McGhee excited about treading in Ferguson's footsteps

THE notion of a returning hero was almost as powerful as the smell of fresh paint in the corridors at Pittodrie yesterday. The decorators are in. And so, at long last, is the man referred to in these parts as Dingus, a moniker inspired by the Dirty Dingus Magee character from a 1970s western.

His vaulting ambition, though, has in the past seen McGhee linked with another, more heavyweight figure from the past. One football writer once proposed that McGhee should change his name to Macbeth, following a series of untidy manoeuvres between jobs in England in the 1990s.

The debate will continue about where McGhee's ambitions ultimately lie. Yesterday the 51-year-old reflected on the promise made to himself when he started out in management 18 years ago, at Reading. He recalled the urge to manage at one of the seven clubs with whom he played, but specifically Newcastle, Aberdeen and, of course, Celtic. However one wishes to rank them in order of preference, he has finally made it back to one spiritual home. To the mere onlooker, one with no understanding of the depth of bond connecting him to the Parkhead club, then it has to seem that this return to Aberdeen is the most satisfactory reunion with a former club.

It is here where McGhee helped a team make their mark on the continent. Though he helped Celtic win the double in 1988, it is here where his playing career prospered most dynamically. That it coincided with Sir Alex Ferguson's days at Pittodrie provides his association with further charge.

It is easy to form the opinion that McGhee, like his fast friend Gordon Strachan, is not as close to Ferguson as some from that era. There has been no contact from him this week for example, although Ferguson has had his own significant decision to make. Ronaldo has perhaps disappointed him in the way McGhee did when leaving Pittodrie for SV Hamburg in the summer of 1984. "His are not footsteps I want to tread on," McGhee smiled. "I am sure he will wish me well. The idea that I am now doing something which Sir Alex Ferguson has done is important to me. I like that. I do like that."

Since combining both playing and management with Reading in the early Nineties, McGhee has always dreamed of walking back into a club where he once played. This desire went deepest in the cases of Aberdeen, Newcastle and Celtic. It has only taken him 18 years to secure the first point of this triple crown, although he was thwarted in his aim to take over the reins at Pittodrie at the interview stage in 1999. Ebbe Skovdhal, once memorably described as the "gloomiest Dane since Hamlet", was given the job instead, and the rest was history in the form of maddening scrapes with relegation. McGhee had gone close, too. Owner Stewart Milne explained that he had "hit the crossbar" with his attempt to secure his goal of managing Aberdeen. A decade later he returns, slightly more rounded in the shoulders, and definitely a more rounded manager.

"He told me that they wanted a foreign coach," said McGhee. "They had already gone down the road of having an ex-player in charge with Willie Miller, and they wanted to do something different. That was the reason behind the decision. I was between my jobs with Wolves and Millwall, on a sabbatical. Obviously I've seen and done a lot since then. I now feel better equipped."

The surprise is not that McGhee has taken so long to reach Aberdeen, but that he does so with a one-year-old son in tow. Archie is the product of a second marriage, and was one reason why McGhee decided, at the last possible moment, to turn down the opportunity to manage Heart of Midlothian last summer. His domestic circumstances were about to undergo a huge convulsion, and he felt he could not give his all to a club with which he had no previous attachment.

This is not the case with Aberdeen, of course. But, while memories of open-topped bus rides down Union Street must be saluted, the significant pull factor was not what he had done in the past in Aberdeen, but what might be done in the future. There are better prospects in Aberdeen, he explained, when reflecting on another summer spent wrestling with weighty career decisions.

The Celtic opportunity went by him, but the Aberdeen one was sealed with a text to Willie Miller, his old captain. Now in charge of football matters at Pittodrie, Miller was relieved to hear that McGhee had felt the urge to shelve any immediate intention to manage Celtic, having suspected the chance was slipping away in any case.

Celtic were McGhee's first love. Like the connection to a first sweetheart, the suspicion is that this bond remains the most quixotic one. But what times he had with Aberdeen. They are recalled in the pictures on the wall, and in his own scrawled signature across a shirt from the Cup Winners' Cup final victory over Real Madrid in 1983. His unveiling, alongside assistant Scott Leitch, has also been moved to the "Gothenburg suite" from the usual press room.

"Of course there is sentiment involved in coming back here," McGhee said. "My fondness for the club is definitely a factor. But the state of the game at present also encouraged me to come. Motherwell are entering a more difficult period due to the economics of the game. It was going to become very difficult to continue the progress we felt we were making at Motherwell.

"There was a more stable situation here at Aberdeen. They have been able to maintain their budget. That creates the possibility that the team can make a better challenge than Motherwell over the next couple of years."

McGhee encourages fans to expect their team should finish best of the rest at least. "After finishing fourth in the past two season, they are entitled to think that," he said. He can expertly judge the mood in the stands. It is why he left all those years ago, for a brief sojourn in the Bundesliga.

"Willie (Miller] and I were talking about it the other day, recalling something that happened against Porto in the semi-final (of the Cup Winners' Cup] the year after we won it," revealed McGhee. "We went out onto the pitch and I remember thinking for the first time that there wasn't quite the same electricity.

"I knew then the team was coming to an end. I left at the end of that season, along with Gordon (Strachan] and one or two others."

Much has occurred on the long road back. But this is not a retreat for McGhee. Like the surprise bonus of a new son, it has made him feel young again.

New man must make silverware a priority and avoid using Calderwoodisms if he is to be a success in the eyes of Dons followers

MARK McGhee's first official day in charge of Aberdeen comes on Wednesday 1 July, when the team report for pre-season training. His first competitive match comes on 30 July when the Dons play the first leg of their Europa League third qualifying round match, while the SPL season kicks off on 15 August. Here, we pick out ten areas the new manager will need to get right if he is to be a success in the north east...

1 Win some silverware

Or at least get to a final. Despite his relatively poor form in the Premier League, Ebbe Skovdahl was revered by many Aberdeen supporters for taking the club to two Hampden finals in 2000. Jimmy Calderwood, on the other hand, had a decent record in the SPL but was dismissed last month for failing to make progress in the cup competitions.

McGhee's own cup record is not great – an FA Cup semi-final appearance with Wolves 11 years ago is the highlight – but a first piece of silverware since the 1995 Coca-Cola Cup win is clearly the priority for Aberdeen. And any defeats to lower-league teams like Queen's Park and Queen of the South certainly won't go down well.

2 Don't harp on about Celtic all the time

Sadly, this piece of advice might have come too late for McGhee, who revealed at yesterday's press conference his burning desire to one day manage at Parkhead. Success-starved fans looking for some inspiration ahead of a new campaign really didn't want to hear the words "on a scale of one to two then Celtic would be above the Aberdeen job" from the new man at the helm.

Some Aberdeen supporters used to get themselves in bit of a state whenever Calderwood mentioned that he comes from a staunch Rangers-supporting family and was born a stone's throw from Ibrox. McGhee, a boyhood Celtic fan, should not make the same mistake.

3 Make progress in Europe

No matter what some supporters say about Calderwood's reign, there's no denying those European nights against FC Copenhagen and Bayern Munich during the 2007/08 campaign brought a special atmosphere back to Pittodrie, not to mention significant financial benefits.

No-one, of course, will be expecting McGhee to recreate the success the Dons had on the continent during his time as a player, but director of football Willie Miller has already said that making the group stages of the Europa League is key.

4 End the Ibrox hoodoo

Rangers supporters in the bottom tier of the Broomloan Stand have a banner that gets unfurled whenever Aberdeen visit. Usually unveiled a few minutes before full-time, it reads 'Silence of the sheep – since 91'.

The Dons have not won away to Rangers for 18 long years and McGhee would almost be afforded hero status if he brought the hoodoo to an end.

5 Buy a central defender

With captain Scott Severin seemingly on his way out, Lee Mair having already left and Andrew Considine still struggling to find consistency, the new manager needs to find a solid centre-half to partner Zander Diamond at the heart of an Aberdeen defence that made far too many basic errors last season. Jamie Langfield was arguably the best keeper in the SPL in the campaign just ended but he was often let down by those in front of him.

6 Recruit another striker

Like most SPL clubs outwith the Old Firm, Aberdeen could do with a 20-goals-a-season striker. Darren Mackie has scored important goals for the club but not nearly enough, Chris Maguire improved last season but still can't be described as prolific, while last year's summer signing Tommy Wright has failed to make an impact at Pittodrie.

Target-man Lee Miller, the club's top scorer last season with ten SPL goals, will likely be McGhee's first-choice striker but he needs a partner.

7 Keep an eye on indiscipline

Aberdeen players don't exactly have bad-boy reputations, but McGhee will perhaps be slightly alarmed by reports last month of midfielder Mark Kerr being injured and charged following a nightclub altercation – an incident that came just days before a game that the club needed to win to qualify for the Europa League. Banning midweek stag dos would seem like a sensible idea.

8 Play free-flowing, attacking football

McGhee, who favours a 4-3-3 formation, earned a reputation for attractive football during his time at Fir Park, especially during that successful first season when he took the club to third place. Calderwood brought exciting players like Sone Aluko and Jamie Smith to Pittodrie but his team were regularly accused of just punting high balls up to Miller.

9 Nurture the club's youngsters

The first-team performances of 18-year-old Peter Pawlett, and Michael Paton, 20, towards the end of last season were a real fillip for Aberdeen supporters. Paton scored a decent goal – albeit a consolation – at Ibrox in the 'Kyle Lafferty match' after the split, while Pawlett was given a standing ovation when he was substituted in the win over Hibs on the final day of the season.

The club is also well represented in the Scotland under-age teams and, with money likely to be in short supply, McGhee will probably have to let the youngsters stake their claim for a regular start.

10 Avoid Jimmy Calderwoodisms

There were many things (no matter how trivial) that Calderwood did during his five years at Pittodrie which seemed to annoy a section of the Pittodrie faithful.

So McGhee would be well advised not to develop a Cuprinol-like tan. Or treat himself to a holiday in Santa Ponsa. Or name drop the likes of Jaap Stam and Raymond Van Barneveld. Or use the word "sloppy" in his post-match interviews. And he definitely shouldn't say that Aberdeen fans' expectations are too high because of the glory days they enjoyed during the Eighties.

Scott Coull