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"But I don’t think of it as a football film at all," offered Michael Sheen. "I think of it as a film about, if anything, about a marriage. It’s just a very unconventional marriage, but it’s nevertheless, between Clough and Taylor, there is this relationship, very intimate, very interdependent and codependent kind of relationship between them. They need each other to succeed. They rely on each other.

Taylor in his book talks about spending time with Clough in a room where Clough is throwing things against the wall out of frustration and then weeping, sobbing, uncontrollably into Taylor’s arms. This is a physical and an emotional and psychological intimacy between two men that is quite rare, I suppose."

"There’s all the complexity of a marriage in there, as well as, I guess, the resentment that grows up from that. Any relationship where you’re so dependent on each other, I think certainly for Clough, he felt like, 'I don’t need him. I can be successful without him.' There’s all those kind of resentments and frustrations. So, if anything, I think of it as a film about that and then you’ve got this professional rivalry and this kind of affair, this obsession that Clough has about Revie and Leeds United, which is like the affair that he goes off and has. Then at the end of it, when it all falls apart, he goes back and asks forgiveness from his wife again. That’s why it’s no coincidence that we have Taylor saying to Clough, 'Take me back, baby.

I couldn’t do it without you,' and all that. It’s self-consciously about this relationship so I think of it as, in a way it could take place with any backdrop. It doesn’t have to be about football. It could be big business, it can be anything. It’s about the people and relationships in it."

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The Damned United hits theaters on October 9, 2009 and is rated R for language.