About a year and a half ago Mark McGhee was looking forward to managing the team he always wanted to manage, but Celtic went for Tony Mowbray so he took the offer Aberdeen had on the table for him.
I was not one of the Aberdeen fans who were calling for Jimmy Calderwood to go but I thought McGhee was a good choice as a replacement.
I was in Scotland for the Sigma game at Pittodrie, my 1st game in 5 years and McGhee’s debut. We lost 5-1 but I put it down to the team coming back too late to prepare for the game due to it being played a few weeks before the SPL started.
The 1st half of the year went okay but in my mind I was thinking okay we spent all this money, getting rid of Calderwood and paying Motherwell for McGhee and we are no better or no worse off than we had been in previous seasons. We had a great victory at Tynecastle and then it all fell apart. We were losing week in week out. By the time March came I was saying McGhee had to go but people kept saying it was not the manager it was the players. We were told the same by McGhee in his post match press conferences, he could not wait to get certain players moved on and bring in his own team. He kept saying don’t judge me till I bring in my own players.
We survived in the end, and even though there were rumours of major changes on Pittodrie Street over the summer months McGhee was still in charge as pre season started.
The results did not go well but it is pre season and a time to try new things.
McGhee made a master stroke and signed Paul Hartley and I saw some light at the end of the tunnel. Hartley was the sort of player you hated when he played against you because he had so much passion and commitment and looked like he loved to win.
With Hartley as Captain I felt maybe we could have a half decent season.
My 1st blog of the season after we beat Hamilton 4-0 praised the team and I also said I may have been wrong about McGhee, but in the end the 2 wins that put us top of the table in August was just papering over the cracks and very soon it would all come crumbling down.
We have had a run in the CIS cup which is one thing many fans had against Jimmy Calderwood, we lost to lower league teams in the cups. This won’t happen at least in this years CIS cup but again the run was just hiding the disaster of a season we were having.
The latest result at Parkhead today was a new SPL record one of many records McGhee has broken. He now has the worst record of all Aberdeen managers in the history of the club, he has the joint worst run of games without a win, and as I mentioned earlier the Sigma game which finished 5-1 was Aberdeen’s worst European result at home.
Mark McGhee was a legend as a player here at Pittodrie but unfortunately his appointment as manager has just not worked out.
I fear if we wait any longer to make a change in the dugout it may be too late so I hope the board act fast. It would look better on McGhee’s CV if he quit or left by mutual consent but I think McGhee believes he is a great manager (just look at his record on Wikipedia) and will not walk.
There is not many more records for McGhee to break but if he stays I think he could break the big one. Aberdeen are the only club outside the Old Firm never to be relegated.
Written by Tom Mathers for Scotzine.com | mentorred.blogspot.com
