McGhee The Waster

[Ya Bezzer!]

McGhee let us down by letting so many players leave?

 

Let's take a look at them.

 

Stephen Hughes - Had no intention of staying at 'Well, now on 7k a week at Norwich.

Graeme Smith - Had no intention of staying at 'Well. Has said as much in the press.

Bob Malcolm - Didn't you want rid of him anyway?

Steven Coutts - Wasn't good enough.

David Clarkson - Under contract, transfer nothing to do with McGhee. Club cashed in on him.

Paul Quinn - Under contract, transfer nothing to do with McGhee. Club cashed in on him.

Maros Klimpl - Loan signing brought in by McGhee in the first place.

Brian McLean - The only player McGhee can really be criticised for leaving the club by not offering him a contract.

 

McGhee neglected the youngsters?

 

Shaun Hutchinson, Paul Slane, Robert McHugh and Steven Saunders all made their debuts under McGhee. Jamie Murphy was a regular and Ross Forbes was on loan at Dumbarton so wasn't illegible for selection.

 

Give us peace. McGhee took the worst Motherwell side in 25 years and gave us a third place and a seventh place, two Euro qualifications, some of the best football we've ever seen at first park in his first season, a long unbeaten spell in his second. Yeah, we have a lot to 'hate' McGhee about.

 

All this resentment about players and managers moving on is pathetic and childish. And newsflash, Humphrey, Ruddy, Coke, Jennings, Gannon, Slane, Forbes, and however else you like will all be off just as soon as they get a better offer.

 

And I wish Jim Gannon all the best, I've put my money in after all, but when we've beat a team that wouldn't embarrass the Ayrshire Junior leagues let me know.

[London Irish]

Depressing thread. Can understand some panto knockabout with McGhee now he's at Dons but too many people in this thread come across as if they actually mean it

[Al Pacino]

McGhee let us down by letting so many players leave?

 

Let's take a look at them.

 

Stephen Hughes - Had no intention of staying at 'Well, now on 7k a week at Norwich.

Graeme Smith - Had no intention of staying at 'Well. Has said as much in the press.

Bob Malcolm - Didn't you want rid of him anyway?

Steven Coutts - Wasn't good enough.

David Clarkson - Under contract, transfer nothing to do with McGhee. Club cashed in on him.

Paul Quinn - Under contract, transfer nothing to do with McGhee. Club cashed in on him.

Maros Klimpl - Loan signing brought in by McGhee in the first place.

Brian McLean - The only player McGhee can really be criticised for leaving the club by not offering him a contract.

 

McGhee neglected the youngsters?

 

Shaun Hutchinson, Paul Slane, Robert McHugh and Steven Saunders all made their debuts under McGhee. Jamie Murphy was a regular and Ross Forbes was on loan at Dumbarton so wasn't illegible for selection.

 

Give us peace. McGhee took the worst Motherwell side in 25 years and gave us a third place and a seventh place, two Euro qualifications, some of the best football we've ever seen at first park in his first season, a long unbeaten spell in his second. Yeah, we have a lot to 'hate' McGhee about.

 

All this resentment about players and managers moving on is pathetic and childish. And newsflash, Humphrey, Ruddy, Coke, Jennings, Gannon, Slane, Forbes, and however else you like will all be off just as soon as they get a better offer.

 

They are all fair points regarding what McGhee did for the team and club. I think some peoples judgement is being clouded by what Mark McGhee said and did via the media. In my opinion he he did a good job up to a point but is an arse who has a track record of initially doing well at a club and then bailing out or being sacked because he knows he is one-dimentional. You may or may not have noticed that Mark over-pronounces the word "I" and that is probably because it is his favourite word!

 

Also, I've no quibble with players who jump ship for a better offer if they deserve it but if they start touting themselves for it through the media while being contracted to and being paid by MFC I'll slate them as well.

[claretbandonambershirt]

I think McGhee is getting a bit of unfair criticism and as someone said above on this thread, fans are fickle. Would love to see a consistent manager here for a number of years but you can guarantee that when things go sour and when Gannon leaves, he'll get the same fickle response from fans. Enjoy the moment because manager's come and go as players do, but so far so good and these are great times for MFC.

[casey]

For all of McGhees faults, my main memory of him will be that he took us from the Malpas era and led us into Europe and a fantastic trip to Nancy. Also the way he handled Phils death was very dignified.

 

Will be curious to see if he follows the same pattern at Aberdeen. Ie, good first season and then losing interest and looking elsewhere.

[MJC_MKI]

Mark McGhee is the best manager we've had here at Motherwell in recent memory and Jim Gannon has a hard act to follow if he is to take us to anywhere near the heights that McGhee took us. 3rd placed finish just one year after avoiding relagation by a bawhair, and in the same season that our club captain collapsed and died on the playing field. I didn't like his attitude either, but no one can argue with what McGhee achieved for us on the park so this "Gannon's a much better manager all round" nonsense really is cringeworthy. In time, he may prove to be a better manager for us, but that is a tall order, and at this stage, not even a month into his reign, we cannot possibly tell if he is indeed better than McGhee was.

 

I just hope to Christ that Gannon and the players aren't getting as carried away as some of our fans are just now about the result the other night.

[trafficlight]

Some well balanced posts on the McGhee era here. The guy deserves huge credit for achieving third place in the season after the Malpas disaster. That was some going ! He handled the O'Donnell tragedy with great dignity, and, according to lots of fans who use this forum, had the team playing some really nice football. Perhaps he took his eye off the ball in his second season, perhaps he came to regret not taking the Hearts job and so lost some of the fire in his belly; I'm not qualified to say. But give the guy some credit for his time at Motherwell, and, as others have pointed out, the depletion of the squad can't all be blamed upon him.

[orange county dosser]

McGhee let us down by letting so many players leave?

 

Let's take a look at them.

 

Stephen Hughes - Had no intention of staying at 'Well, now on 7k a week at Norwich.

Graeme Smith - Had no intention of staying at 'Well. Has said as much in the press.

Bob Malcolm - Didn't you want rid of him anyway?

Steven Coutts - Wasn't good enough.

David Clarkson - Under contract, transfer nothing to do with McGhee. Club cashed in on him.

Paul Quinn - Under contract, transfer nothing to do with McGhee. Club cashed in on him.

Maros Klimpl - Loan signing brought in by McGhee in the first place.

Brian McLean - The only player McGhee can really be criticised for leaving the club by not offering him a contract.

 

McGhee neglected the youngsters?

 

Shaun Hutchinson, Paul Slane, Robert McHugh and Steven Saunders all made their debuts under McGhee. Jamie Murphy was a regular and Ross Forbes was on loan at Dumbarton so wasn't illegible for selection.

 

Give us peace. McGhee took the worst Motherwell side in 25 years and gave us a third place and a seventh place, two Euro qualifications, some of the best football we've ever seen at first park in his first season, a long unbeaten spell in his second. Yeah, we have a lot to 'hate' McGhee about.

 

All this resentment about players and managers moving on is pathetic and childish. And newsflash, Humphrey, Ruddy, Coke, Jennings, Gannon, Slane, Forbes, and however else you like will all be off just as soon as they get a better offer.

 

And I wish Jim Gannon all the best, I've put my money in after all, but when we've beat a team that wouldn't embarrass the Ayrshire Junior leagues let me know.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

what he said !!

 

one of the best managers at the club in the last 30 odd years !

 

reality check required by some people on here I think

[madwullie]

While mcghee can't be blamed for players being offski, he knew this was likely to happen and his famed signing policy did leave us in the shit with only a handful of players signed up after he bolted. Although if Fraser is any indication of the quality he would have signed, maybe that's for the best

[Lobey_Dosser]

I mind when me, DosserJoe, MelvinBragg and one or two others were getting pelters on here for having the cheek to say anything against Messiah McGhee!

 

Now it's the fashionable thing to hate him!

 

He's a c**t. He was a c**t whilst the Motherwell manager, and now he's c**t whilst not the Motherwell manager.

 

Amen.

 

Once a wanker, always a wanker.

[nethertonwellfan]

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.

[stoney]

atho a happy clappy that was behind mcghee all the way I am really glad he fecked off this summer.

 

If it was clear that we were going to shed so many first team players mcghee has prooved he is incapable of finding the replacements that we would have needed

[dazamfc]

some people forget what he did on and off the field for us.the first season was just amazing.he signed some good players in porter and hughes and was amazing throught the Phil O'Donnell tragedy.he also got us playing some great football we hadn't seen in 20 odd years.3rd in the league and into the UEFA Cup.Not many managers have done that for us in their first season.He also turned down the chance to go yo hearts.

in the second season i know he didn't live up to the expectaions which were so high.because he got us into europe in his first season as boss it doesn't mean that he will repeat it with ease.A longer cup run would have been better right enough but i think the man was just great.

[Leroy Trusco]

I'm not buying this crap about how he carried/led the club through the heartbreaking loss of Phil. We all got through it together! The players, the staff and the fans. Nothing Mark McGhee did during that dreadful time made any difference to how I felt and surely guys like Clarky and the thousands who turned out at Swinecastle (2-2) deserve as much if not more credit than our former manager who was purely a mouthpiece for the club.

 

His footballing achievements in the first season were brilliant considering what he started with but the players that made the difference were already there which was probably just as well as most of his own signings weren't exactly thrilling! Moreover, during the subsequent euro "adventure" Mark McGhee's ridiculous decisions in both legs against Nancy cost us dearly. Not quite the genius some folk are making him out to be.

 

The less said about the second season the better. He'd already used the Hearts offer to double his wages then had the cheek to basically down tools, not even try to promote the young guys, sign duds like Boab on wages that we should never have been paying and make very little effort to keep guys like Hughes as he assumed they'd follow him when he deserted us. Wrong again spadeface.

 

As someone said before on these boards, you're either with us or you're against us and some of the people on here defending that big slag want to get there priorities and loyalties in order.

[steelboy]

As someone said before on these boards, you're either with us or you're against us and some of the people on here defending that big slag want to get there priorities and loyalties in order.

 

chill out. we had a great two season's under mcghee with loads of highs that we'll be talking about for years and years. it ended badly and there were obviously a few rough patches but it's undeniable that during his two seasons it was a great time to be a motherwell.

 

it's onwards and upwards for us. get yourself up to aberdeen on the 29th next month and call him all the names under the sun but don't tarnish our many achievements over the past two seasons.

[dazamfc]

chill out. we had a great two season's under mcghee with loads of highs that we'll be talking about for years and years. it ended badly and there were obviously a few rough patches but it's undeniable that during his two seasons it was a great time to be a motherwell.

 

it's onwards and upwards for us. get yourself up to aberdeen on the 29th next month and call him all the names under the sun but don't tarnish our many achievements over the past two seasons.

 

exactly.steelbeooy is right.

[Wellarmy]

I don't think the second season was exactly excellent.

 

Lost at home to Hamilton in the League Cup and then away to St. Mirren AFTER squandering home advantage in the Scottish Cup.

 

Bad tactical decisions cost us against Nancy.

 

The game we had to get into the top 6 was as bad a game as I've ever seen from Motherwell at Fir Park. Lacked so much invention it was obscene.

 

The only bright points were the trip to Nancy and the league run between the end of December and the beginning of March.

 

And to top it off we lost a substantial amount of players.

[steelboy]

I don't think the second season was exactly excellent.

 

Lost at home to Hamilton in the League Cup and then away to St. Mirren AFTER squandering home advantage in the Scottish Cup.

 

Bad tactical decisions cost us against Nancy.

 

The game we had to get into the top 6 was as bad a game as I've ever seen from Motherwell at Fir Park. Lacked so much invention it was obscene.

 

The only bright points were the trip to Nancy and the league run between the end of December and the beginning of March.

 

And to top it off we lost a substantial amount of players.

 

we were joint third through the first 11 games. being in europe was magic. we had our great run. we made it into europe through the fair play. in the grand scale of supporting motherwell it was a better than average season.

 

one amazing season and one better than average puts mcghee well ahead of the curve.

[Shaka]

1 amazing season and 1 average/poor season would be his legacy at Fir Park,the first season was an incredible transformation but last year was definately spoiled by him and his "tactical awareness", 2 year search for an apparent mythical "Dominant Centre Half",constant whoring and dodgy signing policy.

 

He handicapped us in europe with his decisions in both legs, and fucked up every important game in our season last year and this nonsense about him giving youth a chance? Murphy was blooded and looked cracking but MMG fucked him about + ruined his confidence, Saunders again got a chance, did really well in 3 games then was dumped for MMG`s golden child and Hutchinson,Slane,McHugh etc should have been given a lot more time instead of a last resort or a thank you run in the last game of the season, plus Forbes was not deemed good enough for the 1st team,thats why he was loaned out and not available for selection

 

We had a tiny squad that he constantly moaned about but whos responsibility is it to sign players? and really, how many teams in the SPL outside the old firm had players on wages like Porter,Hughes,Malcolm + Klimpl? He increased our wage bill to over 70% of the clubs turnover, he had a lot more resources than much of the SPL so he was hardly a messiah working on a shoestring.

 

at the end of the day, he brought some great memories but im glad he has gone and were getting back to the way MFC should be run, blooding and bringing through youth players from our production line and living within our means

[Wellarmy]

1 amazing season and 1 average/poor season would be his legacy at Fir Park,the first season was an incredible transformation but last year was definately spoiled by him and his "tactical awareness", 2 year search for an apparent mythical "Dominant Centre Half",constant whoring and dodgy signing policy.

 

He handicapped us in europe with his decisions in both legs, and fucked up every important game in our season last year and this nonsense about him giving youth a chance? Murphy was blooded and looked cracking but MMG fucked him about + ruined his confidence, Saunders again got a chance, did really well in 3 games then was dumped for MMG`s golden child and Hutchinson,Slane,McHugh etc should have been given a lot more time instead of a last resort or a thank you run in the last game of the season, plus Forbes was not deemed good enough for the 1st team,thats why he was loaned out and not available for selection

 

We had a tiny squad that he constantly moaned about but whos responsibility is it to sign players? and really, how many teams in the SPL outside the old firm had players on wages like Porter,Hughes,Malcolm + Klimpl? He increased our wage bill to over 70% of the clubs turnover, he had a lot more resources than much of the SPL so he was hardly a messiah working on a shoestring.

 

at the end of the day, he brought some great memories but im glad he has gone and were getting back to the way MFC should be run, blooding and bringing through youth players from our production line and living within our means

 

Good post, I agree with just about every part of that. He wasted us last year. It shouldve been about retaining consistancy but it was the complete opposite. I'm glad we now have someone that does the business when he promises something.

[the fox]

I dont know about other people but for myself i am getting pig sick of everyone going on about the previous manager. Iam delighted Jim Gannon chose to become our manager and while i accept there will be set backs i think he will do a fine job.Lets focus on our team what happens at Fir Park and forget MGhee and whatever he does or does not do in land of sheep.

Onwards and Upwards.

[Special aka]

Good point.

 

It's the future we can manipulate not the past. IMHO Mark McGhee did well at Fir Park, but was always destined to move on ...... that's been his way. Just have a wee think where we were at the end of Malpas's reign.

 

 

It's all gone now, not forgotten, but lets move on ........... and give Jim Gannon our fullest support.

 

Here's to The Gannon Babes

[TheLip69]

We can only judge a manager by comparing him to previous managers. So, while it may be personally very annoying to you, it gives those of us who dont get to see Motherwell every week a fair idea of how things are going.

I dont think you can avoid the comparisons either, especially when they are going to come face to face at one point.

[MelvinBragg]

For obvious reasons, I've held back from posting on this thread. Given my reputation as one of McGhee's harshest critics on here, it would have been easy for me to jump all over it.

 

For what it's worth, in all my posts on the subject of McGhee I never denied he was a good manager. I maybe exaggerated the negative aspects of his management but that was due to the fact that for many, he had no flaws whatsoever. There were questionable tactical line-ups, his approach to the transfer market (which many are mocking now he's at Aberdeen - strange that they had no problem with it when he was at FP) and his public flaunting of his availability are just a few. And for those who say that he couldn't be blamed for most of the players who left, I ask you this: was it not his job to prepare for the eventuality (probability?) of these players leaving? Are we expected to believe that he threw himself into this task with gusto given he had a fair idea that two jobs he coveted were becoming available?

 

Having said this, the McGhee bashing now is embarrassing. Have the balls to criticise the man when he's here if you think he merits it. As Jay and Lobey have pointed out, ye're a lot of bandwagonjumpers...

 

And as I said earlier, he's a good (not great) manager. I'll save my gloating for if we finish above them next May (OK, a wee bit might sneak out if we hammer them this season )...

[WellAyrshire]

chill out. we had a great two season's under mcghee with loads of highs that we'll be talking about for years and years. it ended badly and there were obviously a few rough patches but it's undeniable that during his two seasons it was a great time to be a motherwell.

 

it's onwards and upwards for us. get yourself up to aberdeen on the 29th next month and call him all the names under the sun but don't tarnish our many achievements over the past two seasons.

 

spot on! Mcghee came in at the right time and has fucked off at the right time. The last 2 years have been good and just made me even more proud to be a well fan. With him away now I just think its going to get better. As shaka says with bringing on the youth and living within our means. That, coupled with playing football we enjoy watching is what makes me love being a Well fan. I don't really care too much who the manager is, but i'm liking the early signs of the gannon.