McGHEE SAVOURS HOME COMFORTS

RETURNING to Fir Park has been a comfortable affair for Mark McGhee. Like returning home to an old pair of slippers. Preparing to begin his second spell with the visit of champions Celtic this lunchtime, McGhee admitted: ‘Talking to the players, I don’t feel totally new. ‘One of the things is players getting to know you, or getting nervous if you have a go at someone. ‘Whereas here, they know how I am and the ones who don’t know me will have been told by others. Motherwell has remained familar in that sense and I would come back for games. ‘For example, after leaving Leicester, I only ever went back there to take teams I managed. I had no real connection with them, whereas here there are lots of people I know. It feels like home.’ The make-up of the club has changed, however. Les Hutchison is now the major shareholder rather than John Boyle. But general manager Alan Burrows is a survivor of McGhee’s first spell, while members of the old playing squad remain. ‘I’ve not met the owner yet,’ added McGhee. ‘But I’ve spoken to him at length on the phone and he strikes me as an upstanding citizen with very strong principles and ideas of where he wants the club to go forward. ‘That suits me perfectly and I bought into them.’ A week ago, McGhee flew to Portugal with Scotland in his role as assistant manager with only the slightest inkling of what was afoot. With Gordon Strachan remaining at the helm of the national team, he will retain his parttime international post and has a decision to make on who should perform the same role at Motherwell. Existing coaches Stephen Robinson and Stephen Craigan have provided information on the current squad. Insisting that he won’t necessarily follow the established blueprint of sacking the existing staff to bring his own men in, McGhee wouldn’t rule out appointing either of them as his No 2. ‘I’ll need to look at that,’ he said. ‘When I went to Aberdeen, I took Scott Leitch and Colin Meldrum because there was nobody else there. ‘Jimmy Calderwood, Jimmy Nicholl and Sandy Clark had all

Homecoming: McGhee is in his second spell at Fir Park