1/ Jim McLean, since non Scots who follow, will be less familiar with him, deserves a thread. One of the truly great tacticians in world football in the 70s & 80s. I’ve heard this time & again from greats who played under him. “Wee Jim” was ahead of his time in this respect.

2/ There was an element of total football about what he did at Dundee United, coming up with new tactical ideas that simply kept everyone guessing. It was spellbinding and when it worked, devastating.

3/ His strength was as a coach and tactician. As a man manager he of course had his fallings out with players as well as media members. I can only speak for my own dealings with him which were frequent in the mid and late 80s. He gave me a string of amazingly good interviews.

4/ One I vividly recall was just before Dundee United faced Gladbach in the 1987 UEFA semi. My BBC colleague in London, Garry Richardson had asked if I would ask him about what it meant to the city of Dundee which had suffered badly during the Thatcher years. Jim understood.

5/ His articulate answer captured the mood of the time. He knew exactly that people on Tayside & around Scotland were hurting and that it was the club’s job to represent the downtrodden. It was football’s responsibility as a sport for the working class.

6/ I would often travel to Dundee from Glasgow and stay overnight ahead of these early morning interviews in his office. I would take a deep breath before knocking on the door, aware that a wrong word at the wrong time could mean an early exit. I was shaking like a leaf inside.

7/ As a very young broadcaster at the time, talking to someone with such a fearsome reputation, it was natural to be nervous. But he never failed to give me a brilliant interview and boosted my confidence once day when he told me that I least I came and spoke a bit of sense!

8/ He took joy in getting one over the media though and on one of the European trips en route to the 87 UEFA final (I think it was in Gladbach), he made sure he and his backroom staff were ready to hand out a thrashing to our assembled Scottish media team on the pitch. They did!

9/ My sense was part of him knew that Dundee United was the perfect club for him, “the corner shop going up against the big supermarkets” as he liked to say. Shrewdly, he viewed Alex Ferguson at Aberdeen as a rival but at times an ally.

10/ He knew it was easier for two clubs to hammer away at the Old Firm rather than one. They both did to great effect. Once the mic was off, I would occasionally ask him tactical questions & learned so much from listening to his answers.

11/ I always thought of Jim McLean as Scotland’s Brian Clough. A trailblazer of a football coach. May he rest in peace.