EVEN BARCA BOWED TO HIS GENIUS
United hero Ferguson hails McLean as ‘total perfectionist who was well ahead of his time’
IN a remarkable career spent Jousting with Giants as manager of Dundee United, it was undoubtedly Jim McLean’s finest hour. Beating the mighty Barcelona 2-1 in the Nou Camp on March 18, 1987 to complete back-to-back UEFa Cup wins over the La Liga giant was hailed by the normally hyper- critical Tannadice figurehead as: ‘the greatest result in the club’s history.’
For Iain Ferguson, scorer of the winning goal t hat night in the Catalan capital, United’s remarkable success in European football under the late McLean was down to a combination of the boss’ tactical genius, his revolutionary innovative streak and the good old-fashioned fear factor.
‘It’s very sad news to hear that Jim McLean has passed away. He was a true genius of a coach and we will never see his likes again,’ Ferguson told Sportsmail. ‘It was an experience to play under him but his management skills left a lot to be desired at times.
‘He had very good professionals in the Dundee United dressing room l i ke David Narey, Paul Hegarty and Eamonn Bannon but he lambasted everyone.
‘You could be winning a match 4-1 but he’d be waiting for you in the dressing room at half- time if you had made a mistake.
‘He got his point across by using the Sir alex Ferguson hairdryer method. I think the two of them shared a room in Inverclyde on a coaching course and came up with it together.
‘You didn’t want to let him down because you knew he would rip your head off.
‘But he also would pinpoint everything that you had done wrong in the game — and he was always correct.
‘ I had an answer for every single manager I pl ayed under but I never answered back to Jim McLean. Not once in the two years I was at United.
‘Not because I was scared of him — but because Jim was always right. He was just so far ahead of his time. He was a total per f e c t i o ni s t a nd he was dedicated to getting the very best out of the players at his disposal.
‘I learned more about football under Jim in two years at United than I learned in the rest of my career.’
In addition to his tactical nous, McLean’s innovations included the use of sprint coaches and dieticians.
He was not afraid to try something new, even if it did not always pay off.
‘Jim brought in a high-profile sports psychologist before we played Forfar in the Scottish Cup, either side of facing Barcelona i n the UEFa Cup,’ chuckled Ferguson, who also played for Dundee, Rangers, Motherwell and Hearts.
‘But we were losing 2-1 to Forfar with 30 seconds to go. We got a penalty and we secured a replay.
‘The first thing Jim McLean did after the game was go into the dressing room and say to the psychologist: “You! Get out!”
‘We had nearly lost to Forfar but then we went on to beat Barcelona days later — with no sports psychologist!’
United were drawn against Barca in the UEFa Cup quarterfinals after McLean’s men had knocked out Lens, Universitatea Craiova and Hajduk Split.
Terry Venables’ Nou Camp side boasted the previous summer’s top scorer in the World Cup — Gary Lineker — up front alongside Wales striker
Mark Hughes.
By contrast, McLean’s men earned wages starting at £125 per week and up to £600 including win bonuses. But
United won 1-0 in t he first l eg at Tannadice, courtesy of Kevin Gallacher’s speculative effort. after falling behind in the Nou Camp to a mi s - h i t shot by Ramon Caldere, late goals f rom John Clark and Ferguson (left, with McLean) secured a victory for the ages. Ferguson remains the last Scot to score in the Nou Camp, while United have a proud 100-per-cent record of f our wins in f our competitive games against Barcelona.
as Venables endured t he dreaded waving of the white hankies by irate Barca fans, the travelling Dundee United fans sung: ‘Bring on the Forfar!’
United duly swept past the Loons 2-0 in the cup replay as McLean’s men went all the way to the Scottish Cup final.
Talisman Ferguson and Ian Redford both scored in a 2-0 UEFa Cup semi-final win away to
Borussia Monchengladbach in Germany but the fairytale season was to have an unhappy ending.
United lost 2-1 on aggregate to IFK Gothenburg in the UEFa Cup final, three days after losing the Scottish Cup final in extratime to St Mirren as McLean’s notorious Hampden hoodoo struck again. The l egendary Tannadice boss would never win the Scottish Cup.
But the supporters’ warm response to the Swedes as they paraded the UEFa Cup around Tannadice won the club £20,000 and the f i rst- ever Fair Play award.
Incredibly, in 1988, the UEFa rankings — based on the previous f i ve seasons i n continental
competition — placed Dundee United as the fourth strongest club in Europe behind Juventus, Bayern Munich and Anderlecht.
The team’s exploits during that time under McLean included reaching the semi-finals of the 1984 European Cup.
They won the first l eg 2- 0 against Roma at Tannadice before losing an ill-tempered affair 3- 0 i n Italy that saw McLean’s assistant Walter Smith and reserve goalkeeping coach John Gardiner take punches to the ribs and back as they tried to stop Roma’s players attacking McLean at full-time.
Years later, the Dundee United boss was sickened to have his suspicions confirmed that the
Italian side had tried to bribe referee Michel Vautrot.
While defeat to Gothenburg was a hammer blow, McLean remained rightly proud of the achievement i n steering his modest ‘corner- shop’ club to a European final.
‘Jim was quiet but he knew what we had done just getting there,’ said Ferguson.
‘We were all deflated. We should have beaten St Mirren in the Scottish Cup final and if we had won that cup final, we could have won the UEFA Cup too.
‘We normally got an away goal in Europe but we didn’t manage that in Gothenburg and then they sucker-punched us with a goal at Tannadice. We played 67 games that season and we had run out of steam.’
For McLean, t here were approaches f rom clubs l i ke Rangers and Newcastle. But despite Jock Stein advising McLean to move to Ibrox he resolutely stayed put in Dundee; a decision he put down to enjoying the quality of life he had in the City of Discovery.
But Ferguson believes had McLean spread his wings and headed for England he could have enjoyed a career down south to match that of his New Firm rival Sir Alex Ferguson after leaving Aberdeen for Manchester United.
‘There’s no doubt in my mind,’ he said.
‘Jim had the chance to go to Rangers but he knocked it back and he could also have gone down south.
‘He would have been a success wherever he went because he was just so tactically ahead of his time.
‘ Football t r anslates over borders and I’m quite sure Jim would have gone on to have success down in England like Sir Alex Ferguson if that’s what he had chosen to do.
‘But he chose to live his life in Broughty Ferry and he was quite happy there.
‘And if you look back at what Dundee United achieved under Jim McLean, his achievements will stand the test of time.’