Ian John McParland (born 4 October 1961) is a Scottish former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player and manager. He played professionally as a striker with a number of teams and he is most known for his eight-year spell with

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football, football club in Nottingham, England, which competes in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of Football in England, English football, following promotion and relegation, promotion ...

, a club he later managed. He now features as a pundit on weekly football talk show 'Team Talk' on

Notts TV Notts TV is a soon-to-be-defunct British commercial local television channel which broadcasts to the city of Nottingham and the surrounding areas. The channel broadcasts on Freeview on channel 7 from the Nottingham relay TV transmitter which is ...

Playing career

McParland grew up in

Tranent Tranent is a town in East Lothian (formerly Haddingtonshire), in the south-east of Scotland. Tranent lies 6 miles from the boundary of Edinburgh, and 9.1 miles from the city centre. It lies south of the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road that r ...

East Lothian East Lothian (; ; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In ...

and after leaving an apprenticeship with

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 ...

due to homesickness worked for two years in the Lothian

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

industry whilst playing for Ormiston Primrose. McParland was with

from 1980 to 1988, then had spells at

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. They compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. They play their home ...

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located ...

Dunfermline Athletic Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently compete in the after winning the 2022–23 Scottish League One title. Dunfermline play at ...

, Lincoln City,

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the c ...

, Instant-Dict (

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Eastern AA Eastern Athletic Association Football Team Limited, also known as Eastern Sports Club (), is a Hong Kong professional sports club whose association football, football section competes in the Hong Kong Premier League, the top flight of Football ...

(Hong Kong),

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, who currently compete in . They were established in 1874 from the school football team at Hamilto ...

and

Berwick Rangers Berwick Rangers Football Club is a football team based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed in England, who play in the Scottish football system. Founded in 1881, they currently play in the , the fifth tier of Scottish football, despite being ba ...

Coaching and management

Nottingham Forest

McParland eventually went to

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

as a coach. He was with Forest for over 10 years and was the reserve team coach for most of that time. When

Gary Megson Gary John Megson (born 2 May 1959) is an English former football player and manager. He has previously managed Norwich City, Blackpool, Stockport County, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion, Nottingham Forest, Leicester City, Bolton Wanderers and ...

left the club in February 2006, he was put in temporary charge with Frank Barlow in a joint first team management role. He and Barlow were named Managers of the Month for March 2006, when they went 10 games unbeaten, with 6 straight wins, including a 7–1 victory over

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team, known as the "Robins", currently compete in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded as Swindon A ...

at the City Ground. McParland just missed out on equalling a club record of 7 straight wins when Forest fell to a 3–2 defeat at the hands of

Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. They were founded in 190 ...

. Despite Forest narrowly missing out on the

League One League One or League 1 may refer to: Association football * EFL League One, the third tier of football in England. * China League One, the second tier of football in China * K League 1, the top-tier football in South Korea * Lao League 1 * Lea ...

playoffs, McParland was still the favourite to land the Forest job (with Barlow) on a permanent basis. After Colin Calderwood was named the permanent successor to Megson, McParland and Barlow became coaches for the Forest first team.

Notts County

He was announced as the new Notts County manager in October 2007. McParland enjoyed a two-year spell in charge and, despite the appointment of

Sven-Göran Eriksson Sven-Göran Eriksson (; 5 February 1948 – 26 August 2024) was a Swedish association football, football player and Coach (sport), manager. After a playing career as a right-back, Eriksson went on to experience major success in club management ...

as Director of Football, the club decided to retain his services. McParland was sacked on 12 October 2009, however, with the club in fifth place in League Two.

Ipswich Town

He joined

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

as part of

Roy Keane Roy Maurice Keane (born 10 August 1971) is an Irish football pundit, former coach, and former professional player. He is best known for his career in the Premier League, in particular his captaincy of Manchester United. He is the joint most ...

's coaching staff on 27 November 2009. On 7 January 2011 he took over as caretaker manager for the departed Keane, and in his first game suffered a 7–0 defeat to

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 ...

side Chelsea. His second and final game in charge was the home leg of the League Cup semi-final against Arsenal on 12 January 2011, which Ipswich won 1–0. He was replaced permanently by

Paul Jewell Paul Jewell (born 28 September 1964) is an English football manager and former player, who was most recently director of football at Swindon Town. Jewell began his playing career with Liverpool, continued at Wigan Athletic and concluded in a t ...

on 13 January 2011.

Swindon Town

McParland joined

on 3 March 2011 as assistant to

Paul Hart Paul Anthony Hart (born 4 May 1953) is an English football manager, coach, and former professional player who made 567 appearances in the Football League as a defender. Hart was most recently assistant manager to Nathan Jones at Charlton ...

who had taken over the manager's role. He left the club in April 2011 following relegation to League Two.

Return to Forest

On 28 February 2013, McParland was appointed the under-21 coach at former club Nottingham Forest, returning to the club after an absence of over five years. He was relieved of his position after

Billy Davies William McIntosh Davies (born 31 May 1964) is a Scottish former professional footballer and manager. He won the 2007 Play-offs with Derby County, finished as runners-up in 2005 with Preston North End, and reached the semi-finals in 2006 (Prest ...

was fired from Nottingham Forest. In August 2014 he was contacted by Norwegian club

Sogndal Sogndal is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is located on the northern shore of the Sognefjorden in the Districts of Norway, traditional district of Sogn. The village of Hermansv ...

to become assistant manager under former Leeds player Eirik Bakke. McParland assumed the position ahead of the 2015 1. divisjon campaign, but missed his family, resigned after only three months and returned to England.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player Individual *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's Football in England, En ...

: 1986–87 Third Division, 1987–88 Third Division Manager Individual * League One Manager of the Month: March 2006

References

External links

Career statistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:McParland, Ian 1961 births Living people Footballers from Edinburgh Scottish men's footballers Notts County F.C. players Hull City A.F.C. players Walsall F.C. players Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players Sliema Wanderers F.C. players Northampton Town F.C. players Hamilton Academical F.C. players Berwick Rangers F.C. players Double Flower FA players Eastern Sports Club footballers Scottish Football League players English Football League players Hong Kong First Division League players Hong Kong League XI representative players Scottish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Malta Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Malta Expatriate men's footballers in Hong Kong Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Hong Kong Scottish football managers Nottingham Forest F.C. managers Notts County F.C. managers Ipswich Town F.C. managers Men's association football forwards Nottingham Forest F.C. non-playing staff Sogndal Fotball non-playing staff Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Norway