McGhee’s looking to have the last laugh at Pittodrie
DONS LEGEND HOPES TO DRAG THEM INTO THE RELEGATION MIRE WITH DARK BLUES
WITH a penchant for the odd peculiar proclamation, Mark McGhee is undoubtedly one of Scottish football’s more colourful characters. Recent events have been testament to that.
From turning off his heating, going on a crash diet, and threatening to run around naked if his team beat St Johnstone last weekend (they drew), it’s been a bizarre week. Even by his standards.
But, with four games now remaining in their battle to avoid relegation, Dundee fans are entitled to ask a simple question. What has he brought to the job other than a few comical soundbites?
Now ten games into his tenure since replacing James McPake, the fact he has yet to win a game hardly offers a glowing endorsement of his work at Dens Park thus far.
His return to Aberdeen this afternoon certainly holds plenty of intrigue, with both teams fighting for their lives at the bottom of the Premiership.
Yet, despite McGhee’s status as a Gothenburg legend of 1983, don’t expect the red carpet to be rolled out at Pittodrie. That ship sailed a long time ago.
There is no love lost in the relationship between the 64-yearold and Aberdeen fans. Earlier this week, he explained how he wants Dundee to frustrate the home support today.
Stating that Aberdeen fans can ‘make it difficult’ for their own players if things aren’t going their way, he wants Dundee to exploit any unrest in the stands.
But McGhee is a man under pressure as he returns to the north east and a venue which gave him such fond memories in his playing career.
Signed from Newcastle in 1979 by Alex Ferguson, he went on to spend five fruitful years at Aberdeen, winning two league titles and three Scottish Cups.
He was also the club’s top scorer in season 1982-83 when they defeated Real Madrid to lift the European Cup Winners’ Cup in Gothenburg. With such a stellar track record, he should be viewed as royalty in the Granite City. Yet, in reality, nothing could be further from the truth.
McGhee was appointed Aberdeen manager in the summer of 2009 and, truth be told, he was a disaster from day one.
At his unveiling at a press conference, he made the awkward admission that he had actually hoped to get the Celtic job rather than the gig at Pittodrie.
Then, in his first game in charge, the Dons were thumped 5-1 at home by Czech side Sigma Olomouc in a Europa League qualifier. He admitted afterwards: ‘I’ve gone from legend to an idiot’.
Just a few months later, McGhee was spat at by an Aberdeen fan following a Scottish Cup defeat to Raith Rovers, an experience he described as the most humiliating of his career.
Aberdeen went on to finish ninth in the league that season, before McGhee was eventually relieved of his duties shortly after a 9-0 hammering against Celtic the following campaign.
He won just 17 of his 62 games in charge, making him statistically one of the worst managers in Aberdeen’s history. As for his record in managing teams against the Dons? In 13 games, he has won four, drawn four and lost five.
A venue which gave him arguably his finest hour as a player, Pittodrie has rarely been a happy hunting ground for the former striker as a boss.
This will be his first return to the stadium since an infamous video clip emerged five years ago of his angry exchange with a fan shortly after he was sent to the stand whilst in charge of Motherwell.
‘Get that to f***,’ barked McGhee as a smartphone was thrust in front of him to capture the whole thing on camera. The clip quickly went viral on social media. His Steelmen were thrashed 7-2 that night in 2017, with McGhee sacked by the Fir Park club just a couple of weeks afterwards.
From his field of dreams as a player, Pittodrie has become more of a torture chamber for McGhee in his managerial career. That said, if he can go back to haunt his old club and steer Dundee to victory this afternoon, he might just feel an extra degree of satisfaction with a result that would also pull Aberdeen further into relegation trouble.
Dundee currently sit bottom of the table, five points adrift of St Johnstone and ten points adrift of safety. Time is running out for McGhee.
So far, he has failed to engineer any sort of improvement in the club’s fortunes, but the same could also be said of his Aberdeen counterpart Jim Goodwin.
The Irishman has won just once in eight league games since replacing Stephen Glass in February, with a 2-1 home defeat to Livingston last weekend sounding the alarm bells at Pittodrie.
Just five points clear of the relegation play-off spot with four games remaining, Aberdeen are entering dangerous territory. This is a game they dare not lose.
McGhee certainly feels his team are capable of doing some damage at Pittodrie following three consecutive draws against the Dons, Dundee United and St Johnstone.
‘I’m optimistic that the three draws that we have seen have been on a slightly upward curve and that the next thing looks to me like a victory,’ he said. ‘I think the worst thing that it looks like is another draw.
‘So we go there with a really positive frame of mind and, for me, the next step is a win.
‘The training in the last three or four weeks has gone up a level, there is more intensity and physicality. I think we have at times shown that in the games.
‘The Dundee United game was a very physical game both in terms of the running and direct contact. St Johnstone was a huge challenge mentally and physically because of the stakes, we couldn’t afford to lose that game, and they have coped with that brilliantly.
‘I am very optimistic that all these elements of performance have improved over the last month.’