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Fullname: Brian McClair
aka: "Choccy"
Born: 8th December 1963
Birthplace: Airdrie, Scotland
Internationals: Scotland
International Caps 30
International Goals 2
Position: Striker

Biog

Brian McClair first sprang to prominence with Motherwell in the January of 1983 with three goals and two goals against Rangers and Celtic, respectively, within the space of twelve days. He scored the winning goal in 'Well's shock 2-1 against Celtic on January 15th courtesy of a horrendous goalkeeping error by Pat Bonner, and so the young McClair had made his name.

The Airdrie-born forward was signed for a bargain £75,000 by Billy McNeil in June 1983 from Motherwell as the Bhoys searched for a replacement for Arsenal-bound Charlie Nicholas and George McCluskey who had signed for Leeds United. However, by the time McClair played his first game for the Hoops McNeill had departed the club and it would be new boss Davie Hay who would benefit from this astute piece of transfer business. McClair had been a highly sought-after schoolboy footballer who had a brief spell at Aston Villa before returning to Scotland in August 1981 to sign for Motherwell and begin a computer maths degree at Glasgow University. It was still a surprise when he joined up at Parkhead with many Celtic fans believing the signing of this mostly unproven player as typical of the club’s attempts to replace big money departures with players of significantly less value and quality.

McClair made an impressive debut against Partick Thistle at Firhill in the Glasgow Cup on August 9th, scoring in Celtic's 2-0 win. Celtic signed Jim Melrose from Coventry City a few days later and Brian found himself third in line behind Melrose and Frank McGarvey for the two strikers roles. McClair was mainly on the bench until September 24th when he scored four goals against Dundee at Dens Park with a wonder performance in Celtic's 6-2 win. Four days later he was sensationally dropped by Davie Hay for the uefa cup second leg against Aarhuus in Denmark. Hay received scathing criticism in the press and from the Celtic fans despite Celtic's fine 4-1 win against the Danes although after a couple of indifferent results he was recalled and never looked back.

Although Celtic won no trophies in 1983/84 Brian had become a first team regular, scoring 32 goals on the process. Highlights that season were a magnificent solo goal in the 5-0 win over Sporting Lisbon and a splendid effort against Rangers in the League Cup final despite Celtic's 3-2 defeat.

He started the following season well and scored a potential goal of the season on August 18th 1984 against Dundee United at Parkhead when he ran from inside his own half and fired a great shot past Billy Thomson in the United goal, however he did not endear himself to the supporters after publicly stating that he wished to move to England in the near future. In October Celtic signed Mo Johnston for a record Scottish fee of £400,000 and with Alan McInally also arriving from Ayr United, competition for places in attack became fierce. In the Autumn of 1984 Brian turned out regularly in the unusual number 4 shorts as an attacking midfielder to devastating effect, scoring a marvellous hat trick at Tynecastle in a 5-1 thrashing on November 17th. He fluctuated between midfield and attack for the rest of the season but was on the bench for the 1985 Scottish Cup final against Dundee United, Hay preferring the striking partnership of Johnston and McGarvey. With Celtic 1-0 down late in the game he was thrown on in place of the ineffective Tommy Burns and with Roy Aitken pushed into midfield Celtic roared back to sensationally win 2-1 and so Brian had his first winners medal.

With McGarvey's departure in the summer of 1985, McClair and Johnston became Celtic's regular strikers. Despite both having a wonderful scoring record they could never be described as a true partnership with both having a mutual dislike of each other, Johnston loving the bright lights with McClair being very much a home bird. The 1985/86 was a most disappointing season and Brian lost his place after Mark McGhee joined Celts from Hamburg in November but after a series of poor results in the winter period he was reinstated to the attack. He was again Celtic's top goalscorer, scoring a magnificent header on New Years Day 1986 in the 2-0 Parkhead win over Rangers.

Celtic came on with a late run in the league in the Spring of 1986, with Brian very much to the fore, and they dramatically clinched the title at Love Street on the last day of the season with McClair and Johnston both scoring twice in the memorable 5-0 win. During this period Johnston had become the darling of the Celtic supporters and despite consistently scoring more goals than his partner, the Parkhead fans never had that same special relationship with McClair.

Brian surpassed any previous achievements by scoring 35 times in the 1986/87 although Celtic again finished without a trophy and Hay was sacked for the this failure. On October 26th, against Rangers, McClair scored one of the best goals ever seen at Hampden when he finished off a flowing passing move with a rising 25 yard shot into the top corner, Celtic again losing 2-1. Both Johnston and McClair's contracts were up in the summer of 1987 with both being sought by the main clubs in Europe and Celtic made public efforts to retain Johnston which Brian felt was at the expense of his contract talks. Billy McNeill had taken over and immediately sought to keep him but McClair signed for Manchester United, angering McNeill who felt that McClair had not done the decent thing by keeping Celtic informed. Celtic wanted a £2 million fee but a tribunal valued him at £850,000 leaving both McNeill and the Celtic supporters livid at his departure and the injustice of the fee.

Although he left on a sour note Brian McClair was a good servant to Celtic, finishing top scorer in each of the four seasons he was at Parkhead. Despite often having poor control he was devastating at finding space in the penalty area and was a natural finisher with both feet and a great header of the ball. He was an intelligent player who had a great talent for making runs off the ball and creating space for his team mates. He had pace over a short distance and plenty stamina to last a full game. He had a cool head and showed remarkable restraint against Rangers on April 4th 1987 by coolly firing two penalty kicks past Chris Woods within ten minutes, especially the second after a deranged Rangers fan had ran onto the field of play and tried to attack him.

McClair would stay 12 years at Manchester United and in his first season at Old Trafford became the first United player since George Best to score 20 league goals. He would play a typically quiet but effective role in helping Alex Ferguson build a new and hugely successful dynasty with the Red Devils.

After spells coaching at Motherwell and Blackburn Brian McClair is (at time of writing) head of the youth set-up at Manchester United.

Playing Career

Club	From	To	Fee	League		FA Cup		League cup		Other
Motherwell	30/06/1998	17/12/1998	Free	8 (3)	0	0 (0)	0	2 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Man Utd	30/07/1987	31/05/1998	£ 850000	296 (59)	88	40 (7)	15	44 (1)	19	23 (8)	7
Celtic	01/07/1983	30/07/1987	£ 100000	129 (16)	99	14 (4)	11	19 (1)	9	13 (2)	3
Motherwell	01/08/1981	01/07/1983	Free	33 (7)	15	2 (0)	1	9 (1)	4	0 (0)	0
Aston Villa	01/08/1980	01/08/1981	Junior	No appearance data available
Totals			£950,000	466 (85)	202	56 (11)	27	74 (3)	32	36 (10)	10
			goals / game	0.36		0.4		0.41		0.21
				Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals

Awards

Scottish PFA Players' Player of the Year 1987
Scottish Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year 1987

Links

• Brian McClair Testimonial

Pictures

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