Mark McGhee

Mark Edward McGhee (born 25 May 1957) is a Scottish former professional football player and coach.

A former forward, McGhee started his career at Greenock Morton in 1975 and had spells at clubs including Newcastle United, Aberdeen, Hamburg, Celtic, IK Brage and Reading.

McGhee began his professional career in 1975 at Morton, where he developed into a very promising centre forward.

In December 1977 he moved to England, signing for Newcastle United.

Despite an encouraging start at St James' Park, managerial changes at the club saw McGhee fall down the pecking order.

McGhee returned north in March 1979 as Alex Ferguson's first major signing for Aberdeen.

McGhee won the SFL Reserve Cup with the Dons in 1979.

He made his debut for The Dons on 1 April 1979 against former club Morton.

This would be the start of the most successful part of McGhee's playing career.

He won his first major honour the following season when Aberdeen won the Scottish Premier Division, the first time in 15 years that a club outwith the Old Firm had finished Scottish Champions.

During his time at Aberdeen, he also won the Scottish PFA Players' Player of the Year in 1982.

McGhee was part of the Aberdeen side which won the 1983 European Cup Winners' Cup and 1983 UEFA Super Cup, as well as three Scottish league titles.

McGhee has since managed several clubs in both England and Scotland, including Reading, Millwall, Aberdeen and Brighton & Hove Albion.

He was also part of the Aberdeen side that defeated Real Madrid 2-1 (aet.) in the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1983, with his cross from the left setting up John Hewitt to score the winning goal.

McGhee also won the European Super Cup the following season, with him scoring against Hamburg in the second leg at Pittodrie.

At Aberdeen McGhee went on to win a further league title in 1984 as well as a hat-trick of successive Scottish Cup wins from 1982 to 1984.

McGhee moved to Germany in the summer of 1984, with Hamburg paying Aberdeen a transfer fee of £330,000.

His time there was not a success, primarily due to injuries, and McGhee moved back to Scotland 16 months later after scoring only 12 goals to join Celtic in a £170,000 deal.

McGhee won a further Scottish Premier Division title in 1986 as Celtic pipped Hearts on goal difference.

The following year saw McGhee struggle at Parkhead through injury and the inability to displace Mo Johnston and Brian McClair from the starting line-up.

However, the departure of several Celtic players in the summer of 1987 gave McGhee a new lease of life at Celtic Park and he won a League and Scottish Cup double in the club's Centenary Season.

He won a further Scottish Cup in 1989 and was Celtic's top scorer that season, also finishing joint top scorer in the Scottish Premier Division alongside Aberdeen's Charlie Nicholas.

McGhee joined Newcastle United for a second time in 1989.

He quickly forged a successful partnership up front with Micky Quinn, and their goals saw Newcastle come close to gaining promotion to the First Division (the top-tier in England at that time), finishing third in the Second Division.

However, their early season form returned in the final months and they failed to win any of their final eight fixtures, ending in 20th, just three points clear of relegation, marking their lowest finish since returning to the division in 1989.

McGhee and Quinn were less prolific the following season, and the arrival of Ossie Ardiles as manager in March 1991 saw McGhee dropped from the team.

A brief spell in Sweden at IK Brage followed before McGhee joined Reading as player-manager in May 1991.

McGhee's management career began as player-manager at third tier Reading in 1991, succeeding Ian Porterfield, after being recommended for the post by his ex-manager Alex Ferguson.

He finally retired from playing in 1993 due to injury.

During his playing career, McGhee also won four caps and scored two goals for the Scotland national football team.

He officially retired as a player in 1993 and won the Division Two title with the Royals the following season and quickly adapted to the second flight during the next campaign, taking the team as high as second place by December 1994.

This spotlighted him as an up-and-coming young manager and he was offered the chance to move to Premier League Leicester City.

His move in December 1994 came despite having agreed to a long-term contract to remain at Reading.

However, he joined with the Foxes adrift in the relegation zone and was unable to keep them up, finishing second bottom.

He remained at Filbert Street post-relegation and set about launching a promotion campaign but did not see the season out after being approached by Wolverhampton Wanderers.

He left to take control at Wolves in December 1995, less than 12 months after arriving at Leicester.

McGhee moved to Wolves on 13 December 1995, taking his assistant Colin Lee along with him, following the sacking of Graham Taylor.

The club's hopes of promotion lay in tatters at the time after just five wins from their previous 21 games, and his first game saw another loss, as they went down 1-0 to Port Vale at Molineux.

He quickly added midfielders Simon Osborn and Steve Corica and tried to implement a more passing game than the direct tactics of his predecessor.

The team enjoyed a strong start to 1996, and had lifted themselves to the verge of the play-offs by March.