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, rugby lea ...

who is currently assistant manager of Everton. As a player, he was a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

who notably played in the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

for

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

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The club competes in , the third tier of English football, and is managed by Graham Alexander. The club was founded in 1903 and ...

and

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

. He also played in the

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, also known as the William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Scotland and the highest level of the Scottish football league system. Th ...

for

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

, 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, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

for

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional association football club in Preston, Lancashire, England. They currently play in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English footbal ...

and the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct 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&nbs ...

for

Clydebank Clydebank () 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, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Milton beyond) to the w ...

. McKinlay appeared 29 times for

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

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. As a coach, he has worked for Fulham, the Northern Ireland national team and

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

. 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, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...

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 status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, the cl ...

and West Ham United. In January 2025, McKinlay joined Everton as assistant head coach, working alongside head coach David Moyes.

Club career

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

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

-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. He was named in the SPFA Team of the Year for 1994. 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 1998 World Cup squads, making one appearance at each tournament.

Coaching career

Fulham

On 21 December 2007, Fulham first-team coach Ray Lewington and reserve team manager McKinlay took over after manager

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

was sacked.

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

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 wi ...

'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 García, 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.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 sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...

and a draw with

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

Real Sociedad

On 27 November 2014, McKinlay joined Spanish club

as an assistant coach, working alongside David Moyes. 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 professional association football league in Norway and the highest level of the Norwegian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Norwegian First Division ...

side

Stabæk Fotball Stabæk Fotball is a Norway, Norwegian professional association football, 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 sub ...

on a two-year contract. McKinlay resigned as manager on 8 July 2016, after being knocked out of the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

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 Manager (association football), football manager and former Association football, player who is head coach of National League (division), National League club Hartlepool ...

when assistant manager Glynn Snodin 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

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

. He left the east London club at the end of the 2017–18 season, after manager David Moyes' 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. Upon the departure of club manager, David Moyes in May 2024, McKinlay left the club with other coaches and back-room 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

* * *
Dundee 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 men's footballers Scotland men's international footballers Scotland men's B international footballers Scotland men's 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 Men's 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 Scottish football coaches Eliteserien managers