As the Nottingham Forest players file out of the main building and head towards the training pitches, a grey-haired figure is there to offer each one a friendly handshake and a word of encouragement.
He wears the same dark blue training gear as the rest of the coaching staff, as well as a matching coat to keep out the spring chill. He looks entirely comfortable in his surroundings. But then he is entirely accustomed to the environment.
“When the new signings come in for the first time, a lot of them ask the same question: who is the old guy?” midfielder Ryan Yates tells The Athletic. “You have to explain to them that he is one of the biggest legends at the club. Then they get to know him and what he has done and they tend to be quite shocked, because he is such a humble character.”
John McGovern is the man who twice lifted the European Cup in 1979 and again in 1980; who captained the side under Brian Clough during the club’s most illustrious era. Now, at the age of 76, the former midfielder remains a familiar face at the Nigel Doughty Academy. In a season that has seen four different men take on the manager’s job, McGovern has been an almost daily presence on the training ground.
As training gets underway, McGovern keeps his distance from the action, but is happy to demonstrate that he has not yet lost his touch by occasionally delivering stray balls back to where they need to be with a sweep of his left foot.
McGovern still knows how to play a pass (Paul Taylor/The Athletic)
“I come up every day that I can, generally most days,” says McGovern. “Steve Cooper (the manager who led Forest to promotion in 2022) was the one who initially asked me. He said he would like me to come and meet the players. I asked him what for? He said I was part of the history and said it would be nice to see me here.
“He got the players in a circle and introduced me, a few of them — including Yatesy — knew me anyway. Steve said after a few days that it was the perfect setup. He felt that it created a good feeling in the camp, having me around. I spend most of my time being a ball boy… which on the colder days keeps you warm.”
McGovern has an official role as a club ambassador. He leads stadium tours and attends official events on behalf of the Premier League side. But you sense it is the opportunity to still be around the training ground, wearing a tracksuit rather than a suit, where he still feels at home.
“I see the players, I give them a handshake, and I watch them train. I enjoy what I am doing and they have to enjoy what they are doing, because it is one of the most revered occupations there is,” says McGovern. “They know they can talk to me openly. With the record the team had when I was captain, that is something that will never be repeated at the club. It is a prestigious record to have and I see it as a prestigious job that I am in now.
“When you get to my age, it keeps you occupied. What would I do otherwise? Sit at home? Anything I can do to represent the club is fine with me.”
McGovern keeping a close eye on Hamburg’s Kevin Keegan in the 1980 European Cup final in Madrid (Allsport/Getty Images)
Talk to former professional players and most will tell you that they miss the club environment when they retire. McGovern is grateful to still be able to immerse himself in it.
“The emotions that go through you watching a game… or even a training session: they do not change,” says McGovern. “Even if it is a five-a-side, I still find myself getting invested in it. I am not bothered about watching set-piece drills. But if it is something competitive, it is interesting to me.
“When I watch training, some of the things they do baffle me… but only because modern methods are different. Times have changed, but the basics do not. Good players still get the ball and pass it. The really good players still pass it straight away.”
McGovern was part of a Forest squad that would occasionally have to train on municipal pitches and would sometimes get chased off by the park keeper. “He’d be shouting that he had a cup quarter-final to be played on there at the weekend… we were trying to win a few trophies ourselves,” says McGovern.
“We did not have all the equipment that the players do now… the big mannequins and all the other stuff. We won the European Cup with 16 players. If you had a couple of injuries, you did not have many people to train with. You did a bit of a warm-up, then you played a small-sided game. People often ask how many days a week you would do that… it was every time.
“Sometimes it was a two-touch game. There was sometimes a shooting session for the goalkeepers at the end. What else? Well, we won the league and a couple of European Cups.”
Forest’s current captain, Yates, says the players value having the club’s most successful captain around.
“It is great because he is just such a good guy,” says Yates. “When I first got into the team, he seemed to like my aggression. He would always say to me, ‘Make sure you give them a kick’. I think that is the way he used to play. He liked to impose himself on the opposition and I try to do that now.
McGovern played under Brian Clough at four different clubs (Daily Express/Getty Images)
“I play with that aggression and when people like him tell you that you have a good attitude, that is probably the biggest thing. It is really easy to forget what he has achieved because he is just somebody you see around the place every day. But you think about the dressing rooms he has been in, the players he has played with, the games he has been a part of… the older generations have so much wisdom that you need to make the most of.
“I was talking to my brother about my grandparents and how much wisdom they have. I should be having more conversations with them and it is the same with John. I should be asking him more; I should be picking his brain because he has seen everything there is to do in football. He is a winner. He brings that to the club every day.”
McGovern remains a bundle of energy. When he is talking about the small margins that make the biggest difference, he climbs out of his chair to physically demonstrate exactly how goalkeeper Peter Shilton, another key figure in the European Cup-winning side, would stay on his toes when he was in a one-on-one situation.
“He would stand in a way that allowed him to spring in either direction, straight away. It saved him a split second. But that was enough,” says McGovern, who has not quite adjusted to every aspect of modern football.
“I do not pull my boots to go training, exactly, I just wear trainers. The boots look like ballet dancers’ shoes now. We had black boots. We did not have a boot deal. We did get a bonus when we won the European Cup, if we had half the team wearing adidas boots. But that was it.
“I never understood it because companies would only offer those bonuses for cup games. For me, the league was always the main objective. It is the same now. We need to stay in the Premier League. There is so much prestige attached to that. There is so much prestige in being in Europe as well, but unless you are in the top flight as well, you don’t generally get into Europe.”
McGovern rates Morgan Gibbs-White and Elliot Anderson (Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)
McGovern has seen positive energy on the training ground since Vitor Pereira’s appointment.
“The application of the players in training has always been excellent,” he says. “There are good players here. Elliot Anderson’s attitude is excellent. I would say the same thing about (Morgan) Gibbs-White. There are one or two small points in their game that I could criticise, but nobody is perfect.
“There were a lot of people critical of me when I played, in fact, there were people who did not think I could play at all. But I always felt that was up to my managers to decide. If I were so bad, how come the teams I played for won things?
“Hartlepool won promotion for the first time in the club’s history. Derby County won the second and first division championships and got to the semi-final of the European Cup. Then I was in the Forest side that won everything we did. Perhaps people are bad judges, or perhaps I was just the luckiest player in the world to stay in those sides…”
After 674 professional appearances, including 334 with Forest, there has been a physical toll to pay.
“I have two new knees and two new ankles,” he says. “I am still glad to be able to be here every day and I am happy that I am not yet limping around. I can still break into a jog. But that is me. Always a trier. Never give up. What would you do that for? You have to keep going.”
If that attitude rubs off on even some of the current players, then McGovern’s job will have been done.