Jim McLean

He was the third member of the family to play for Larkhall, after his father – who appeared for them in a Scottish Junior Cup semi-final in 1932 – and his brother Willie.

James Yuille McLean (2 August 1937 – 26 December 2020) was a Scottish football player, manager and director.

James Yuille McLean was born into a working-class family in Larkhall, Lanarkshire, on 2 August 1937, the second of three sons of Tom and Annie McLean, and grew up in the nearby village of Ashgill.

His maternal grandfather William Yuille had been a professional footballer, playing for Rangers before the First World War.

Tom McLean, a baker, had been a promising junior footballer before joining the Plymouth Brethren when he married.

The three brothers, Willie, Jim and Tommy, who all went on to become professional football players and managers, had a strict religious upbringing.

After leaving school McLean served an apprenticeship as a joiner, a vocation he continued to pursue for much of his playing career.

McLean, who played as an inside forward, began his football career with the local junior club Larkhall Thistle.

In 1956, he started his senior career with Hamilton Academical.

He made more than 125 league appearances for Hamilton before leaving in 1960 to join Clyde.

After playing in over 100 league games for Clyde, McLean was transferred to Dundee for £10,000 in 1965.

This move meant him becoming a full-time professional footballer for the first time in his career, aged 27.

His debut for Dundee came at Dens Park on 11 September 1965 when Dundee were beaten 5–0 by Dundee United, their heaviest ever defeat in a Dundee derby.

In his first season with Dundee, McLean scored eight goals, and he became their principal threat in attack after Charlie Cooke was sold to Chelsea in April 1966.

McLean scored 17 goals for Dundee during the 1966–67 season, which made him the club's leading scorer.

He followed this by scoring 18 goals in the 1967–68 season, during which Dundee reached the Scottish League Cup final (losing 5–3 to Celtic) and the Fairs Cup semi-final (losing 2–1 on aggregate to Leeds United).

Following the signing of George McLean from Rangers, Jim McLean was used more in a midfield role.

He was not always popular with the Dundee supporters; McLean later attributed that to him having had to follow higher-class players such as Cooke and Alan Gilzean into their team.

Having played in every game for Dundee during the 1967–68 season, he was then dropped for the first match in 1968–69.

Days later he was to be sold for £3,000 to Kilmarnock, where he played alongside his brother Tommy.

After making a total of 474 appearances and scoring 170 goals in his career, McLean retired from playing in 1970 and returned to Dundee as a coach in July of that year.

McLean was first team coach at Dundee for 18 months.

He managed Dundee United between 1971 and 1993, becoming the longest-serving and most successful manager in the club's history, winning three major honours.

He was also part-time assistant manager to Jock Stein with the Scotland national team.

In November 1971 the club's manager John Prentice announced that he would resign at the end of that year; many outside observers assumed that McLean would become their manager.

Instead he became manager of their local rivals Dundee United, where he replaced the retiring Jerry Kerr.

McLean immediately started a co-ordinated youth policy which was to produce many fine young players over the two decades which followed; he had personally visited Ralph Milne, John Holt, and Davie Dodds to encourage them to sign for United rather than for Celtic, Aston Villa, and rivals Dundee respectively.

In the short term, he used his knowledge of the Scottish scene to buy experienced players who would allow him to re-shape both the squad and the style of play in line with his approach to coaching.

Initially, the club's league form was average, remaining mostly mid-table for the next few years.

McLean's first hint of the success he would later achieve was leading the club to its first Scottish Cup final in 1974, which they lost to Celtic.

It proved an important psychological step in McLean's and the club's development.

He led Dundee United to their only Scottish Football League title in 1982–83, following Scottish League Cup wins in 1979 and 1980.

Under McLean, the club also lost in a further eight domestic cup finals.

In European football, McLean's Dundee United reached the European Cup semi-finals in 1984 and the UEFA Cup final in 1987.

He became a Dundee United director in 1984 and served as chairman between 1988 and 2000, when he resigned after punching a reporter.

McLean's achievements saw him win the first ever SFWA Manager of the Year award in 1987.

His involvement with the club finally ended in 2002 when he sold his majority shareholding.

His playing career included spells with Hamilton Academical, Clyde, Dundee and Kilmarnock as an inside forward.

He was a member of a prominent footballing family; his brothers Tommy and Willie were also successful as players and managers.

He was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in 2005.