Role Football player Name Danny McLennan | ||
Full name Daniel Morrison McLennan Date of death 11 May 2004(2004-05-11) (aged 79) Playing position Died May 11, 2004, Crail, United Kingdom | ||
Date of birth (1925-05-05)5 May 1925 Position Wing half, Inside forward | ||
Scottish Football's Greatest Loss: The Story of Danny McLennan
Daniel Morrison McLennan (5 May 1925 – 11 May 2004) was a Scottish football player and coach. As a player, he was a Scottish League Cup winner with East Fife. His extensive coaching career took him all around the world and spanned a period of forty years, during which he managed ten national teams: the Philippines, Mauritius, Rhodesia, Iran, Bahrain, Iraq, Malawi, Jordan, Fiji and Libya.
Contents
- Scottish Footballs Greatest Loss The Story of Danny McLennan
- Playing career
- Management career
- References
Playing career
Born in Stirling, McLennan represented Scotland at schoolboy international level and played junior football for Lochore Welfare. He joined Rangers as a 17–year-old apprentice, but after failing to break through to the first team he moved to Falkirk. McLennan's most successful spell as a player was at East Fife from 1947 to 1957. He was part of the team that won the Scottish League Cup in 1953. He played briefly for Dundee before joining Berwick Rangers as player–manager.
Management career
His first coaching role came as player-manager of Berwick Rangers in 1957, and went on to coach the national teams of the Philippines, Mauritius, Rhodesia, Iran, Bahrain, Iraq, Malawi, Jordan, Fiji, and Libya.
McLennan took over as coach of Iraq in 1975, staying for only one year. He introduced a number of relatively unknown players, including young striker Kadhim Waal, left back Adel Khudhair, forward Ahmed Subhi, Hadi Ahmed and Falah Hassan whom he moved from midfield to play up-front. At the 1976 Gulf Cup in Doha, Iraqi defeated the United Arab Emirates (4-0), Bahrain (4-1), Oman (4-0) and then Saudi Arabia 7-1, with Kadhim Waal, a 24-year-old striker the Scotsman had handed his international debut a year earlier, netting in the first 90 seconds of the match.
In the last match against Kuwait, Iraq were 2-0 up after only four minutes of the second half; however, with the Iraqis looking for a third goal, Kuwait scored two goals in two minutes and the game ended in a 2-2 draw. The result put both teams on the same number of points and meant Iraq had to play Kuwait in a play-off for the Gulf Cup – which Iraq lost 4-2 thanks to a hat-trick from Kuwaiti striker Abdul-Aziz Al-Anbari. A few weeks later the Iraqi FA, upset by the way the team had been defeated by Kuwait and how the tournament had ended, replaced McLennan with Yugoslav coach Lenko Grčić.
His last job was at the Indian club side Churchill Brothers SC, where he had two spells, the last coming in 1998.