RIP IT UP AND START AGAIN
Dundee gaffer insists relegated club need a complete rebuild
DUNDEE may be down but Mark McGhee insists he can bring the club straight back up – if there are big changes behind the scenes.
However, the final say on the gaffer’s future rests with Dens managing director John Nelms and McGhee’s former Aberdeen team-mate Gordon Strachan – who is understood to have taken on a new director of football role.
And assistant manager Simon Rusk won’t be at Dens next season as he’s set to take up a role coaching England’s youth teams at St George’s.
McGhee, who’ll be in charge at Livingston tomorrow, said: “I will sit down with John and Gordon in the coming days and a decision will be made about what happens now.
“I would love to be part of what I think is going to be a really bright future at Dundee because there is a lot of change coming.
“The club needs modernised 100 per cent – and it’s going to happen. It needs reorganised, more science behind everything we do rather than just being a bit random. Specific people doing specific jobs, people doing jobs they are qualified to do.
“We have to be determined about building a model a culture at the club because it has yo-yoed too much. Even the building is fragmented with people scattered right throughout the place.
“We need to find a way to get a proper structure, get everyone working as a team and with a common purpose, feeling valued.
“We want to bring something better so that’s why John and Gordon are talking the way they’re talking – the supporters have been so loyal and they deserve better.
“I’d love the opportunity to bring them back up but it remains to be seen.”
McGhee will take time to look back on exactly what went wrong at Dundee during his time in charge. However, the manager admitted the lengthy touchline ban that he had still had to serve from his days at Motherwell had a bigger effect than anticipated.
He added: “You need time to reflect, you can’t just do it in one or two days.
“The most obvious one for me is the sixmatch ban being more impactful than I thought it would be.
“Not being able to go into the dressingroom for that time really handicapped me in building a relationship with the players.
“When you are not directly involved hands-on like that it’s very difficult, much more so than I expected it to be.
“I definitely think that has affected my performance although I’m not sure how much it affected the outcome.
“It was worse for me than I imagined it would be.”
Dundee have nothing to play for at Livingston tomorrow but McGhee is determined his players will finish the season with another victory to give the club’s long-suffering supporters something to cheer.
He added: “Sunday will be a difficult afternoon, we have to approach it as professionally as we can and try to get the three points on offer.
“We really want to finish the season off with back-to-back wins.
“The fans have been just brilliant with us – the one group of people we do this for is the supporters.”
I’d love to be part of what is going to be a bright future at Dundee MARK McGHEE MAKES HIS CASE TO STAY IN JOB