Brian McDermott

Born in Slough, Buckinghamshire, McDermott joined Arsenal as an apprentice in January 1977, signing professional forms with the club in February 1979. He was a regular in Arsenal's reserve team, finishing as top scorer in the Football Combination in 1978–79, before making his début as a substitute against Bristol City on 10 March 1979. He did not properly break into the Arsenal first team until the 1980–81 season, notching 45 appearances (14 as sub) in all competitions in that season and 1981–82. Unable to match his goalscoring rate at the top level, he featured much less in the 1982–83 and 1983–84 seasons and was loaned out twice by the Gunners: once to Fulham in 1983 and then to IFK Norrköping between April and October 1984, where he was named Sweden's Player of the Year. McDermott secured a permanent move to Oxford United in December 1984, having made 72 appearances (44 starts, 28 as sub) for Arsenal, scoring 13 goals. McDermott's later career included a loan spell at Huddersfield Town and at Djurgårdens IF, before stints at Cardiff City, Exeter City and Yeovil Town. After a spell in Hong Kong for club South China, McDermott returned to England to play in the Sussex County League with STAMCO while working at Slough Town as Football in the Community Officer. He then played briefly for Slough Town before subsequently managing the club.

Slough Town

McDermott joined Slough Town, initially as a player in 1995; however, he took up a player manager role with the club following the departure of then manager, Dave Russell, in March 1996. Slough finished the 1995–96 season in 17th place in the Conference. McDermott then went on to have two full seasons as manager of Slough, finishing the 1996–97 season in 16th place and then the 1997–98 season in 8th place. In the summer of 1998 the consortium which had bought the club out of receivership seven years earlier decided that they were not prepared to pay for ground improvements required to remain in the Conference and therefore the club was demoted back to the Isthmian League, all but 4 of the club's players were sacked due to financial constraints, including manager Brian McDermott.

Woking

After leaving Slough Town in the summer of 1998, McDermott took the managers job at Woking in September 1998, with his first match in charge ending in a draw versus Yeovil Town. However, due to a poor 1999–2000 season and with Woking struggling in 20th place in the table Brian McDermott was sacked by Woking on 29 February 2000.

Reading

McDermott joined Alan Pardew's Reading as Chief Scout in September 2000, taking over from Maurice Evans. McDermott also became the under-19s and reserve team manager, before taking over as caretaker first team manager following the departure of Brendan Rodgers on 17 December 2009. McDermott's first game in charge was a 1–1…

McDermott was born to Irish parents. In an interview in 2012, he revealed he was a supporter of Sligo Rovers and that one of his goals was to manage the Republic of Ireland national side one day. In 2022, McDermott said that he had experienced challenges with alcohol and depression.

Player

Oxford United

Football League Second Division: 1984–85 Exeter City

Football League Fourth Division: 1989–90 Individual

Sweden Player of the Year: 1984

Manager

Reading

Premier Reserve League South: 2006–07 Football League Championship: 2011–12 Individual

LMA Championship Manager of the Year: 2011–12 Premier League Manager of the Month: January 2013 Football League Championship Manager of the Month: March 2010, April 2011, February 2012, March 2012