Remaining there, though, turned out to be an altogether more difficult task.
“Leeds were a top Premiership team at that time,” said the former Republic of Ireland internationalist as he looked back on his Elland Road days earlier this week.
“Howard Wilkinson was the manager, then George Graham came in and David O'Leary took over after that. We got to the semi-final of the UEFA Cup one season and the semi-final of the Champions League the season after that. It was a brilliant place to be. The club was probably at its peak.”
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Maybury was loaned out to Reading and Crewe Alexandria towards the end of his six year spell in Yorkshire and eventually departed for Hearts in a bid to get regular game time. But he has no regrets, none at all, about choosing to join the English giants ahead of then Scottish champions Rangers as a kid. He would recommend taking the chance to any aspiring professional.
The former Hibernian, Falkirk, Hearts and St Johnstone coach, who was last week placed on gardening leave by William Hill League 2 part-timers Stirling Albion after two turbulent, challenging but ultimately enjoyable years in charge, has worked extensively with age-group sides in this country since retiring from playing in 2015.
He believes that youngsters here have just as much chance of making a breakthrough in the senior game down south as they do in their homeland because of the lack of first team opportunities which are available to them.
The 47-year-old was certainly not afraid to blood inexperienced hopefuls during his time at Forthbank – he took to the social networking website LinkedIn this week to express pride that he had handed debuts to no fewer than 21 of them during his tenure and point out his side gave the third highest competitive minutes to under-21s in Scotland.
“There was certainly a bit of necessity there because of the budget we had,” he said. “But I was more than happy to do that because I think the senior player will let you down as much as the young player sometimes. Someone needs to be brave enough to put them in.”
Sadly, such managers are few and far between.
Alan Maybury in action for Leeds United (Image: Colorsport / Shutterstock)
Executives at Scotland’s leading clubs are concerned at the number of promising youths who are being lured to England by lucrative offers from clubs which are no longer able to sign players under the age of 18 from mainland Europe due to Brexit restrictions.
But Maybury, who played in the Championship with Leicester City and League One with Colchester United, argued the attraction is not simply financial.
“Why wouldn't you take that opportunity?” he said. “The pathway here is quite hard. Yes, there are the under-19 teams. But it is a big step from there to the first team. When boys reach a certain age, they suddenly find they're not getting opportunities. Match minutes for young players just aren't there.
“If you get the chance to go down south you've got an extra step down there with under-21s. Sorry, but those opportunities aren't being given in Scotland. Even if you don’t make it at the big club in England, there are smaller clubs nearby you can go to. If you fail to make the grade, it is then about finding a pathway.
“Back when I was at Falkirk, we sold Conor McGrandles to Norwich. He then ended up at MK Dons and he's just got promoted into the Championship with Lincoln this week. There's more opportunity, more exposure and more money down in England. So I can see why boys do it.
“Listen, there's a lot of good work done by a lot of clubs here. But at the end of the day these lads need the opportunity. It is about creating a pathway. Can we give them managers brave enough and directors honest enough to say, ‘This is a long-term plan and we are sticking with it?’.
“It takes time to produce a 10 out of 10. There is no quick fix on this. But there is joined-up thinking and a long-term strategy in place in England. Arsenal are trying to win the Premier League in England and they're putting a 16-year-old [Max Dowman] on. That just doesn’t happen here.
“Can we develop players who are good enough and then can we create a pathway for them? The under-15, under-16 and under-17 sides do well in their age group. But after that it is all about opportunity. The Scottish kids are there, it's just about having that chance to go and play and find the levels.”
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Maybury promoted kids from the academy and brought in youths from Premiership sides on loan – Harry Welsh from Dundee United, Dylan Wells from Motherwell and Billy Hutchison from St Mirren have all been at Forthbank during the 2025/26 campaign – at Albion after being told by the club hierarchy that a change in strategy was required shortly after he was appointed.
He also arranged SFA cooperation agreements with Rangers, where his son Jude is on the books, and secured the services of defenders Connor Campbell and Arran Kerr this term. However, he found that patience and understanding were in short supply when performances and results fell short of what was expected.
“Technically these boys are good,” he said. “But they've probably played on artificial pitches, they've probably played in one structure, they've probably dominated the ball because they've been at the big clubs.
“No disrespect, but you can't play total football, you can't roll it into midfield on a heavy grass pitch in the fourth tier. It's all about making good decisions in stadiums with crowds against seasoned pros who know the dark arts. There is inconsistency as they learn how to do that. It takes time, but you don't get it.
“At the end of the day, I'm still expected to win games as manager. Every fan wants to win games. There was a change in policy and we had to give young players an opportunity. Is that communicated well enough? Does everyone understand that?
“More often than not the club with the biggest budget wins the league. My entire back four was comprised of loan players the other week. Is that going to get you success or the club success?”
Arran Kerr of Rangers (Image: Stuart Wallace / Shutterstock)
The Cooperation System was one of the key recommendations in the Transition Phase report that was co-authored by Andy Gould, the SFA’s former chief football officer, and Chris Docherty, the governing body’s ex-head of men’s elite strategy, and published last year.
It allows Premiership and Championship clubs to send promising players in the 16 to 21 age group who are eligible to represent Scotland out on flexible loans to lower league outfits and be recalled if required. It has increased the game time that youngsters have received considerably.
But Maybury feels the new initiative will need to be tweaked and perfected going forward. “We were grateful to have Connor and Arran and I was happy to play them,” he said. “They are good footballers and I worked hard to get them. But it could be difficult.
“I would maybe get told on a Wednesday that I’ll not have a player for training on a Thursday but would have him for the game on Saturday. I've then got players who are thinking, ‘Why is that young boy playing ahead of me when he's not been at training?’
“Their clubs need them for different things, for training days, for under-19 games, for first team squads. It's not all straightforward. Players can be pulled from pillar to post - they're out on loan but they're still at the clubs.
“Back in January, Arran Kerr played for us against Forfar away on the Saturday, on the Thursday night he sat on the bench for Rangers against Porto in Portugal and then he was at Forthbank to face Stranraer on the Saturday. That is difficult for an 18 year old to deal with. Some aspects of it definitely need to be ironed out.”
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Jude Maybury is in the youth ranks at Rangers and attends Boclair Academy near Auchenhowie. The school has a tie up with the club which allows promising players to combine their academic studies with elite level training. His father has been impressed with the football education his son has received.
“We leave our house in Bathgate at half six every morning to get to the drop off for the bus,” he said. “Jude has been in there since he was six. He's a midfielder and is a good player. He understands the game, he's smart, he's technical. He does all right.”
But the man who enjoyed a 20 year playing career and represented his country on 10 occasions does wonder if something has been lost with the dawn of professional academies.
“I trained two nights a week at Home Farm in Dublin, landed in Leeds in July and by the following February I had played in the first team at age at age of 17,” he said. “Did I just have that bit of determination that is needed? I don’t know. There were lots of boys in my age group who did that.
“Everything is learned, taught, practised, now. There is no school football, no mavericks. Kids don't climb trees, don’t build ramps, don't fall off bikes. When you’re coaching young boys, you have to teach them how to move sometimes. Players get more in the academies now. More contact time, more touches, more everything. But is it real?”
Alan Maybury in action for Colchester United (Image: Kieran Galvin / Shutterstock)
Maybury was courted by Rangers himself as a kid. The fact that the Ibrox club was interested in bringing in an Irish player did not go unnoticed in Dublin. But he has fond memories of his brief time in Govan.
“Home Farm played in the Milk Cup in Northern Ireland one year and did quite well,” he said. “I got asked to go over Rangers on trial and travelled across a couple of times. They flew my mum and dad and my little brother over and they had meetings with Walter Smith.
“I absolutely loved it, it was a brilliant experience. They looked after me really well. I always came home with bags full of stuff. Some people weren't happy that I was wearing Rangers kit to train with Home Farm or St Kevin's Boys. But some people are never happy.
“It made the local paper. They ran a story with the headline, ‘Rangers in for Dublin boy’. They made a bit of a thing of it. But it never really bothered me. No, it was never really an issue.
“In the end it came down to whether I thought I would do better at Leeds or Rangers and I just felt I would do better at Leeds. I really wanted that opportunity down in England. But my boy winds me up about it now. He says to me, ‘You never played for Rangers!’”
Maybury did play for both Hearts and Hibs. But crossing the Edinburgh divide was, like the prospect of signing for Rangers, never something that caused him any sleepless nights. He has been pleased to see the Tynecastle club do so well this term and is hoping they can seal a historic Scottish title success in the coming weeks.
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“Some people just don’t like me!” he said with a smile. “There are a few Hearts fans who don’t like me because I played for Hibs and a few Hibs fans who don’t like me because I played for Hearts. But that is fine. It is a long time ago. The young team weren’t even born when it happened. I don’t think anybody really cares any more.
“Hearts doing so well has been great for Scottish football. I worked with Derek McInnes at St Johnstone and I am not surprised he has done so well. He is ultra-professional, extremely organised. People have been waiting for them to fall all season and they are still up there with six games to go.”
Alan Maybury is keen to return to football, either as a manager or a coach, himself in the future despite his bitter disappointment at his departure from Stirling Albion. You can be sure he will not be afraid to give a promising youngster the same break he got at Leeds United years ago when he does so.
“If you put your neck on the line it is going to get chopped off at some point,” he said. “I can live with that. I liked the responsibility of management. I will take time to reflect on what happened and see what lies ahead after that.”