Mansfield Town manager Nigel Clough doesn’t bother pretending.
When asked half-seriously, half-hopefully whether he and his squad are relishing the prospect of hosting Premier League leaders Arsenal in the FA Cup fifth round, he leans back, grins, and fires off the kind of line that instantly wins over a room full of sports journalism students, including one of our own, Holly Wright, who provided us with this interview.
“We’re absolutely s***ting ourselves,” he jokes, drawing laughter across the University of Derby lecture theatre.
Clough and four Mansfield players had made the short trip to campus to give students a taste of real-world interviewing.
What they got instead was a candid, self-deprecating, and surprisingly philosophical insight into what it means to prepare a League One side for a meeting with one of Europe’s elite.
Asked whether he’s looking forward to the challenge of facing a top side, Clough doesn’t sugarcoat it.
“It’s not a good experience,” he says. “He’s [Mikel Arteta] one of the best managers in the world at the moment. Arsenal are in a very good position—top of the Premier League and they finished top of the Champions League league phase.”
He pauses, then adds a memory that still seems to sting.
“I managed Burton against Manchester City about seven years ago and they beat us 9–0. It’s not a good experience. These teams have the ability to do that.”
The room goes quiet for a moment. It’s one thing to admire the glamour of a cup tie; it’s another to hear a manager speak so plainly about the gulf in class.
Despite the scale of the occasion, Mansfield’s first FA Cup fifth-round appearance in 51 years, Clough insists he won’t let the moment distort his priorities.
“The league is more important to us,” he says.
“I see it as a massive game for the supporters, but for us it’s just another game, so we have to keep ourselves grounded.”
If there’s one thing he demands from his squad on Saturday, it’s bravery.
“Don’t come off thinking you haven’t had a go,” he says.
He recalls the turning point in that match.
“We said to them at half-time, listen, we’ve got a chance here, you know and we all felt it in the dressing room. I said to them, if you get one, we’ll get two. Just don’t come off thinking you could have done a bit more. Just go for it.”
When the topic shifts to Arsenal’s set-piece strength, Clough can’t resist another joke.
“I’ll put Louis Reed—our smallest player at 5’8″—on their big men,” he laughs.
But he quickly turns serious.
“We won’t do too much analysis on them before the game, but we’ll try to deal with them as best we can.”
It’s a reminder that preparation only goes so far when the opposition is stacked with international stars.
