William James Alexander McKinlay (born 22 April 1969) is a Scottish football manager and former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugb ...

who is assistant manager of

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

. As a player, he was a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

who notably played in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

for

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

and

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandswor ...

. He also played in the

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...

for

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1 ...

, the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

for

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

and the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km sout ...

for

Clydebank Clydebank ( gd, Bruach Chluaidh) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling and Milton beyond) to the west, and the Yoker and Drumchapel ...

. McKinlay appeared 29 times for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

and played at

Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

and the

1998 World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

. As a coach, he has worked for Fulham, the

Northern Ireland national team The Northern Ireland national football team represents Northern Ireland in international association football. From 1882 to 1920, all of Ireland was represented by a single side, the Ireland national football team, organised by the Irish ...

and

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

. He was appointed Watford head coach in September 2014 but left the post after eight days. After a spell as assistant head coach with

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D., more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad (; ''Royal Society''), La Real in Spanish, Erreala in Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Basque Country, founded on 7 Septemb ...

in Spain, he joined Norwegian club Stabæk in November 2015, before being sacked in July 2016. He has since worked at

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

and

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

is currently the assistant manager of

Club career

A product of Dundee United's scouting and coaching network in the west of Scotland,

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

-born McKinlay was signed from Hamilton Thistle in 1986. He played in the 1988 Scottish Cup Final side at the age of 19, after only twelve

appearances. He went on to play over two hundred matches for United, but missed out on the club's 1994 Scottish Cup win due to suspension. Following Dundee United's relegation in 1995, McKinlay requested a transfer. He was sold to English

champions Blackburn Rovers in October 1995 for a fee of £1.75 million. After leaving Blackburn in 2000, McKinlay had brief spells with

and

. In 2002, he joined

, scoring his only goal for them against Coventry City. In 2004, Fulham manager Chris Coleman signed McKinlay, primarily to assist the reserve squad.

International career

McKinlay represented Scotland at under-21 and B international level before making his full debut in 1993. He made 14 appearances for

while with Dundee United, the last two as a First Division player. He is one of only three players from that division to play at full international level for Scotland since 1975. In total he played 29 times for Scotland between 1993 and 1998, scoring four goals. He was selected for the

and

squads, making one appearance at each tournament.

Coaching career

Fulham

On 21 December 2007, Fulham first-team coach

Ray Lewington Raymond Lewington (born 7 September 1956) is an English retired footballer. He was most recently assistant manager of Watford. Born in London, he started his playing career in the city at Chelsea. He went on to play for Vancouver Whitecaps, W ...

and reserve team manager McKinlay took over after manager

Lawrie Sanchez Lawrence Philip Sanchez (born 22 October 1959) is a Northern Irish football manager and former international footballer. The defining moment of his playing career came in the 1988 FA Cup Final, when he scored the winning goal for Wimbledon a ...

was sacked.

Roy Hodgson Roy Hodgson (born 9 August 1947) is a former English football manager and player. He managed 22 different teams in eight countries, beginning in Sweden with Halmstads BK in the 1976 season. He later guided the Switzerland national team to ...

was appointed nine days later. McKinlay coached Fulham's reserve side and developed youth talent, and in 2012 became Northern Ireland assistant manager, but returned to Fulham to manage the side's 4–0 defeat at Everton, on 28 April 2012 due to

Martin Jol Maarten Cornelis "Martin" Jol (born 16 January 1956) is a Dutch football manager and former midfielder. He played over 400 games during his career which included spells in the Netherlands, Germany, and England, as well as earning three caps wit ...

's chest infection and was again in charge on Merseyside, for Fulham's win against Liverpool. On 2 December 2013, McKinlay left Fulham after Martin Jol's departure a day earlier.

Watford

McKinlay was appointed as

first-team coach, under head coach Óscar Garcia, on 26 September 2014. McKinlay replaced Garcia a few days later as head coach, after the Spaniard resigned due to suffering from ill health. McKinlay relinquished his role as Northern Ireland's assistant manager after becoming the Watford manager. After just eight days in the job, McKinlay was replaced as Watford head coach by

Slaviša Jokanović Slaviša Jokanović ( sr-Cyrl, Славиша Јокановић, ; born 16 August 1968) is a Serbian professional football manager and former player. He is the manager of Russian club Dynamo Moscow. A physical player considered strong in the ai ...

.Watford: Slavisa Jokanovic replaces Billy McKinlay as boss
BBC Sport McKinlay had taken charge of two matches, a win against

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings wh ...

and a draw with

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

Real Sociedad

On 27 November 2014, McKinlay joined Spanish club

as an assistant coach, working alongside

David Moyes David William Moyes ( ; born 25 April 1963) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player. He is currently the manager of Premier League club West Ham United. He was previously the manager of Preston North End, Everton, Manch ...

. He was sacked, along with Moyes, on 9 November 2015.

Stabæk

On 30 November 2015, McKinlay was appointed as manager of Norwegian

Tippeligaen Eliteserien () is a Norwegian professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the Norwegian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion ...

side

Stabæk Fotball Stabæk Fotball is a Norwegian professional football club based in Bærum, a suburb of Oslo. It is part of the multi-sport organization Stabæk IF. Founded in 1912, the club's name is an archaic spelling of the suburban area Stabekk, from w ...

on a two-year contract. McKinlay resigned as manager on 8 July 2016, after being knocked out of the Europa League by Connah's Quay Nomads.

Sunderland

McKinlay joined

as a scout, initially under Moyes, in 2016. In October 2017 he was promoted to a temporary first team coaching role by manager

Simon Grayson Simon Nicholas Grayson (born 16 December 1969) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of Indian Super League club Bengaluru. As a player, he was a right back, but he was also utilised in ...

when assistant manager

Glynn Snodin Glynn Snodin (born 14 February 1960) is an English football coach, and former professional player. As a player, he was a midfielder from 1977 to 1998. He played for Doncaster Rovers and later made just under 100 appearances for Leeds United and ...

became ill. Following Grayson's sacking, McKinlay and Robbie Stockdale were appointed the club's joint caretaker managers in November 2017. After one game in charge, a 1–0 loss against Middlesbrough on 5 November 2017,

West Ham United

McKinlay left Sunderland to take a coaching position at

. He left the east London club at the end of the 2017–18 season, after manager

' contract was not renewed.

Stoke City

McKinlay joined

on 21 November 2019, as assistant manager to Michael O'Neill. McKinlay left Stoke by Mutual consent on 12 April 2021.

Return to West Ham United

In July 2021, McKinlay rejoined West Ham United as part of David Moyes’ coaching staff.

Career statistics

:''Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each McKinlay goal.''

Managerial statistics

References

External links

* *
Career statisticsDundee United FC Historical Archive profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:McKinlay, Billy 1969 births 1998 FIFA World Cup players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Bradford City A.F.C. players Clydebank F.C. (1965) players Dundee United F.C. players Premier League players Fulham F.C. non-playing staff Fulham F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players Living people Footballers from Glasgow Preston North End F.C. players Scottish Football League players Scottish Football League representative players Scottish football managers Scottish expatriate football managers Scottish footballers Scotland international footballers Scotland B international footballers Scotland under-21 international footballers English Football League managers English Football League players UEFA Euro 1996 players Watford F.C. managers Watford F.C. non-playing staff Stabæk Fotball managers Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate football managers in Norway Association football midfielders Real Sociedad non-playing staff Sunderland A.F.C. non-playing staff West Ham United F.C. non-playing staff Stoke City F.C. non-playing staff Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Spain Association football coaches