Today marks the 39th anniversary of Brian McClair becoming one of Sir Alex Ferguson’s defining early signings at Manchester United. The Scottish striker blew apart a 20-year striker’s hoodoo at Old Trafford in his debut season.
Brian McClair spent 11-years playing for Manchester United between 1987 and 1998.
The former Scotland international made a total of 471 appearances for the club, scoring 127 goals. McClair was part of United’s Premier League-winning side in 1993, ending a painful 26-year drought for the club, before lifting three more league titles.
Fondly known as ‘Choccy’, McClair returned to Old Trafford after retiring to work as a reserve team coach under Sir Alex Ferguson. He later spent nearly a decade as the club’s Academy Director, ultimately racking up almost 25 years of service at United.
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Reliving Brian McClair’s historic 1987/88 debut season at Man Utd
Following a sensational 35-league-goal season with Celtic, McClair was targeted by Ferguson ahead of the Scot’s first full season in charge of United.
Disagreements over the transfer fee led to a Football Association transfer tribunal, before United paid £850,000 to make the forward Ferguson’s second signing at the club after Viv Anderson.
There was little to sing about before Ferguson arrived at United – bar a handful of cup victories and too many ‘what if’ seasons missing out on glory in the league.
To many, the mighty had fallen from the 60s when Sir Matt Busby led the team to two First Division titles, the FA Cup and the European Cup. Busby’s retirement in 1969 led to many hardships for United and the coaches who followed him.
Ferguson was different.
It took McClair three games to open his account for United. It was one of seven goals in the next nine games to help Ferguson steer the side to an impressive run.
Liverpool started the season stronger than United and were out of sight of Ferguson’s side by Christmas.
There were still positives to take from the end of the season. McClair scored 10 goals in the final 10 games of the season, which saw him reach the 20 top-flight goals mark, before adding four more to his tally.
The last man to hit the 20-league-goal milestone at United was George Best, who scored 28 league goals in the 1967/68 European Cup-winning season.
McClair finished the season with 24 league goals and 31 goals across all competitions.
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Brian McClair among Sir Alex Ferguson’s ‘most underrated players’
Ferguson managed countless top players during his 26-year reign at United, but he names three players in particular who may have gone under the radar for one reason or another.
The Scot managed hundreds of players at Old Trafford.
Speaking to Sports Bible in 2025, Ferguson named McClair, Ji-sung Park, and Ronny Johnsen as his most underrated players.
“There’s three players, I can’t split them. Brian McClair, Park Ji-sung, and Ronny Johnsen.
“When I watch the final against Barcelona at Wembley, I should have changed at half-time and put Park Ji-sung on Messi.
“That was a mistake.
“I realised after 10 minutes and I was going to do it at half-time but I said, ‘we just equalised before half-time, they might see the game differently and we may grow into the game better’. We’re actually quite good in the last 10 minutes of that game and we could have been in front.
“But if I had played Park Ji-sung against Messi, I think we would have beat them.” All three remain cult heroes at Old Trafford, as we delve into their post-United career and what they’ve been up to since retirement.”
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