough had only been with Forest's youth team a few months when the manager went, specifically, to watch him play. He immediately promoted Fairclough to the reserves, and a few months later picked him at the City Ground for a friendly with Vancouver Whitecaps, although the programme called him 'Nigel'. Steve Hodge made an appearance too in a Leeds-flavoured 2-2 draw, featuring 44-day Clough of course, but also David Harvey, Terry Yorath, Ray Hankin and Peter Lorimer with the visitors.

Fairclough started playing in the First Division soon after turning eighteen, but attracting Clough's attention meant some special treatment, like going back to the reserves to learn how to be a midfielder. "Not only has he taken to the position, but he has also looked convincing in it, which says even more for his ability," said Clough. Within a year Fairclough was fully established in the first team — in defence — and Clough was still quick to praise him, although in this case he was also quick to regret saying so much by suggesting the now nineteen-year-old would be England's first Black centre-half.

"On reflection, I realise how daft I was to say it," said Clough. "What that statement did was put pressure on Chris at a time when he didn't need it. If anything, I should have been trying to take the pressure off him. Instead, he had to go out onto the pitch with the burden of what I'd said on his shoulders."

Clough added, "It hasn't affected his form to such an extent that anyone would notice," and he'd been helped by one of Fairclough's key traits, that by nature he seemed eternally unperturbed. Which may not have been entirely true. When he was suspended early in his Forest career for accumulating too many bookings, Fairclough said his friends were surprised because they didn't think he was that sort of player. But he also got two first-half red cards for Forest, the second for lashing out and kicking Manchester United's Norman Whiteside while he was on the floor; later, for Spurs, he was sent off for punching John Aldridge. It seemed impossible for him to look angry. But that didn't mean he couldn't be angry.