Mark McGhee - A Man of Honour and Integrity

[Nicky Rust]

like Gritt another manager with a good record (2 seasons in the championship and a play-off winning season)sacked too early, felt sorry for him over the Kazim-prickchards feud! I personally thought he was crap like others, his poor attitude was showing in performances and who better to deal with him than McGhee!!, but up my own ass Kazim obviously knew who was boss, which meant Mark McGhee f***ed him right off!! too right as well!, he would of left on the Bosman anyway being the player he was!
Did'nt like the response the toon army gave McGhee once results were going bad when you consider what Dick had given him to spend!
lets remember him as the one who took us to Cardiff and won infront off 75 thousand against a very good Bristol city! who on that same season stuffed us at home 4-1

Mark McGhee,Mark McGhee drinking pints of Capri-Sonn

 

[NMH]

MM was fired, by a chairman with honour and integrity

 

[Cheshire Cat]

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2239532,00.html

'I would never say to the players, let's do this for Phil'

Mark McGhee wants team to pay tribute to former captain with victory today, he tells Ewan Murray

Saturday January 12, 2008
The Guardian

Motherwell coach Mark McGhee reads a tribute to Phil O'Donnell outside Fir Park, where fans gathered to remember the team captain who died during the match with Dundee United. Photograph by Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images.

Mark McGhee is in no doubt that the haunting last moments of Phil O'Donnell's life will stay with him forever but the Motherwell manager, who watched his 35-year-old captain collapse during a match against Dundee United a fortnight ago, has told his squad that their former team-mate would want them to have no inhibitions about continuing their working lives.
McGhee called his players to a meeting last Sunday following a week's leave, 24 hours after the shrine consisting of thousands of strips, scarves and flowers had been removed from outside Motherwell's home ground. The club announced yesterday that it is to rename the main stand at Fir Park after O'Donnell, but after a period of mourning and two postponed games it is time, in the words of one club official, for a "fresh start for the players".

Today they take the field for the first time since an event which has shocked the whole of Scotland and beyond, with the manager hoping the team are not handicapped by memories of O'Donnell, who died in hospital of heart failure soon after his collapse. "I won't ever forget what happened," McGhee said. "The image of Phil going down, I watched him fall down, will live with me forever, even if certain other things will fade a little in time.
"But I'll also remember Phil in the middle of everything that was positive about our performance against Dundee United. You know, we played like the Harlem Globetrotters at times. It was outstanding stuff and Phil was right at the heart of it and loving it. He would look at the bench and smile or shake his head at some of the stuff our younger players were doing. Those will be the abiding memories for me.

"What I tried to help the players to understand on Sunday was that they have no reason to feel guilty. It was difficult but they had to understand that they could laugh, they could smile, they could crack jokes and celebrate goals the way they have always done.

"I wanted to reassure them that they have no reason to feel guilty about doing any of those things. They shouldn't be reluctant to go out there and play football. It is important to understand that we can carry on playing without being disrespectful to Phil."

McGhee emphasises the importance of sport as a unifying force at difficult times like these. "How can football not be important at a time like this when you see the people from other clubs, other countries and the thousands of people who stood outside the church [at O'Donnell's funeral] to pay their respects to a football player," McGhee asked.

"The volume of tributes paid to Phil surprised me in a way. I was delighted for the family, because it proved that Phil was held in such high regard by everybody who encountered him. The tributes were as impressive as they were sincere. A lot of what has happened since Phil's death has actually accentuated my view that football is a worthwhile profession. Football brings people together."

McGhee's own performance in a variety of roles since O'Donnell's passing has been unsurprisingly impressive. Called upon to address the world's media, live on television, the day after the midfielder's death, the former Reading, Leicester, Wolves, Millwall and Brighton manager also had to counsel his bereaved players. One of them, David Clarkson, is O'Donnell's nephew.

"Three things were uppermost in my mind," said McGhee, who first learned O'Donnell had died an hour after full-time. "I knew I had to address the players the next day, I had to speak to the media and then address the players again on Sunday after their time off. I felt I had to get those things right, it had to be real. I had enough experience to rally myself, I've seen a lot and done a lot in my life, I'm 50 years old and that is my job. I had to look after the players and deal with Phil's death in my own way."

There was help at hand, too, from the Celtic manager, Gordon Strachan, a close friend of McGhee from the pair's playing days at Aberdeen during the 1980s. "Gordon was on the phone to me four or five times on the Saturday night alone," McGhee recalled. "He knew [my partner] Maria was in Brighton and wanted to make sure I wasn't on my own and I went to sit with him on the Sunday. But my own family, my parents and my sisters are up here which was a huge help to me as well.

"Something else, which I think has been overlooked to an extent, is the role of the Dundee United players, who were also right in the middle of the incident, and their reaction both immediately and in the following days merits coverage. Their whole squad were visibly upset and came to the funeral; I hope there is a relationship now between the two clubs which will last."

McGhee is a leading contender for the vacant Scotland manager's role, a job he has privately admitted in the past would interest him, but the Scottish FA is acutely aware of what is now a sensitive situation at Motherwell.

"Whatever happens in the future, there will always be a bond between Motherwell and myself now."

The immediate future, though, concerns a trip to Tynecastle for a Scottish Cup fourth round tie against Hearts. Kick-off will be preceded by a silent huddle by Motherwell's players, directly in front of their 3,000 supporters.

"I would never say to the players, 'Let's do this for Phil.' That is for the players to think about and decide," McGhee said. "You can be assured we will all have Phil in our thoughts on Saturday in the dressing room and beyond but I'll let the players get on with it. They have been fine this week, training has been excellent.

"My biggest problem on Saturday, as a manager, is that I won't have Phil O'Donnell at the heart of my team, running out there as a Motherwell player, and I have to deal with that. That is a bigger problem than worrying if my players will be mentally right."

And if they are, you feel compelled to agree with McGhee that it would be the most fitting tribute O'Donnell could receive right now.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

You have to say marvellous words and sentiments from McGhee

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I read it this morning over my egg and soldiers. He came across very well I thought.

 

[Skint Gull]

That's a great article and i'll just echo what i think is the majority verdict: Mark McGhee is a very honest, hardworking and without doubt decent manager, just that his time here had come to a natural end, he wasn't in a position to take us further. Good luck to Motherwell today.