LUXURY in football is squandering a golden chance three minutes from the end of a European Cup quarter final and being able to laugh about it afterwards.

That was Brian McClair's first act on Wednesday night in Oporto. As the final whistle blew, McClair, a non playing substitute, ran over to Philip Neville, a fellow bench man who had gone on, and asked why, when clean through in the 87th minute, Neville had chosen to pass, not shoot. A beaming, if bemused, Mex Ferguson, made the same point.

Fortunately Neville's nonshot was irrelevant, and the morning after at Manchester United's Salford training ground McClair was more concerned that he had not upset his young team mate with his televised questioning.

"I was just joking," McClair said. "I said, `Come on, let's go through it again'. Even when you're out there and there are thousands of people and television cameras, you don't think of that. To me it was private; I didn't want to embarrass him."

The Neville moment stood out for McClair because it was one of the few events in a game "that wasn't too exciting, was it? They might have got as much luck as we had in the first leg: that's what we were conscious of. We were happy the way it went, but it wasn't much of a spectacle."

To be blunt, McClair should know, because the Glaswegian watches far more first team football than he plays. At 34 McClair's 10th anniversary at Old Trafford arrives on July 1st, a decade that has seen him transformed from leading scorer to a squad man whose view of today's game at Everton will more than likely be from the dug out.

It is a transition he admits has not been easy, watching his role gradually diminish, though never extinguished, as Ferguson's teams have emerged. "I should like to think that I'm of value and of use," he said of his present situation. "You can still be an influence, albeit playing for the reserves, or in training or coming in for the first team. The manager is still confident in me and I feel fit enough."

McClair's function within United began to change three to four seasons ago, "and it was difficult at first. You get used to playing, and then to not play after 13 years - you miss it physically as well as mentally. The game is the natural climax to the week, and when you don't play you get frustrated. There's no release, and it took me quite a while to get round that."

But the warmth between McClair and Ferguson is evident. "He's threatening to sue over that," McClair said with a laugh, a reference to an entry in the caustic diary McClair writes for the club magazine about Ferguson's selection procedure that mentioned "throwing darts at photos of the players".

Eight months after Ferguson went to Manchester he made the former Glasgow University mathematics student his first purchase, although as he signed on the same day as Viv Anderson, alphabetically McClair may be second.

As 1990 dawned Ferguson was under intense external pressure. "We were having a really bad time, near the bottom of the League and we (the players) were being criticised every Sunday and Monday. That was it, but the manager was getting it every day and he never once came in and said, `You're the reason for this'. He carried the burden himself: that's part of him. I remember us talking about that at the time."

At that City Ground match Jimmy Hill had called United a "beaten team" in the warm up, but they won and subsequently lifted the Cup. It was Ferguson's first trophy and, according to McClair, "a relief".

Nevertheless, had they not won at Forest, McClair still does not think Ferguson would have been dismissed because "although he was receiving unfair and horrendous criticism in 1989, people within the club could see the germ of a youth policy, that certain things had been set in place and were developing."

That internal faith has proved to be a spectacular success, and as Beckham, Scholes, Butt and the Nevilles have pushed through, McClair has become something of an elder statesman. "Yes, some of them ask for advice, but I won't tell them what to do: I can only express an opinion. But it's nice that they ask."

However, whether Philip Neville speaks to McClair about shooting practice in today's warmup is as uncertain as whether McClair is part of the squad. A fourth title in five seasons beckons, but even McClair's United status, as a substitute, was kept "round the corner" from the main team talk on Wednesday night. As he said: "After 10 years I might know the manager quite well, but I still don't know how he picks his teams."

Darts?