MARK McGHEE has likened returning to Motherwell as coming home ahead of his first game in charge of the Lanarkshire club in six years.
The familiarity of his surroundings as he stands in the home dugout for today’s noon kick off against Celtic at Fir Park will no doubt bring a raft of emotions flooding back for the man who previously occupied the same spot for two years between 2007 and 2009.
Since his unveiling on Wednesday, much of the talk and hype has surrounded his reasons for revisiting his past rather than what he plans to do in the future, perhaps understandable given how he only became a front runner for the post the night before his name was officially announced.
Yesterday he offered his thoughts on the matter, explaining: “I’ve been lucky with great chairmen and I had one here in John Boyle. I’ve maintained a connection with John, therefore I stayed close to the club through that association.
“It has remained familiar in that sense and I would come back for games. For example, when I left Leicester, I have only ever gone back there to take teams I have managed. I had no real connection, whereas here there are lots of people I know. It feels like home. This is not new to me.
“I’ve not met the owner yet, but I’ve spoken to him at length on the phone and he strikes me as a very upstanding citizen with very strong principles and ideas of where he wants the club to go forward.
“Those suited me perfectly, absolutely fine and I bought into them.”
McGhee took his second training session yesterday and is underway with building up a squad of talent and experience that is lacking confidence and moulding them into a group with conviction that can elevate Motherwell further up to the table than their current ninth place. First of all, though, he has the small matter of reigning champions Celtic to deal with.
“After yesterday’s training the word I would use would be ‘encouraged’,” said the Motherwell manager. “I saw things there – and have already seen something I think I can relate to something else I saw recently.
“I won’t speak about that or give too much away with regards to tomorrow. But I am definitely encouraged by a lot of aspects of what I saw. When I speak to Stephen Robinson and Craggs [Stephen Craigan] and the senior players, when you look at the squad there is probably not the right balance in the squad.
‘There is work needing done to change the balance in certain positions. We have to do a certain amount of improvisation in between. But there are still elements of the squad that are strong and which we can benefit from.”
He added: "I have to get across a message that says if we stick with this in the long run we will start to get better results.
"That starts tomorrow…’
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