Cloughie virtually was allowed a free hand to run Forest exactly as he wanted and the board were always walking on eggshells in case they upset him. When I was at YPO, we used to deal with a Nottingham based Plumbers Merchants called Derek Pavis. Once got treated to lunch by his son Mike and he told us of an incident involving his Dad Derek who was on the board at Forest and Cloughie. The team coach was on its way out of Nottingham the Friday before a Saturday fixture in the capital against Spurs. Derek and a fellow director were sitting behind Cloughie and Peter Taylor. They overheard Derek offer his co-director a £50 bet on the result at White Hart Lane. Pavis went for Forest to lose. At that point, Cloughie leapt up and rang the bell to stop the bus. The driver opened the door and Cloughie who by this time had beckoned both Derek and the Chairman Maurice Roworth to join him sitting on a wall explained what he had heard and if Pavis got back on the bus, he would not travel with the team and go home. Faced with that option, Derek agreed to phone his son to pick him up to take him back home. If he thought that was the end of the matter, he was mistaken. On the Monday, Cloughie demanded that the board meet up the next day and as part of the business, he requested that Mr Pavis tendered his resignation. That happened and Derek went on to buy Notts County and after a few years managed to smooth things over with Cloughie. https://www.wsc.co.uk/the-archive/961-and-who-are-you-exactly/4055-derek-pavis
Great article that, DR. Although I had to chuckle at the Karen Brady bit. I would've assumed she didn't mind a "men only" boardroom, with her being a militant Tory
