After a successful interview last week, Mark McGhee has been appointed the new manager of Motherwell.
Firstly it should said that it is questionable if a manager can make that much difference. We still have the same leadership at the top of the club and the same low budget. However there is no doubt that Maurice Malpas had certainly lost the trust of the supporters and finishing the season with one win in thirteen was unacceptable.
He brings a wealth of experience to the job but he will have his work cut out in lifting the club after a poor season under the leadership of Maurice Malpas.
Mark McGhee had an excellent pedigree as a player. He started his career at Morton and, via Newcastle, enjoyed a glory spell at Aberdeen.Domestic honours and the European Cup Winners Cup followed at Pittodrie before he had a less successful spell at HSV in Germany. He quickly returned to Scotland and arrived at Celtic Park to resume where he left off by winning trophies. He moved to Newcastle in 1989 and continued to find the net before he went to Reading as his career came to a close. He finished with an impressive record of 170 goals in 486 league games. He also scored twice in four games for Scotland.(All figures wikipedia).
After hanging up his boots he took over as manager at Elm Park and got Reading promoted to Division One. A brief spell at Leicester followed before he moved to Wolves.Success failed to materialise in the league but he did reach an FA Cup semi final. After leaving Molineux he went to the New Den and another Division Two title followed before it was time to move on again.Brighton was the next, and currently last, destination for him and this time a play off win brought the club out of Division Two (he's good at that, at any rate) before they survived a season of struggle the next year. However the next season brought relegation and after a poor start to 2006/7 he was sacked.
As a player McGhee was undoubtedly a class act but as a manager he is a bit of a mixed bag.Getting out of the English Second Division is clearly a speciality and the qualities needed to do that are not to be sniffed at. However he has had a few chances to take the next step and hasn't quite made the grade. On one hand he has been out of Scottish football for years but on the other he will bring a totally fresh approach and should be ably assisted by Leitch and McCart for any local duties needing assistance.
It is impossible to say how this will turn out but crucially we haven't gone for a rookie and overall the appointment is probably one of the more innovative options open to us. The decision to go with Mark has now been made and regardless of what people think of this, it is now time to get firmly behind him. We have an important summer ahead and we wish him all the best in what will no doubt be a very tough job.
Quotes available from official site here.