Brian McDermott

Brian James McDermott (born 8 April 1961) is a former professional football player and coach, who is currently the director of football at Hibernian.

Born in Slough to Irish parents, McDermott joined Arsenal as an apprentice in 1977 and went on to play for Fulham, IFK Norrköping, Oxford United, Huddersfield Town, Cardiff City, Exeter City and Yeovil Town in a 14-year playing career during the 1980s and 1990s.

Born in Slough, Buckinghamshire, McDermott joined Arsenal as an apprentice in January 1977, signing professional forms with the club in February 1979.

He was a regular in Arsenal's reserve team, finishing as top scorer in the Football Combination in 1978–79, before making his début as a substitute against Bristol City on 10 March 1979.

He did not properly break into the Arsenal first team until the 1980–81 season, notching 45 appearances (14 as sub) in all competitions in that season and 1981–82.

Unable to match his goalscoring rate at the top level, he featured much less in the 1982–83 and 1983–84 seasons and was loaned out twice by the Gunners: once to Fulham in 1983 and then to IFK Norrköping between April and October 1984, where he was named Sweden's Player of the Year.

At IFK Norrköping he was named Sweden's Player of the Year in 1984.

McDermott secured a permanent move to Oxford United in December 1984, having made 72 appearances (44 starts, 28 as sub) for Arsenal, scoring 13 goals.

McDermott's later career included a loan spell at Huddersfield Town and at Djurgårdens IF, before stints at Cardiff City, Exeter City and Yeovil Town.

After a spell in Hong Kong for club South China, McDermott returned to England to play in the Sussex County League with STAMCO while working at Slough Town as Football in the Community Officer.

He then played briefly for Slough Town before subsequently managing the club.

McDermott's first game in charge was a 1–1 draw at Bristol City with Simon Church grabbing a 90th-minute equaliser for the Royals.

He finished his playing career at Slough Town in 1995.

The following season, he became manager of Slough Town where he had a very successful few years in the Conference.

Following the sacking of Brendan Rodgers, McDermott was appointed manager of Reading.

In his first season as manager of Reading he led them into the quarter-finals of the FA Cup for the first time in 83 years, a run that included knocking out Liverpool at Anfield.

The following season, he repeated the feat, this time with an away win over Liverpool's city rivals Everton.

McDermott led Reading to a Championship playoff final, where they lost to Swansea City; the following season Reading were promoted to the Premier League after winning the Championship.

McDermott joined Slough Town, initially as a player in 1995; however, he took up a player manager role with the club following the departure of then manager, Dave Russell, in March 1996.

Slough finished the 1995–96 season in 17th place in the Conference.

McDermott then went on to have two full seasons as manager of Slough, finishing the 1996–97 season in 16th place and then the 1997–98 season in 8th place.

In the summer of 1998 the consortium which had bought the club out of receivership seven years earlier decided that they were not prepared to pay for ground improvements required to remain in the Conference and therefore the club was demoted back to the Isthmian League, all but 4 of the club's players were sacked due to financial constraints, including manager Brian McDermott.

After leaving Slough Town in the summer of 1998, McDermott took the managers job at Woking in September 1998, with his first match in charge ending in a draw versus Yeovil Town.

However, due to a poor 1999–2000 season and with Woking struggling in 20th place in the table Brian McDermott was sacked by Woking on 29 February 2000.

McDermott joined Alan Pardew's Reading as Chief Scout in September 2000, taking over from Maurice Evans.

McDermott also became the under-19s and reserve team manager, before taking over as caretaker first team manager following the departure of Brendan Rodgers on 17 December 2009.

On 2 January 2010 McDermott's Reading took on Premier League side Liverpool in the FA Cup third round, taking the lead through Simon Church before Steven Gerrard equalised for Liverpool.

The game ended in a 1–1 draw, earning the Royals a replay at Anfield on 13 January, during which Reading came from 1–0 down to win 2–1 after extra time thanks to a penalty from Gylfi Sigurðsson in stoppage time after 90 minutes and a header in extra time from Shane Long.

This was McDermott's first victory in charge of Reading and the first ever for the club at Anfield.

The Royals went on to beat Premier League side Burnley 1–0 thanks to a late strike from Gylfi Sigurðsson to secure a place in the FA Cup fifth round.

On 27 January 2010 McDermott signed a 12-month rolling contract to become Reading's full-time manager.

After that he led the Royals on a four-match winning streak in the league and into the quarter-finals of the FA Cup for the first time in 83 years after a 3–2 win over West Bromwich Albion.

McDermott was nominated for Manager of the Month for February and won it in March.

McDermott oversaw another exciting FA Cup run in 2010–11, with victories over Premier League clubs West Brom and Everton before narrowly losing to eventual FA Cup winners Manchester City.

In the Championship, the Royals recovered from a poor start to finish in 5th and secure a place in the Play-offs.

After a goalless first leg at the Madejski Stadium, striker Shane Long scored twice in a 3–0 win at Cardiff to give Reading a trip to Wembley for the Play-off Final on 30 May 2011, where his team lost 4–2 to Swansea City, managed by his old colleague, Brendan Rodgers.

On 11 March 2013, McDermott was sacked with the club in 19th place.

McDermott made a swift return to management, replacing Neil Warnock at Leeds United.

He left the post by mutual consent on 27 May 2014.

After a second stint as Reading manager, McDermott has worked as a scout for Arsenal and then joined Hibernian as their director of football in May 2023.