Have you ever wondered why they just love to ’scandalise’ successful achieving people? I am not talking about high profile people by reason of wealth, association or position. I am talking about the likes of Jose Mourinho (former Chelsea manager), Princess Diana, George Michael (singer), Tiger Woods, The Undertaker (wrestler) and Brian Clough (the best football manager England never had!)

Yeah, yeah I can hear you saying that they are perfect fodder for the press to sell papers but the press would not cover them if people are not interested in their perceived scandals! People seem to love scandals especially where it involves successful people ….. they like to see them fall somehow!

It is no wonder that  others have taken pains to maintain not only a low profile but also a good relationship with the press. Some that come to mind is Elton John, Paul McCartney and Ophrah Winfrey.

One person who did not take pains to do so was Brian Clough, a successful football player whose career was cut short by injury, and who went on to become a successful football manager, winning the English First Division title (now Premier League) with two different teams comprising mediocre players (Derby and Nottingham Forest). With Forest, Brian Clough also won the European Cup (now Champions League) twice.

The uniqueness about Brian Clough was that whilst he was opinionated to the point of being over-bearing and hence appearing arrogant, no one could doubt the success that he achieved at those two clubs.

He not only had a footballing brain but he could translate it into strategy on the field to great effect. I recall one game in the first half when Forest could not score against West Ham which was down to 10 men. After the pep talk at half time, Forest was a ‘different animal’ and totally decimated West Ham by taking advantage of that extra man!

One of his key attributes was the ability to convert players labeled as ‘has beens’ into players of European Cup champions material. I recall Kenny Burns, the ‘over the hill’ striker turned centre half with Larry Lloyd, also an ex-striker with Liverpool. Then there were the previously ’unknowns’ like Peter Withe, Garry Birtles and Tony Woodcock.

Fast forward to current, and Inter Milan’s straight talking manager, Jose Mourinho becomes a close comparison to the great late Brian Clough. Having turned Porto into Champions Cup winners, he joined Chelsea and won 5 cups in three short seasons. Now with Inter Milan, they won the Serie A last season and recently beat Chelsea in the last 16 of the Champions Cup.

Both however are constant targets of critics …… people just try to run them down at every opportunity.

Come to think of it, this happens in society too!

Maybe critics think that success needs to be COUNTERED (and hence balanced) with some negatives  and they know how to do it! The irony of it is that the running-down of people is done with lies and innuendoes!

My view of it all is that these critics (some call them jealous cretins!) do not like the perceived arrogance of successful achievers. Whatever quotes attributed to successful people are dissected to the tiniest minutiae, resulting in mis-quotation or mis-perception.

The moral of the story of successful achievers - THEIR WORDS NEED TO BE COUCHED IN LANGUAGE ACCEPTABLE TO THE TROUBLED!