A campaign by the Evening Gazette to honour football legend Brian Clough with a statue in his home town is gathering pace.

Since the death of the former football manager the Middlesbrough-based newspaper has been calling for a permanent memorial, and a site has now been chosen in the town's Albert Park.

The statue, which could cost between £30,000 and £40,000, will feature Clough as he was when he played for Middlesbrough FC.

So far around £4,000 has been raised, and members of a specially set-up fundraising committee, which includes Gazette reporters Will Sutton and Anthony Vickers as well as local councillors and members of Clough's family, are looking at ways to boost The Brian Clough Memorial Fund.

Gazette editor Steve Dyson said at the launch of the campaign: "It was not so much sporting greatness that turned him into a household name, loved as much by grannies as husbands and sons. It was his charisma, his self-belief and his sparkling humour.

"He deserves to be remembered with a statue in Middlesbrough.

"But not simply for something he once was - a brilliant Boro player - but also for something he always was, a Teesside lad through and through who never forgot his roots."

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