Mark McGhee will always generate mixed feelings for Motherwell fans. Here is my take on it.
Positives - The football during the first season was fantastic and an absolute joy to watch the home wins against Aberdeen and Dundee United especially. Even the 2-1 defeat to Killie when we were robbed. Nobody can criticise his handling of the club in the aftermath of the death of Phil O Donnell. I don't think any fan is taking anything away from his 3rd place finish that was fantastic.
However there are fans out there who think because he finished 3rd he should be exempt from criticism. IMO opinion that is absolute nonsense because he did make mistakes.
Negatives - His constant whoring himself after jobs after the first season was a disgrace. I don't blame him for applying the Scotland job because that for me is the biggest honour out there. However, everytime a job came up like Aberdeen and Celtic he was in the paper the next day with a 2 page spread. The people who think he gave youth a chance are also blinkered. McHugh for a start got his debut when we had a game won( i think it was Hamilton but could be wrong) and got on for about 5 minutes. That for me is hardly a chance. When we missed out on the top six and new we weren't going to be relegated why didn't he give them some first team experience when it didn't matter?
Then there Was his poor attempts at mind games. 'Jamie Murphy is going to be the first name on the team sheet' he said when discussing the Nancy home leg. Where was he? On the bloody bench!
Then there was the St Mirren game when a win would have got us in to the top six. We needed goals and what does he do? He plays SIX defenders out of TEN outfield players.
Then there was all these contacts that he was going to use to sign players and very little of them came to fruition.
So to sum up, he was never useless and anyone who doesn't have anything good to say about him is blinkered as are the people who think he is exempt from criticism.