Jim McLean: flawed genius who lit up our lives

The first time I watched Dundee United was in August 1969.

I was ten years old and my family had recently moved from Maidenhead in Berkshire to a house overlooking Dundee and the River Tay.

I was also a subscriber to Tiger, a popular children’s comic that featured Roy of the Rovers.

If the exploits of Roy Race and Melchester Rovers often stretched credibility, much the same could be said of the real life club I have supported for 51 years.

The man responsible for bringing such unexpected joy (and anguish!) into our lives was Jim McLean who managed United for 22 years (1971-1993) and died on Boxing Day aged 83.

Since then there have been numerous articles extolling his genius and complex personality.

Some of them have been written by the very journalists he sometimes banned from the stadium after taking offence at something they had said or written.

Others have been written by supporters of rival clubs.

Remarkably, fans of many clubs - including Celtic and Rangers - have gone online simply to say how much they enjoyed watching McLean's teams when they were at their peak in the early to mid Eighties.

Given how tribalistic football supporters are, this is unusual to say the least.

Outside Scotland McLean’s name is largely unknown - even among football fans - but that shouldn’t diminish what he achieved as manager of this medium-sized (in Scottish terms) football club.

To put it in perspective, before he was appointed manager of Dundee United in 1971 at the age of 34, the club had spent much of its existence outside the top division and had never reached a major cup final.

The ultimate domestic prize – the Scottish league title – was beyond the club's wildest imagination.

Founded in 1909 as Dundee Hibs by members of the Irish immigrant community, the club was renamed Dundee United in 1923 but it was another 36 years before the players went full-time.

Even after the club was promoted to the old first division in 1959 under McLean’s predecessor, the laconic pipe-smoking Jerry Kerr, United remained in the shadow of Dundee, their older and more successful neighbours whose Dens Park stadium is a stone’s throw from United’s ground.

In the Sixties Dundee not only won the league with players such as Ian Gilzean (who subsequently went to Spurs) and Charlie Cooke (likewise transferred to Chelsea), the club also reached the semi-finals of both the European Cup and Inter-City Fairs Cup (later rebranded as the UEFA Cup), losing to AC Milan and Leeds United respectively.

In contrast United were no more than a mid table side capable of the occasional freak result (notably home and away victories against Barcelona in the Fairs Cup in 1966) but even a one-off cup final appearance - like Dundee reaching the Scottish League Cup final in 1967 - was beyond them.

If United were known for anything in the Sixties it was for innovations such as the Taypools lottery, the recruitment of players from Scandinavia, and the decision to take part in an American soccer league during the summer of 1967 when they were known as Dallas Tornado.

(As Dallas Tornado the players wore a predominantly tangerine kit, a colour that was adopted, two years later, by United themselves, replacing the black and white colours the club had used since 1923.)

Within a decade of his arrival, however, McLean had completely changed the football dynamic in the city, with United’s fan base eventually outnumbering that of its older but now less successful city rival.

The irony is that McLean was first team coach at Dundee before United appointed him as their manager. Who knows what might have happened had he stayed and become manager of Dundee, but the facts speak for themselves.

The last major trophy Dundee won was the Scottish League Cup in 1974 and according to the club itself ‘half a dozen of the squad left the Club’s official reception at the Angus Hotel early, to visit their former coach McLean, whom they believed had done so much to improve their game.’

Compare that to United’s achievements since then.

Under Jim McLean the club won the League Cup twice (1979 and 1980). That was followed, in 1983, by the holy grail, the Scottish Premier Division title.

Three trophies in 22 years might seem small beer to some clubs (including Aberdeen, who did even better under Alex Ferguson) but it doesn’t tell the full story.

Under McLean there were six Scottish Cup final appearances and a further three League Cup finals.

Admittedly, United lost every one of those matches (leading to talk of a ‘Hampden hoodoo’), but most provincial club managers in Scotland would have been delighted to reach even one final let alone twelve over two decades.

Hard to believe now but there was also the little matter of reaching the semi-finals of the European Cup in 1984 and being a whisker away from playing Liverpool in the final in Rome.

United were beaten 3-2 on aggregate by Roma and it has since been alleged/confirmed that the referee in the second leg was offered a bribe to favour the Italian club.

Either way United recovered from that disappointment to beat Barcelona (again) en route to reaching the final of the UEFA Cup in 1987 where they lost 2-1 (over two legs) to Gothenburg.

Under McLean, United qualified for Europe 14 seasons in succession, a feat unimaginable today.

Without him, it is unlikely too that they would have been in a position to finally win the Scottish Cup for the first time in 1994, although that happened the year after he relinquished the manager’s job and became chairman.

None of these achievements happened overnight. It took time, a commodity rarely given to managers these days.

In 1976, four-and-half years after McLean’s appointment as manager, United were within a point of being relegated from the new 10-club Premier Division but the board of directors stuck by him because they saw the progress the club was making.

In 1974 United had reached their first Scottish Cup final, albeit losing heavily to Celtic. The following season the club finished fourth in the old 18-team Division One, level on points with Celtic. It was the club’s highest ever league position.

The directors also realised there was a conveyor belt of talented young players coming through the youth system that McLean had created. When, in 1983, United won the league, most of the players were the product of that system.

Today McLean’s achievements are qualified by stories of behaviour that simply wouldn’t be accepted today. These include a famously volcanic temperament and tying players to six, seven or eight year contracts on relatively low basic wages.

In fairness, as well as protecting United’s interests, McLean could argue that it also offered security to players who could be injured and forced out of the game.

Another side of the coin is that McLean incentivised his teams financially to not only win but to entertain.

Famously he once denied his players their full ‘entertainment’ bonus after beating Motherwell 6-1 because he believed they eased off in the second half and short-changed the supporters.

Listen to his former players and opinions range from enormous respect to, occasionally, genuine antipathy.

His death however has generated stories greatly at odds with his curmudgeonly reputation, several focussing on his kindness to strangers.

A complex character, then, but someone whose ability as a football coach brought pleasure to thousands.

Some of the best days of my life would not have happened without Jim McLean, and for that I am eternally grateful.

See also:
Jim McLean: Dundee Utd announce death of legendary manager aged 83 (BBC News)

For Dundee United fans, Jim McLean will remain a messianic figure (Telegraph)

Jim McLean: An Appreciation (The Celtic Underground)

The forgotten story of ... Dundee United's glory years under Jim McLean (Guardian)

Best of all, Jousting with Jim, a beautifully written piece by Neil Forsyth, first published in Nutmeg magazine in March last year.

Oh, and if you still have any doubts about McLean’s status, perhaps this will convince you:

Jim McLean: Sir Alex Ferguson pays tribute to 'biggest adversary in football' (Sky News)

Below: Tannadice, the stadium that Jim built, December 2019