GORD’S GIFT ON TAYSIDE
of top-level management since he left Motherwell in 2018, was the surprise appointment as Dundee decided to go for experience after showing James McPake the door.
McGhee confirmed that second-bottom Dundee had a couple of options but football adviser Strachan had been batting for him with Dundee chiefs John Nelms and Tim Keyes.
McGhee said: “I benefited from my relationship with Gordon. Let’s not kid ourselves on.
“John appointed me. In the end, he contacted me and contacted Gordon to say, ‘Look I want to speak to Mark McGhee.’
“It only went so far in the same way that for my first job, Alex Ferguson contacted John Madejski at Reading and said, ‘You should speak to Mark.’
“Whether I would have got this job or another one without a bit of a leg-up, I don’t know.
“I’d like to think I would because my record speaks for itself but there is no denying that part of it was Gordon’s influence.”
McGhee, who will take the team for the first time at Celtic on Sunday, has been charged with keeping Dundee in the top flight but will be banned from the touchline for all but two games before the split.
It all goes back to a suspension from his time at Motherwell but he is adamant it won’t restrict him in doing the job.
“It won’t have any impact and I don’t say that lightly,” McGhee said.
“We have Simon Rusk coming in with Dave Mackay and they are well capable of marshalling the troops from the side.
“We have communication methods, mics and phones and that means I can communicate with the bench. I have to be out the dressing room 75 minutes before the game and that’s OK, as I address the players 90 minutes before.”