McLean statue a fitting tribute to a colourful, helpful genius
THE first time I was packed off to Tannadice as a clueless teenage trainee to meet Jim McLean, things didn’t go quite as expected.
After five minutes waiting nervously in his office, the door burst open and in he bowled with nothing more than a towel around his waist after jumping out of the shower. That’s how the interview would be conducted. And he was generous. And brilliant.
McLean had his moments at Dundee United, no doubt. Plenty of them.
However, he could also be a very helpful and accommodating man.
Above all that, though, he was a genius. There are no shades of grey on that front.
It is lovely that wife Doris will return to Tannadice today to unveil a longoverdue statue of her late husband and so pleasing that the work of sculptor Alan Herriot is such a lifelike tribute — even if some of us possess images of McLean in our mind’s eye which will always be decidedly more vivid.