McGhee admits Ange’s Hoops have been dazzling like City — but they’re not unbeatable
MARK McGHEE reckons some of Celtic’s football under Ange Postecoglou has been at Manchester City levels this season.
However, having watched the Premiership leaders picked apart by Bodo/Glimt in Thursday’s Europa Conference League first leg, the new Dundee manager knows they are far from invincible.
‘Even prior to coming here I’d been watching some of the Celtic games,’ he said. ‘A couple of the halves I have seen from them are as good as I have seen for a long time — and I include Manchester
City in that.
‘The freedom and the expression in their play has, on some occasions, been the best I have seen in years. They started Thursday night looking like that again, flashed the ball across goal and it might have been a whole lot different had that gone in.
‘But Bodo/Glimt were a good team, they got the first goal and took it from there. But we are not kidded. At the moment, Celtic are the best they have been for a long time and we will have to work really hard to contain them.’
McGhee admits he has been bemused by some of the reaction to his appointment, in particular the suggestion that, at 64, he is somehow too old to have been appointed.
He has appointed Simon Rusk, 40, as his assistant, a reversal of their roles at Stockport County. ‘I am no longer as energetic as I was when I got the Reading job at 34, so I have to do it in another way,’ he admits. ‘Simon and I get on brilliantly, we understand each other and want our football played in the same way. I trust him and vice versa.
‘I will work to the level that I’m physically capable of and I’m comfortable with that. My brain is still the same, my enthusiasm, too. The idea that age is some sort of barrier now is ridiculous.’
If he is slightly defensive about his age, McGhee is not above turning the subject against himself.
His touchline ban will require Rusk to direct operations on the touchline and, in the opposite dugout, Postecoglou will also have younger coaches John Kennedy and Gavin Strachan on hand to assist.
‘It’s a good way of doing it,’ adds McGhee. ‘I have known Gavin since he was born and it gets worse because — we also have Gordon’s grandson Luke here at Dundee! So it’s starting to show my age right enough.’
Gordon Strachan, of course, is Dundee’s technical director, a former Celtic manager and also a recent consultant of the Parkhead club. He also happens to be a longtime friend of McGhee’s and endorsed the former Wolves and Reading boss’s candidacy to succeed James McPake, who was removed from his position in midweek.
Once team-mates at Aberdeen, McGhee previously assisted Strachan during his five years in charge of the Scotland national team but is adamant there will be little overlap on their roles at Dens.
He continued: ‘I think that might be misunderstood. Gordon has no input to the first team at Dundee and is totally committed to all the levels below.
‘Even with James that’s how it worked. Of course he was there to be a mentor if James wanted to pick up the phone.’
The timing of McPake’s departure was surprising, given that he had just presided over two significant away victories, first in a league fixture against Hearts at Tynecastle and then Monday’s Scottish Cup tie at Peterhead which yielded a quarter-final spot.
In truth, McPake, still only 37, has always seemed to be operating under some degree of pressure, almost from the minute he succeeded Jim McIntyre in 2019.
Through his association with Strachan, McGhee was well aware of the stress his predecessor suffered and even claims to have offered his own support earlier this season. Rocked by a 5-0 home defeat to Ross County, McPake’s newly-promoted team faced a tricky game at St Mirren the following Saturday.
McGhee adds: ‘Gordon went to only a couple of games and I went with him to one of them at a time when James was under a little bit of pressure.
‘Gordon knew there weren’t many of the Dundee directors going to St Mirren, so he said: “Come on, we’ll go and give him a bit of moral support”. And we did.’
McGhee admits he doubted his own motivation for management after leaving his last Scottish job at Motherwell in 2017.
‘I had doubts about whether I was determined enough to do it again,’ he says. ‘I worked at Barnet and Eastbourne, which I did as a favour to a friend. I went in with Charlie Oatway the ex-captain at Brighton and we had a bit of fun for ten games.
‘At Barnet, I was asked to come in and do the job that Gordon is doing here. The next day the manager resigned and Tony Kleanthous (Barnet chairman) asked if I would look after the team.
‘I took it for ten games but I wasn’t motivated to be the manager. Things changed after lockdown when I started going to games at Brighton. Gordon knew I was motivated for this. He would not have given me his vote otherwise.
‘And, of course, I have that thousand games to reach. Wikipedia states I have 974 games but I had a text from the League Managers association telling me that it’s actually 963. So I have 37 games to go!’