Management & Coaching Career
McClair returned south of the border in December 1998 to become Brian Kidd's assistant at Blackburn Rovers. But he was unable to prevent Blackburn from slipping out of the Premier League and within a year he had been sacked. He returned to Old Trafford as a youth team coach soon afterwards.
Ironically, when Kidd first joined Blackburn after being assistant manager at Manchester United, McClair was one of several high profile names to be linked with the assistant manager's vacancy at Old Trafford, as was former team mate Steve Bruce – who was managing Sheffield United at this stage.
In 2001 he was appointed as Reserve Team manager, and promptly won the Premier Reserve League in his first season as coach. In his second season, he was in charge of the Under-19 team which clinched the 2003 FA Youth Cup. Some players from that team, like David Jones, Chris Eagles and Kieran Richardson went on to make appearances in the first team.
At the end of the 2004–05 season the first team finished trophyless, but the Reserve Teams headed by Ricky Sbragia won an unprecedented quadruple of the Pontins' Holidays League, the FA Premier Reserve League, The Pontins' Holidays League Cup and the Premier Reserve League Playoff. Their quest for an unprecedented five trophies was thwarted when they lost to Manchester City in the Manchester Senior Cup.
After a year of shadowing Les Kershaw, Manchester United's then academy director McClair replaced him at the start of the 2006–07 season, and is now the Director of Manchester United's youth academy, of which his son, Liam, was once a member.
Read more about this topic: Brian McClair
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