TEAMS
1981-83 Motherwell
1983-87 Celtic
1987-98 Manchester United
1998 Motherwell
COUNTRY
1986-93 Scotland
Don’t be deceived by the near-perennially stony face. Brian McClair has a mischievous side.
Over the years, the Scot has been able to convince the world that his middle name was Tarquin and the newspapers that Manchester United’s players had been microchipped so that Alex Ferguson could track where they were at all times.
As a Glasgow University-educated mathematician, McClair was never your typical footballer, and his diary in the official Old Trafford magazine has remained so legendary that he was encouraged to start his own podcast in early 2021. Life With Brian welcomes regular guests to swap anecdotes, and has developed a real following.
“During lockdown, people said they liked listening to it while they were out walking, as a distraction,” he tells FourFourTwo. “It’s enjoyable to do. I’d started listening to humorous things myself before that, rather than the doom and gloom of the Government press conferences. I thought, ‘I haven’t been doing enough laughing’.”
McClair isn’t one to burst into regular guffaws à la Micah Richards – his sense of humour is drier than the Sahara, and delivered with a poker face that rarely slips. However, the 59-year-old certainly isn’t short of great stories from a career that saw him win league titles on both sides of the border…
If you hadn’t become a footballer, what career would you have chosen?
Omer Farooq, via Twitter
The only thing I ever thought about was teaching. I had a penchant for mathematics and did that at higher education. Teachers’ holidays appeared to be a big advantage, though I know now that their holidays aren’t quite the same as when you’re a pupil… I studied part-time when I was at Motherwell in case I got an injury, or fell out of love with football, or football fell out of love with me. It got difficult when I played more. Even if I’d stayed at Motherwell and not joined Celtic, I would have left university to give myself the greatest chance of success. I’m still waiting to go back – that was my promise to myself in 1983. I wouldn’t do maths, though. I can’t remember anything about it now. Just quadratic equations.
How was your time in the youth system at Aston Villa, and why did you stay for only a year?
Dylan Sharp, Solihull
It wasn’t really my choice. In those times, you weren’t prepared at all – you left school and they expected you to behave like a man at 16. It’s about one opinion only: the coach responsible for your age group. The youth-team coach didn’t fancy me as a player and I didn’t play as much as I would have liked. I don’t know how they found out that I
