Mark McGhee

[eddiemunster]

Big man brushes his teeth with a Ford cortina

[Kmcalpin]

I even thought that his post match interview today was a load of guff. He said we were second best and were at least a goal worse than Aberdeen in the first half. But he changed things at half time and we went on and won the game. I thought we were unlucky to be a goal down at half time and he was taking the credit for some magical managerial input that change the game. When in fact it was terrible defending from Aberdeen.

 

Overall agree with a lot of your post, but don't believe all you hear or read in the media. Yes, Aberdeen's defending wasn't great at our goals but we have to take some credit. It wasn't all down to keystone cops defending as Willie Miller and Richard Gordon would have us believe. I didn't hear either of them criticise our defending at their penalty (if indeed it was a penalty). For a long spell in the first half we gave them too much respect and didn't compete and that also happened in the latter stages of the game. He does deserve credit for guiding the team to a win. .

[CoF]

Maybe I just find his egotism endearing, but I've never really understood why he inspires so much rage from all quarters. Whenever he takes full credit for a win or claims he should be managing a world famous team I take it with a pinch of salt and just view it as another "Oh,Mark!" moment.

 

This is exactly how I find him.

 

I think where he occasionally goes wrong is his understanding of what it is to be a football fan. For a guy who is often lauded as being highly intelligent, he can be honest to the point of stupidity. For example, "well, of the two jobs I'd rate the Celtic one above Aberdeen" in his first press conference as Aberdeen manager. I'm sure most managers would think that, but for fuck sake just dodge the question.

 

That said, I like McGhee a lot and think what he did for this club far outweighs any negatives. As a manager I reckon this 'ego' that people speak of gives him an air of unwavering confidence and self-assuredness that most of the players will respond well to most of the time.

[mjw]

If you get it into your head that the guy is paid to do a job and not to be your pal who'll go for a pint with you,life is much easier.

[Tweed]

Overall agree with a lot of your post, but don't believe all you hear or read in the media. Yes, Aberdeen's defending wasn't great at our goals but we have to take some credit. It wasn't all down to keystone cops defending as Willie Miller and Richard Gordon would have us believe. I didn't hear either of them criticise our defending at their penalty (if indeed it was a penalty). For a long spell in the first half we gave them too much respect and didn't compete and that also happened in the latter stages of the game. He does deserve credit for guiding the team to a win. .

Yep, first half we maybe gave them a bit more room than we should have but as an attacking force we could not get the forward three ticking with any regularity. That was purely because the midfield three were too far back. By bring Ainsworth on for Cadden, we had a better shape and that made a difference to the way the second half panned out so for all the Aberdeen defending was rank rotten, the changes we made allowed us to get into the positions to ask them questions. However as well as McGhee making the changes, Aberdeen sat deeper and deeper when it was 1-0 and invited us on, to be honest, they haven't done that in other games I have seen them this season which for all I don't think either Johnson or Ainsworth had their best games yesterday, they were clearly shitting it about their pace. I thought McGhee read the game well yesterday and made the changes that turned it. But if you are Aberdeen you have to look at those two goals and ask a lot of questions, they let the air out their own balloon big time. Shame, eh?

[Ya Bezzer!]

Even when we went through our bad spell it was clear to me we were much better organised, playing much better, had more goal threat and everything else you'd be looking for.

 

Hopefully the last month or so will have persuaded some supporters to be a bit less knee jerk in their opinions, judge things on their true merits, ditch all these ridiculous personality issues, re-think their expectations and maybe just support the team a bit better.

 

Wasn't the whole experience of the match yesterday, even at 0-1 down, so much better than it was against Inverness when we were 1-1 and well in the game?

 

The last two matches the atmosphere has been good and even when the team went behind I think the positive attitude from the stands has helped to turn the matches round and get victories out of them. Fans play a big part in these things and I'd like to see us keep that going.

[Graeme Bremner]

I think mcghee is a good manager and I like the guy dare i say after McInnes and John Hughes hes one of the best managers at this level ..... Even if he is frustrating

 

The turn around has been absoloutely immense. I am a believer in supporting the manager no matter who probably took me longer than most to lose patience with the last imposter (hamilton away was when i gave up on him completely)

 

but back on McGhee the guy has some skill and he is good at his job if we keep him for years to come I dont see relegation coming and thats all I want in a manager.

 

Onwards and Upward

[Gazza_MFC_97]

What a turn around in the last 6 weeks it has been I'm delighted we have givin ourselves a good chance of finishing in the top 6. McGhee and the players have done a great job in turning our results from losing to winning and to go from second bottom to 5th in 6 weeks is brilliant.

 

McGhee Must Stay!

[Kmcalpin]

I even thought that his post match interview today was a load of guff. He said we were second best and were at least a goal worse than Aberdeen in the first half. But he changed things at half time and we went on and won the game. I thought we were unlucky to be a goal down at half time and he was taking the credit for some magical managerial input that change the game. When in fact it was terrible defending from Aberdeen.

 

I listened to his interview last and couldn't find much wrong with it. He didn't take personal credit for the win and as I recall didn't say "I" once. He continually used the word "we", which suggests a management team should take credit and not just him.

[Catweazles ring piece]

Mark McGhee's appointment was bang on the money for me.

In fact, IMO, I'd take things a step further, with the onset of fan ownership.

I'd be looking to establish him within the club, in much the same way as Alex Ferguson at Man Utd.

Whether, he'd have any interest, I'm unsure, but I'd like to think, he could be the man to lay the foundation of the new look Motherwell FC.

Not sure everyone would agree with this, but I'm interested on fellow Well fans thoughts!

[Kmcalpin]

Looking forward we do need continuity. In recent years we've witnessed a few radical changes of direction as new managers have come in, not all successfully. The club is changing direction with the prospect of fan ownership and more emphasis on youth. Good youth systems don't come cheap though.

 

There's no doubt that at our level Mark McGhee is a good manager. He took over a dispirited, poor team at a difficult time with no money to splash out on new players. So, he has what it takes. He has never doubted his own ability and some didn't like the way he left last time around and I accept that. Personally, I had no trouble with him coming back, or in the way he and Scott Leitch left. As for his handling of players in recent months I can't see much wrong with that. The Lionel Ainsworth/Partick aftermatch - we just don't know what took place behind closed doors. My yardstick is "Has there been evidence of players downing tools and not playing for him?" That would indicate poor man management skills. I can see no basis for that. His knowledge of football is very impressive.

 

In principle I would agree Al and I think your idea is worth pursuing to give us some stability but would he agree? He's 58 and may still feel he has other challenges but how much higher is he going to go in the game? I wouldn't hold it against him if he wanted another change but no harm in trying.

[CMWellfan]

Like everyone else, I am delighted by our turnaround, and all credit has to go to the manager. Stuart McColl took us on an interesting journey but failed to generate sufficient transfer income. The current manager gives youth a go, and we need transfer money more than ever.

[that hat]

Oh crap! He's just been cursed with the manager of the month award.

[Gadgey]

Wooaaahh!!!!

 

You're a brave man putting that one out there. Personally, I have no issue with that as hearts have seen success from doing the same with Levein.

 

I'm sure there will be many who will not agree or agree without McGhees involvement.

 

Thinking it through logically though, there is that potential succession plan of Robinson and Craigan stepping up with Lasley and potentially Faddy coming through the youth system.

[Catweazles ring piece]

To be fair, I wasn't suggesting him moving upstairs at this time.

More of blue printing the way forward for the club and moving upstairs sometime later when the time arose. Mark McGhee has loads still to offer as a manager.

However, I think he is the man to develop MFC as manager and in future roles.

Probably won't happen, but worth discussing.

[kmmfc]

He'll be too busy trying to get the Celtic job in the summer to bother about us!!!

[Lobey_Dosser]

Unless McGhee stays longer than anticipated I expect Lasley or Craigan to be our next manager. This should provide the necessary continuity in an environment that reportedly has an embedded structure that supports player recruitment, player development and sport science.

[Tweed]

Malpas all over again.

[Graeme Bremner]

What the club have to do is communicate with their counterparts in amsterdam and get our youth set up running on a smaller scale like ajax's

 

Traditionally been good footballing talent through lanarkshire and we should be looking to be the club to be snapping these players up when they are fifteen or younger developing them and seeing where that takes us

 

Its how ferguson did it at aberdeen and to a lesser extent at united

 

Not saying we will win the league but we could have ourselves in a position to be comfortably premiere league quality

 

But club has to find out what the dutch are doing and replicate it thats the only way for us to sustain top level football at fir park in my honest opinion

[faddythedaddy]

Groundbreaking stuff

[superward]

Ajax was the original blueprint but things have moved on since then. Loads of different ways to do out there and it should be a blended austen that is right for us and club of our size and position.

[star sail]

McGhee's achievements are incredible. My feeling is that when we have a focused, motivated McGhee, we have the best man manager in the league.

 

Looking back over the last 10 years, I think we have done exceptionally well with managers. Not all of them have been a long term success, but they have all contributed in timely fashion, to Motherwell's continued Premiership survival. Gannon and Baraclough built squads at times when we desperately needed players to allow the experienced man managers in Brown and McGhee to then mould these squads into top six teams.

 

McCall provided a time of almost unparalleled success for the club but there was always a sense at that time that it was a live for the day mentality, with no forward planning at all.

 

The point I am making is that few of our managers have been the complete manager, but they have all contributed in their own way at just the right time.

 

In fact since Tommy McLean, the only two managers that for me, had an overall negative effect were McLeish and Malpas. That's not bad for a spell of 25 years in a clubs history.

[Guest]

Ajax was the original blueprint but things have moved on since then. Loads of different ways to do out there and it should be a blended austen that is right for us and club of our size and position.

 

Fully agree with this. Football (possibly just fans and pundits) across the UK are always pining for whatever is in vogue at the time. We'd to be like the Dutch, because Ajax produced great players, then the French and the Clairefontaine centralised model when the French won the world cup, then we'd to be like Spain, with their massive academies at big clubs, now we've to be like the Germans, with every club having a specific academy scheme.

 

Take what we've got and improve it as much as we can, keeping on chasing whatever has produced results there and then for someone is never going to be a success, as you're already behind.

[weeyin]

It's not about chasing. Each of the models you mentioned continue to be successful to a large degree. Of course there are ups and downs depending on the talent pool, internal politics etc. but it seems we are still too parochial in the way we address the grass roots. What makes that even more galling is that the UEFA coaching schools we run are regarded as some of the best in Europe.

[superward]

It was only a few years ago we reorganised into the Academy system and have, since Les came in, started to provide more focus on recruitment and that pathway to the first team. I would give it a few years yet before saying we need to change it. Quality youth production is a slow burn and also needs a bit of luck along the way.