So in my next look into the favourite’s for the Dundee United job it is rather strangely Steve McClaren.
Now as with the Malky Mackay one, I won’t really write down all his stats and stuff because they can lie and it doesn’t really tell you the full picture. So I hope what I put down will give you a more in depth insight into his career and the man.
Now as most people will know Steve McClaren began as a coach on the staff at Derby County after a playing career in the lower leagues of England. His big break, so to speak was as the assistant manager at Manchester United between 99-01.
His first job was as Middlesbrough manager. During his time he build upon the groundwork set out by Bryan Robson. He did very well in the cup compositions during his time at Middlesbrough including winning the 03-04 League cup defeating Bolton in the final 2-1. This result put the club into the UEFA Cup for the first time in there 128 year history. In that seasons UEFA Cup the club managed to get to the round of 16 during the run the knocked out Lazio before themselves getting knocked out by Sporting Lisbon.
In the 04-05 season the club managed to finish 7th in the league which was there highest league finish since 1975 and secured UEFA Cup football for the second season running. Previous to that finish the club had finished in mid table under him. However, in 05-06 the club had an even better European run getting through to the final where they were soundly beaten 4-0 by Sevilla. However, in the league the club had a pretty terrible season including a 0-7 home defeat to Arsenal. In a 0-4 home defeat to Aston Villa a fan ran onto the pitch to McClaren and threw his season ticket at him.
At the end of the 05-06 season he left Middlesbrough and when he did the strange actions of the English media started straight away. First he was accussed of having a “pot of gold” to buy players with which was larger than most other clubs in the EPL. Also the media argued that it was the owner Steve Gibson and the senior players at the club that were responsible for the clubs success rather than McClaren and many fans claimed they were bored with his “dull football” and predictably tactics. This being said he had won the club their first senior cup in 130 years, took them into Europe twice and was the first English manager to be in a European Cup Final since 1985.
He was announced as England manager on the 4th May 2006 to take over on the 1st August 2006. From the very start though of his reign as England it was difficult for him. The FA had approached Luiz Felipe Scolari to be manager but he turned them down so they went to Steve McClaren, this left him with the nickname from the English press as “second choice Steve”.
When he finally managed to make appointments to his staff at England he brought in Terry Venables (Manager of Barcelona when Dundee United beat them in 1987) as assistant manager. He also brought in a PR manager to try and repair the relationship he had with the English press. However, after an indifferent start to the qualifying for the 2008 Euros he came under extreme pressure after the team scored only 1 goal in 5 games. Then after a poor performance against Andorra he walked out of a press conference and his relationship with the press was never repaired.
The final nail for him came in the famous game against Croatia in which England needed just a point but on a rainy night he stood there in the rain watching England lost 2-3 and in the morning press his head was called for and he became known as “the wolly with the brolly”. The morning that headline was used was the morning that he was sacked as manager of England.
As a result of the media pressure in England he stated in a interview that he would like a job out of the limelight. So after flirting with a few championship clubs in England he ended up as Manager of FC Twente in Holland. During his first season in charge he took the team to second in the league losing out to AZ, also took them to the final of the Dutch Cup losing out the Heerenveen on pens and in the UEFA Cup he got to the round of 32 before being beaten by Marseille. In the following season though he took the team to the top of the league in October and they stayed there for the rest of the season. Despite heavy pressure from PSV and Ajax, Twente held them off and finished the season as champions for the first time in there history. He also did take them to the last 32 of the Europa League before being knocked out by Werder Bremen.
Even though he had won the league with Twente he left at the end of the season to take over at Wolfsburg. After a poor start at Wolfsburg he managed to get results together and climbed to 6th in the table. However after that the results fell away he was sacked on the 7th February 2011.
He was though back in the game by June 2011 though, when he took over at English club Nottingham Forest, but after a mere 8 points from 10 games he resigned as manager.
In January 2012 he returned to FC Twente after finishing 6th in the league he came under pressure from the fans and when result in the following season were poor the pressure grew until in February 2013 in a truly heart fell press conference he resigned from the club.
After a short spell as a coach at QPR with Harry Redknapp. He returned to management as Head Coach of Derby County in September 2013. After going unbeaten through December 2013 he won manager of the month and went on the finish 3rd in the league and getting to the play off final where his side were beaten 1-0 by QPR thanks to a wonder strike from Bobby Zamora. The following season the club were great and on the 24th February 2015 he took the club to the top of the league. However, from that day on to the end of the season the clubs form fell, out of a window. They went on the win only 2 more games all season and finished in 7th outside of the play offs. McClaren claimed it was because of high profile injuries and fixture congestion, but the media, fans and ownership argued that it was because he was being linked with the Newcastle job nonstop. Either way he was sacked by Derby on the 25 May 2015.
In June 2015 he was announced as the new manager of Newcastle United. He was also rather strangely appointed to the board at Newcastle as well, which in honesty turned more of the Newcastle fans against him. There already was a large number of Newcastle fans who didn’t want him in charge to start with so, when it became clear that he was also getting put onto the board as well, that number increased. However, by March 2016 after 31 games in charge, only winning 7 of those and the club firmly in the relegation mire he was sacked.
By October though he had returned to football as manager of Derby in which he did do pretty well all things considered. Although they weren’t really in the play off fight they weren’t either at risk of being relegated but the board and the fans weren’t happy with the “style of play”. So they sacked him again on the 12 March 2017.
After this he worked as a coaching consultant in Israel and famously applied for the Hearts job before Craig Levein appointed himself. He did finally come back to England and was appointed manager of QPR in May 2018. During his first few games results were bad including a 7-1 thrashing from West Brom where it was expected he would be sacked. He did though pull things together until the turn of the year. It was from then until the 30 March 2019 that he managed just 1 win in 15 games meaning that the board had little choice but the sack him.
So there you have it a bit of an insight into Steve McClaren. He has from the start had a difficult relationship with the media in England. He is somewhat of a joke figure among a lot of fans because of the things he does a sort of David Brent figure. I mean we’ve all seen the pictures of him with the umbrella, the video of him when England got beat by Iceland, The dutch accent or even the clip with the phone at Newcastle. So yeah, he is a sort of walking meme. Having said that though he is a manager with a lot of experience and he has done something that very few other managers in England have done and that is to go and try different countries and leagues.
As a manager for Dundee United its hard to tell. I mean for me he does have experience of managing in a league with a club that isn’t expected to win it and where two clubs are dominant and he managed to win that league. So with that in mind there is a bit of hope. On the other hand though, there is the fact that a number of the clubs he’s been at have had massive drops in form that is hard to correct and hard to work out why. So its a mixed bag.
There is one thing that is certain it would be seen as a great coup getting a former England manager to be at Tannadice even if it is one who was in charge for only a short period of time. It would be in my opinion a less decisive a appointment than Malky Mackay.
A Football Fans View 