Forty years on from Dundee United’s only Scottish league title, Eamonn Bannon reflects to Ewan Murray on their extraordinary feat under Jim McLean
n 15 May 1983, Eamonn Bannon should have been part of Dundee United’s squad at a civic reception. This extraordinary team under an extraordinary manager, Jim McLean, had won the Scottish Premier Division a day earlier. Bannon scored United’s second goal in a 2-1 win at the home of Dundee, United’s great rivals. “The real shame is it will never be repeated,” Bannon says. “UnlessBannon was honouring a prior commitment.
“I said to the guy: ‘I think it’s time to draw a curtain over it,’” says Bannon of his response to being invited back. “I think it casts a bit of a shadow over players who are at the club. When I was a player, they used to drag old players who had won the cup out and I thought: ‘God help me if I ever end up like that.’ I’d love to meet up with the boys, a private thing, just for old times’ sake, but something the club organise and going on to the pitch? Nah, it wasn’t for me.
As was a typical policy of United’s manager, McLean stepped in when Bannon was seeking a route back north. United sold Ray Stewart to West Ham for £440,000 and spent £165,000 on Bannon, making him by far the dearest recruit in the title-winning squad.Photograph: Steve Welsh/PA
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