Barnet Football Club

BARNET FOOTBALL CLUB

ARCHIVED ARTICLE
PLEASE CHECK WITH THE CLUB FOR THE LATEST INFORMATION

Getting to know | Mark McGhee

The 60-year-old hails from Glasgow and has enjoyed a distinguished career as a player and manager.

A striker in his playing days, he started at Morton in 1975 and impressed, scoring 37 goals in 64 games.

On the back of this form, McGhee earned a move south of the border to Newcastle United. He started well on Tyneside, but a change in manager saw McGhee fall out of favour and after two years he was on the move again.

He became one the first major signing of Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen side and would have great success at the Pittodrie. McGhee won 2 Scottish Premier Division titles and 3 Scottish Cups across a five-year stay. He also played a crucial part in Aberdeen’s European Cup Winners Cup victory over Real Madrid and European Super Cup win over Hamburg.

The German club would snap him up in 1984 for £330,000 but injury hampered his time at Die Rothosen.

His career then saw moves to Celtic, back to Newcastle, IK Brage in Sweden and then Reading where he became player-manager.

He retired as a player in 1993 and the following year won the Division Two title with the Royals and helped guide to as high as second place in the second tier of English football.

Premier League Leicester City came calling in 1994 and McGhee made the move, despite the club being in the relegation zone. He was unable to keep the Foxes in the top flight but stayed with the club post-relegation.

After less than 12 months, he joined Wolves and in his second season, guided the club to an FA Cup semi-final – the furthest the club had gone in the competition since 1981.

He became Millwall manager in 2000 and it was at The New Den where McGhee enjoyed his best win percentage throughout his career, 46.01%.

Time at Brighton followed before joining Motherwell. He transformed the Steelmen from a side that had narrowly avoided relegation the previous season into one that finished 3rd place in his first season, guiding the side into the UEFA Cup.

After time at Aberdeen and Bristol Rovers, McGhee linked up with close friend Gordon Strachan and became assistant coach of the Scottish National side, a role he kept for 5 years.

He remained as the assistant coach when he was appointed the manager of Motherwell for a second time in October 2015. Upon arrival at Fir Park, the side was second bottom of the Scottish Premiership, but he turned their fortunes around and they were fourth in early April 2016.

He now arrives at The Hive London and we wish him a successful spell at Barnet Football Club.