WE’VE LOST A TITAN
Scottish game is left to mourn the passing of a footballing legend
DUNDEE UNITED last night confirmed the death of the club’s legendary manager Jim McLean at the age of 83.
McLean propelled United to a prolonged and consistent period of success with back-to-back League Cup wins in 1979 and 1980 followed by the club’s solitary championship triumph in 1983.
The following year he took United to the semi-final of the European Cup and a controversial defeat to Roma, and later reached the UEFA Cup final of 1987.
McLean managed United from 1971 to 1993 and also had a spell as chairman of the club. He had endured a long illness.
A statement from United said: ‘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.’
A statement from the McLean family 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.’
JIM McLEAN, who died yesterday at the age of 83 following a long battle with dementia, deserves his place among the pantheon of all-time Scottish football greats. During a remarkable 22-year reign as Dundee United manager, Wee Jim transformed the club from the status of corner shop to supermarket with a wealth of playing talent and achievement.
Against all the odds he challenged the might of the Old Firm and won after producing teams brimming with skill and flair allied to his own tactical genius.
Names like David Narey, Paul Hegarty, Eamon Bannon, Paul Sturrock, Maurice Malpas, Jim McInally, Kevin Gallacher and Andy Gray trip off the tongue along with many others.
The conveyor belt of talent that ran through Tannandice read like a Who’s Who of Scottish football in the 1970s and 80s.
Regrettably, given his abrasive manner, quest for perfection and refusal to accept anything less than total commitment and loyalty, he did not always endear himself to his players.
But they are quick to pay tribute to what the club achieved under McLean’s stewardship and to the man himself for his coaching skills and ability to out-wit opponents.
His greatest achievement was undoubtedly leading United to the Premier Division title in season 1982-83, one of three major honours.
The others were back-to-back League Cup wins in the 1979 and 80. Incredibly, the club also lost another eight domestic cup finals, five of them in the Scottish Cup when it’s claimed his uncharacteristically negative approach proved costly.
In addition, United reached the European Cup semi-finals in 1984 and the UEFA Cup final three years later.
But for the antics of the Roma players and their fans — and the compliance of the referee in a 3-0 defeat in the Italian capital where they were defending a two-goal cushion — United would have met Liverpool in the final in 1984, surely.
It also seems reasonable to speculate that they would have triumphed against IFK Gothenburg in 1987 after losing one-nil away but for the fact that the players were suffering a huge psychological backlash from losing the Scottish Cup final to St Mirren five days earlier.
I recall he was close to tears that night in the immediate aftermath of the 2-1 aggregate loss to the Swedes and my heart went out to him.
Following a playing career lasting more than 20 years and involving a combined total of nearly 500 appearances and 170 goals as an old-style inside forward with Hamilton, Clyde, Dundee and Kilmarnock, Larkhall-born Jim turned his attention to coaching.
And after serving an apprenticeship working under John Prentice at Dens Park, Jim was recommended by the man himself to succeed him in the Dundee hotseat.
But the directors, in their infinite stupidity, rejected Prentice’s advice and he ended up at Tannandice instead as the legendary Jerry Kerr’s successor in what was a case of Dundee’s loss being very much United’s gain.
One of three brothers who all went on to become professional footballers and mangers, Jim originally served his time as a joiner and in later years turned his hand to making improvements to the Tannadice infrastructure.
From the outset, he co-ordinated a youth structure which was to produce a host of talent over two decades. He also cleverly enlisted the services of experienced players to assist in their development.
He was accused of lacking ambition when he turned down offers to manage Rangers and Newcastle, but, in truth, Jim probably realised that his draconian methods would not work as effectively at Ibrox or St James’ Park.
He was also happily settled in the Broughty Ferry area of Dundee with his wife Doris and sons and had no real desire to up sticks.
But his reticence to move on did not deter Jock Stein from appointing him his No2 with Scotland or diminish Sir Alex Ferguson’s admiration for the man with whom he combined to form the hugely successful New Firm.
While certainly not everyone’s cup of tea, I always had a fondness for Jim, albeit, like the majority of my colleagues, I was never spared the sharp end of his razor-sharp tongue.
He once even banned me from entering Tannadice over an article I had written, telling me in no uncertain terms exactly what he thought about the piece and me.
That ban remained in place for a considerable time before word filtered down that it would be a good idea for me to attend United’s next home match, against Celtic.
I wasn’t given a full explanation but it was obvious that Jim had put the word out without appearing to have a hand it in.
Feeling a need to set the record straight and make peace, I duly attended the match in my capacity as a reporter and afterwards sought Jim out for a word.
Sensing that I may have to do a bit of grovelling, I was resigned to biting the bullet until he appeared, smiling for once.
I still recall his greeting: ‘Hello, Jim. Nice to see you again, I thought I’d done something to upset you.’
What? He was the one who had banned me. But that was fairly typical of Wee Jim. Sometimes sorry is the hardest word and that was as close as he was going to get to saying it.
But I could not fail to respect the man for what he achieved on a shoestring budget compared to the Old Firm and, to a lesser extent, Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs.
I like to think, too, that at least a smidgen of his respect was offered in return, for he rarely treated me with anything other than a degree of pleasantness and even allowed me to dip into his cake tin — his sweet tooth being his one vice — on occasions when I travelled to Tayside to report on United’s Euro adventures.
It was just that Jim didn’t do smiling — at least not every often that I can recall.
But the last time we met several years ago, he invited me to give him a call the next time I was in Dundee and we’d go for a cup of tea and talk about old times. Regrettably, his health issues meant we never did have that chat.
He was also a man of great extremes: a raging bull one minute and a kind and considerate individual the next.
My late mother sang his praises, recalling the times she dealt with him in her role as company secretary with a car firm who supplied club vehicles, describing him as a ‘lovely man’.
Jim repaid that compliment by turning up at
her funeral, taking the time to tell my father what a lovely woman my mother was before dashing off to attend a match at Kilmarnock.
You don’t forget instances like that and it’s a real shame that Jim won’t get the send-off he deserves due to the Covid restrictions.
It would have been standing room only in normal times as the great and good turned out to pay their respects to a true football man.
McLean was appointed a director in 1984. Four years later, he became chairman and managing director at Tannadice, while also remaining manager. He retained these joint responsibilities until stepping down as manager in 1993 while still remaining as chairman.
However, following a televised altercation with BBC Scotland reporter John Barnes in October 2000, Jim was forced to step down.
He returned briefly in January 2002 as a director and majority shareholder before selling his 42-per-cent stake in the club to local businessman Eddie Thompson and severing his 30-year link to United.
Retirement, playing bowls and the odd round of golf, was never going to agree with Jim.
Almost inevitably, his weekly newspaper column for a national publication led to fresh conflict when he labelled Thompson ‘a disaster for the club’, leading to his ‘privileges’ at Tannadice being withdrawn.
But while he became something of an outcast at the club he put on the map as they blazed a trail across Europe, his achievements were not simply cast into the dustbin of history.
He was elected to the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in 2005, awarded an honorary doctor of law degree by the University of Dundee in 2011, and inducted into the Dundee United Hall of Fame four years later.
In February, the Dundee Repertory Theatre produced a play about his life called Smile.
Plans are also advanced for a statue to be erected to him outside Tannadice.
A permanent reminder of the man who ‘made’ Dundee United would be no more than Jim McLean deserves.