Talk:List of Dundee United F.C. managers

This page is based on stats from www.londonhearts.com, which provides results with dates further back than any site I can find. This allows for accurate stats when the club changed managers during a season, e.g., http://www.londonhearts.com/scores/allg/dundeeunited1972.htm for McLean taking charge on 15th December. Wanaka | Talk 12:19, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

Wartime changes

I'm intending to make changes to Wikipedia's information on Dundee United managers during the Second World War. As it will impact on several articles, I thought this page would be a useful central point to explain my reasoning. Basically, Wikipedia consistently lists managers in this era roughly as follows:

• Bobby McKay, July to October 1939
• Jimmy Allan, November 1939 to June 1940
• Arthur Cram, June 1941 to August 1944
• Jimmy Littlejohn, August to November 1944
• Charlie McGillivray, November 1944 to October 1945

This was the listing as originally published in Mike Watson's club history Rags to Riches in the 1980s, and still largely used in the A-Z section on the club's official website. It has, however been contradicted by more recent research, firstly in Steve Gracie's A Passion for Survival (ISBN 9780955834103), part of a thorough three volume history of the club, and also by United's Official Centenary History (ISBN 9781841588285). The order carried in both these publications is somewhat different:

• Bobby McKay, June to October 1939
• Jimmy Allan, November 1939 to July 1940; then June 1941 to October 1942
• Jimmy Littlejohn, October 1942 to November 1944
• Charlie McGillivray, November 1944 to October 1945

The picture, therefore is somewhat changed for the period after United resumed playing after sitting out the 1940-41 season, with Allan now resuming as manager before handing over directly to Littlejohn, who now becomes manager two years earlier than previously thought. Arthur Cram (who was club secretary throughout) is thus removed from the list of permanent managers (although he was caretaker for a spell between McKay and Allan in 1939). The biggest implication arising would be to remove notability from Cram altogether, whose claim rests entirely on his supposed managerial spell at Tannadice.

The centenary book was actually co-written by Mike Watson, and the authors' introduction to the statistical section states, "Readers may identify differences... from that contained in previous publications by the authors. ... since, for example, Rags to Riches was first published... a considerable amount of new information has been unearthed... this book is as accurate as it has been possible for us to achieve." Therefore, the newer books must be regarded as a more reliable source than those currently used. --Jellyman (talk) 17:33, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

Three years on, I have finally got round to implementing these changes! Jellyman (talk) 09:53, 3 June 2015 (UTC)

Caretakers - Gordon Wallace

Both Billy Dodds and Dave Bowman are listed here, but Gordon Wallace also had a spell as caretaker after Ivan Golac left, before Billy Kirkwood was appointed. Pat Kelly's Dundee United Who's Who (1998) states Golac left on 14th March 1995 and Kirkwood was appointed on 28th March and Steve Gracie's The Shed Go Marching on (2010) p11 confirms Wallace was in charge during this period. Could somebody check the results for this period and add Wallace in? Dunarc (talk) 20:09, 29 February 2016 (UTC)

Done. Jellyman (talk) 21:52, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

Caretakers who became full manager

I wonder if in the case of Chisholm and Houston it should be noted that they initially were appointed caretaker, before getting the job on a permanent basis (I cannot remember if this applies to any other manager)? Dunarc (talk) 22:53, 4 October 2018 (UTC)