| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | James Yuille McLean | ||
| Date of birth | (1937-08-02)2 August 1937 | ||
| Place of birth | Larkhall, Scotland | ||
| Date of death | 26 December 2020(2020-12-26) (aged 83) | ||
| Position | Inside forward | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Larkhall Thistle | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1956–1960 | Hamilton Academical | 129 | (57) |
| 1960–1965 | Clyde | 102 | (32) |
| 1965–1968 | Dundee | 90 | (28) |
| 1968–1970 | Kilmarnock | 56 | (7) |
| Total | 377 | (124) | |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1971–1993 | Dundee United | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
James Yuille McLean (2 August 1937 – 26 December 2020) was a Scottishfootball player,manager and director.[1] He managedDundee United between 1971 and 1993, becoming the longest-serving and most successful manager in the club's history, winning three major honours. He was also part-time assistant manager toJock Stein with theScotland national team.
He led Dundee United to their onlyScottish Football League title in1982–83, followingScottish League Cup wins in1979 and1980. Under McLean, the club also lost in a further eight domestic cup finals. In European football, McLean's Dundee United reached theEuropean Cup semi-finalsin 1984 and theUEFA Cup finalin 1987. He became a Dundee United director in 1984 and served as chairman between 1988 and 2000, when he resigned after punching a reporter. His involvement with the club finally ended in 2002 when he sold his majority shareholding.
His playing career included spells withHamilton Academical,Clyde,Dundee andKilmarnock as aninside forward. He was a member of a prominent footballing family; his brothersTommy andWillie were also successful as players and managers.
McLean's achievements saw him win the first everSFWA Manager of the Year award in 1987. He was inducted into theScottish Football Hall of Fame in 2005.
James Yuille McLean[2] was born into a working-class family inLarkhall,Lanarkshire, on 2 August 1937,[3] the second of three sons of Tom and Annie McLean, and grew up in the nearby village ofAshgill. His maternal grandfatherWilliam Yuille had been a professional footballer, playing forRangers before the First World War.[4][5] Tom McLean, a baker, had been a promisingjunior footballer before joining thePlymouth Brethren when he married. The three brothers,Willie, Jim andTommy, who all went on to become professional football players and managers, had a strict religious upbringing.[6] After leaving school McLean served an apprenticeship as a joiner,[4] a vocation he continued to pursue for much of his playing career.[4]
McLean, who played as aninside forward, began his football career with the localjunior clubLarkhall Thistle.[4] He was the third member of the family to play for Larkhall, after his father – who appeared for them in aScottish Junior Cup semi-final in 1932 – and his brother Willie.[7]
In 1956, he started his senior career withHamilton Academical. He made more than 125 league appearances for Hamilton before leaving in 1960 to joinClyde.[8] After playing in over 100 league games for Clyde, McLean was transferred toDundee for £10,000 in 1965.[8] This move meant him becoming a full-time professional footballer for the first time in his career, aged 27.[8] His debut for Dundee came atDens Park on 11 September 1965[8] when Dundee were beaten 5–0 byDundee United, their heaviest ever defeat in aDundee derby. In his first season with Dundee, McLean scored eight goals, and he became their principal threat in attack afterCharlie Cooke was sold toChelsea in April 1966.[8] McLean scored 17 goals for Dundee during the 1966–67 season, which made him the club's leading scorer.[8] He followed this by scoring 18 goals in the 1967–68 season, during which Dundee reached theScottish League Cup final (losing 5–3 toCeltic) and theFairs Cup semi-final (losing 2–1 on aggregate toLeeds United).[8]
Following the signing ofGeorge McLean fromRangers, Jim McLean was used more in amidfield role.[8] He was not always popular with the Dundee supporters; McLean later attributed that to him having had to follow higher-class players such as Cooke andAlan Gilzean into their team.[8] Having played in every game for Dundee during the 1967–68 season, he was then dropped for the first match in 1968–69.[8] Days later he was to be sold for £3,000 toKilmarnock,[8] where he played alongside his brother Tommy. After making a total of 474 appearances and scoring 170 goals in his career, McLean retired from playing in 1970 and returned to Dundee as a coach in July of that year.[8]
McLean was first team coach atDundee for 18 months.[8] In November 1971 the club's managerJohn Prentice announced that he would resign at the end of that year; many outside observers assumed that McLean would become their manager.[8] Instead he became manager of their local rivalsDundee United, where he replaced the retiringJerry Kerr.[4] McLean immediately started a co-ordinated youth policy which was to produce many fine young players over the two decades which followed; he had personally visitedRalph Milne,John Holt, andDavie Dodds to encourage them to sign for United rather than forCeltic,Aston Villa, and rivalsDundee respectively.[9] In the short term, he used his knowledge of the Scottish scene to buy experienced players who would allow him to re-shape both the squad and the style of play in line with his approach to coaching.[9]
Initially, the club's league form was average, remaining mostly mid-table for the next few years. McLean's first hint of the success he would later achieve was leading the club to its firstScottish Cup final in1974, which they lost to Celtic.[4] It proved an important psychological step in McLean's and the club's development. The success of the Cup run was built upon the following season with a finish of fourth place, the club's best finish in theScottish league to date.[4][10] As the Scottish leagues were restructured after this season, this position qualified United for the newPremier Division.[4] They struggled in the first season of the new setup, and needed a draw atIbrox on the final day to avoid relegation (Dundee were relegated instead).[4]
By 1978 McLean's reputation as a manager was such that he was mentioned as a possible contender to replaceAlly MacLeod asScotland manager, withAlex Ferguson andWillie Ormond both suggesting him as a possible choice, though McLean himself stated he was not qualified to suggest someone for the position.[11] Ultimately the post went toJock Stein.
As McLean's youth policy began to bear fruit as a batch of talented young players began to emerge, includingMaurice Malpas,Paul Sturrock andDavid Narey.[4][9] McLean decided that his team should mount a challenge for the League championship in1978–79, something of which the club had never previously proved capable of. United started to prove that they were serious contenders for domestic honours. In December 1979, McLean guided his team to triumph in theLeague Cup by winning a replayed final againstAberdeen.[4] United retained the League Cup in 1980, defeating Dundee in the final.[4] They also reached the Scottish Cup Final in 1981, losing after a replay to Rangers.[4] At the same time as the club was enjoying a high standing Scottish football, McLean was gradually building the club's reputation in Europe.[4][10]
"He was a difficult taskmaster because you never really reached his goals. His goals were always just past what you thought was right."
Despite the progress he had made, few believed that McLean and United were potential Premier Division champions,Alex Ferguson'sAberdeen at that time were an emerging force in addition to the Old Firm. In the1981–82 UEFA Cup United defeatedAS Monaco andBorussia Mönchengladbach, but exited to Yugoslav side Radnicki Nis.[4] At this time McLean was also acting as assistant manager toJock Stein with theScotland national team, including at the1982 World Cup.[4]
In 1982–83, it appeared that United had missed another chance of winning the league championship after they lost to Celtic in the first of two meetings in April.[4] In the second game, United hadRichard Gough sent off with the score level but went on to win 3–2.[4] Celtic lost again on the following weekend and this left United in control.[4] A run of wins againstKilmarnock,Morton,Motherwell and Dundee (2–1 at Dens) clinched the league championship for United.[4]
Rangers, who had seen a decline in their fortunes over the previous few years, offered McLean the job as their manager later in 1983.[4] McLean engaged in early negotiations with the club; one of his main problems with the job offer wasRangers' policy of not signing Roman Catholics, a policy McLean found a ridiculous restriction for any employer as his United team included players from both faiths.[4] Despite the Rangers chairman assuring him that this policy would be scrapped if he accepted the job, McLean declined their offer.[4] McLean later said that although moving to Rangers would have been better for his career, it was not the only factor in his decision to stay at Dundee United.[12] His family were happily settled in theBroughty Ferry area ofDundee, and in June 1984 he turned down an offer to manage English clubNewcastle United.[13]
Following his team's League success in 1983, Dundee United made their debut in theEuropean Cup.[4] McLean's counter-attacking tactics paired with a pressuring style brought some memorable results in that year's European campaign. United reached the semi-finals of the competition, which they lost 3–2 on aggregate toRoma.[4] Three years later McLean took the team to a European final in theUEFA Cup, defeatingBarcelona and Borussia Mönchengladbach en route.[4] United lost 2–1 on aggregate to Swedish clubIFK Gothenburg in thefinal.[4] He won the inauguralScottish Football Writers' AssociationManager of the year award in 1987.[14]
For the rest of his managerial career McLean continued to secure United's high standing in domestic football, finishing no lower than fifth between 1976–77 and 1992–93.[15] He also took the team to six Scottish Cup finals, but never won the trophy.[15] The last of those cup final defeats was in the "family final" of1991 againstMotherwell, who were managed by his brother Tommy.[16]
The Dundee United board made McLean a director in 1984; four years later he became chairman and managing director, while still remaining the manager. He retained those joint responsibilities until stepping down as manager in July 1993, after a reign of almost 22 years. He remained as chairman after resigning as manager, stepping down from this role in October 2000 following an attack onBBC Scotland reporterJohn Barnes.[17] McLean returned briefly in January 2002 as a director[18] but departed a month later.[19] Still a majority shareholder, McLean sold his 42% stake toEddie Thompson in October 2002, severing his Tannadice ties permanently after more than 30 years.[20]
McLean was recognised for his achievements in football by being inducted into theScottish Football Hall of Fame in 2005.[21]
McLean contributed a regular column to theDaily Record newspaper, giving his views on football.[22] In October 2006, McLean criticised Eddie Thompson's running of Dundee United in his column, saying he had been a "disaster for the club". This led to the club withdrawing McLean's access "privileges" at Tannadice.[23]
McLean was awarded an honorary doctor of law degree by theUniversity of Dundee in 2011, in recognition of his managerial achievements.[24] He was inducted into the Dundee United Hall of Fame in 2015, with the club describing him as "unquestionably, the most successful manager in the club's history, and unlikely to ever be surpassed".[25] As of August 2018, a group of United supporters were organising a fundraising scheme in order to build a statue of McLean outside Tannadice.[26]
In February 2020, theDundee Repertory Theatre produced a play about McLean's life calledSmile.[27][28] McLean was unable to attend a performance himself due to ill health, but it received the support of his wife Doris and their family.[27]
Following a long battle withdementia, McLean died in December 2020 aged 83.[22]Dundee United stated that: "An integral part of our history and rise to the forefront of European football, Jim was simply a titan of Dundee United folklore, cherished by the United family the world over."[29] McLean's family, in a statement published by United, added: "Jim was a much-loved husband, father, brother, uncle and father-in-law, and we will all sadly miss him. His remarkable six-decade career made him a true legend not only at Dundee United, but across the world of football."[30]
Clyde
Dundee
Dundee United