Aberdeen finally get their man but McGhee still harbours Celtic hopes

MARK McGhee was finally unveiled as Aberdeen manager yesterday but, like predecessor Jimmy Calderwood, could not quite shake off an association with the Old Firm.

An honest McGhee admitted he had been keener on the Celtic job, while he also expressed his belief that the opportunity to manage the Parkhead club had not passed him by. Unlike Calderwood, who was always open about his past as a Rangers supporter, the former Aberdeen player can count on clemency from the fans due to his contribution when a revered striker with the Pittodrie club.

McGhee has signed a one-year rolling contract following Celtic's decision to end their interest in the 51-year-old former Motherwell manager. He has brought Scott Leitch, his assistant at Fir Park, with him. The delay in confirming their arrival this week was not due to any lingering hope on McGhee's part that Celtic might return to him having tired of their compensation wrangle with West Bromwich Albion, whose manager Tony Mowbray remains the Parkhead club's top target.

Instead, Aberdeen's own struggle to agree a compensation fee with Motherwell lay behind the seven-day delay between McGhee intimating his desire to come to Pittodrie, and yesterday's official appointment.

McGhee said he made up his mind to join Aberdeen last Friday afternoon. Dermot Desmond, Celtic's major shareholder, did not phone him to confirm he was no longer a candidate for the Parkhead vacancy until Saturday morning. But by then he had sensed his chances of moving to the club he has always supported were receding. Fearful that he might also miss out on the chance to return to Aberdeen he sent a text to Willie Miller, his former team-mate and current director of football at Pittodrie, to assure him that his ambitions lay exclusively with the north-east club, for the time being at least.

McGhee is confident that should he prove a success with Aberdeen, where he tasted European Cup Winners' Cup success in 1983, then another chance to join the team he has always declared an affection for will present itself. "I think it's something which could still possibly happen in the future," he said yesterday, when asked whether his Celtic ambitions were now at an end. "Doing well here with Aberdeen can only help. All I can do is keep doing well."

He was frank when outlining where he would have preferred to continue a managerial career which began in 1991, at Reading. Since then he has managed at five other clubs. "On a scale of one to two then Celtic would be above the Aberdeen job but I have taken the Aberdeen job and I am only thinking about what is going on at Pittodrie," he explained. "All my energies and commitment are channelled towards Aberdeen and to bringing success to this club."

McGhee was philosophical about failing to progress further than the initial interview stage on this occasion with Celtic. He said only Desmond could answer the question of how close he was to being offered the job.

"He can tell you just how close I got," said McGhee. "I had a fair hearing. They chose to go with someone else. This doesn't mean Aberdeen are second best. I am not coming here in a huff. Quite the opposite in fact. I am excited by the challenge." He continued: "I was considered for it (the Celtic post] and I was flattered at being given that opportunity, as an ex-player and as a bit of a supporter of the club. It was exciting. But I didn't get the job. Someone else has got it. I have been given the opportunity by Aberdeen and I have left the Celtic thing behind."

Those Aberdeen fans prompted to take issue with these comments might wish to take into account the fact that the Pittodrie club passed on McGhee in 1999. Although Ebbe Skovdahl was chosen instead, McGhee harbours no hard feelings. Stewart Milne, the club owner, had told him he had come close to being appointed. "He told me at the time that I had hit the crossbar, but they wanted a foreign coach," he revealed. A decade later, the Aberdeen board were unanimous in their approval of McGhee. But Miller accepted that the club's principal target had first to deal with matters elsewhere.

"The Celtic job is such a big job I can fully understand why Mark had to see that to its conclusion," said Miller. "In no way are Aberdeen second best. In conversation over the last week he has made that very clear to me.

"I needed to be convinced that what he was saying was true, and he convinced me. It did not take him long. I am sure all the fans out there can fully understand that the Celtic job is such a big job that he had to see that through first."