Well-Made

The Sun reports that Gary Mac is in the frame. (Maybe just lazy journo again though) The Express reports that Gordon Chisolm heads the list.

I'm not sure how I feel about Leitchy taken on the job yet. Part of me says he could do well. He's had some experience at Ross County including winning the challenge cup. He's had 2 years under Mark McGhee as assistant and I'd imagine he'll have picked up a good bit from that. Another part says maybe if McGhee had been here another season with Leitchy then I'd be happy to see him step up. There's also the fact that he was one of my favourite players in recent years and worried that if he took the job and we were to have a really bad season the shine could be taken off that. Same as some of the other ex-players have been spoken about. The thing is I do believe that when Leitchy was brought back and Malpas left, Boyle may have appointed McGhee with the thought of grooming Leitchy to take over. If it is Leitchy he'll get my full support, I just hope Boyle has the guile to make sure he gets him the best help he can.

If the Rancid is to be believed JB has given permission and compo will be £200K. Then in the same article give themselves a back door out of the story. See below.

This has been discussed and it was all over done with by the 26th May. The transfer window wasn't open, the players were on holiday and the season wasn't long finished. Disappointed as I am to see him move to another SPL club,, he goes with my best wishes and thanks for proving that the players Malpas had were better than their previous seasons position merited. Hope we hammer Aberdeen everytime we meet right enough, that's not personal Mark, it's just football.

One of the reasons Coyle didn't take the Celtic job apparently was the size of the transfer kitty. He is apparently getting more at Burnley. Rangers and Celtic aren't the big attraction they used to be for any manager in the Championship or the EPL. The lack of money in Scottish football just now is going to hamper any manager at whatever club. Yes Rangers and Celtic will continue to dominate but not at the levels they did before. It won't be too long until they see getting close to making the group stages in the Champions League as being a success. If McGhee does go to Celtic he is going to find it hard going attracting the quality of player that the best fans in the world will demand. If he goes to Aberdeen he will probably just retarget the guys he was looking at bringing to Motherwell but whether he'll have much more funds than us (at least this season) is debatable. I say this season due to the comp they'll need to pay us and the money they already used to get rid of Calderwood and co. I fear for a lot of clubs if this Setanta deal goes Southwards. There are a lot of clubs that will already of budgeted this money into their factoring even if only for upgrading the stadia etc. That money will have to be found elsewhere and if we're paying McGhee £300K a year then we may be better of letting him go and rediverting that money elsewhere.

Is that 6pm on Monday Night?

Can see this turning into the Rainbow thread. It was disussed on the old boards and there is a thread about it here

Porter was the last one. I expect Reynolds to be the next.

Already been discussed here and that link also posted. Closing this thread.

Real Radio are reporting this morning that the SPL are worried 3 SPL clubs could fold if Setanta don't pay up. The SPL have given Setanta another 48 hours to pay up or they'll start court action.

Says him that kept going on about Craig Beattie last season

One thing I notice about that report is that's it all about the journos opinion.

So if McCormack was the only one to leave last year, surely it was the same last season. Or have I missed someone leaving?

That's a bit harsh considering the journalist has padded out the story. If the journo hadn't mentioned the system, the phone calls and the Strachan bit it wouldn't really have been much of a piece. Instead the journo is showing that McGhee not only bought breakfast but that he is an intelligent guy. He also shows that he has a sense of humour and that he is still commited to working for Motherwell and that he isn't letting the stories in the media put him off doing it.

Stephen Halliday

Interview: Mark McGhee java script:Published Date: 31 May 2009 By Tom English IT STARTED like this; reporter meets Mark McGhee in a Glasgow coffee shop on Friday morning, orders two cappuccinos, a jammy Danish and some toast, hands over the plastic and is told "sorry, no cards accepted, thanks very much". McGhee steps in quickly, takes out his wallet, hands over a fifty and says there's a story behind the large denomination. "Do you know about The System?" he asks. "Sit down and I'll tell you." The System was invented in a casino in Las Vegas a few years back, in Amarillo Slim's backyard, the playground of the fearless. McGhee was there on holiday, a rookie punter in a world of sharks doing business at the roulette table. Nothing dramatic, just a few bucks invested for the fun of it. But it made him think. "There must be some way of improving the odds here. Some way to even things up." So The System was born. He's not the type to hang about in casinos but it's a good night out all the same. He's been on four occasions since to Vegas and The System has always delivered. You couldn't explain it here. Too many combinations of things to remember, too much detail to digest. Maybe there's a science to it and maybe it's pot luck but he's turned a handy profit following his method and the fruits of his creation are buying breakfast. "The System," he smiles. "It can't fail! You need patience and discipline. Stick to your tactics and see 'em through." He's laughing now. "I don't know why anybody else hasn't come up with it before me. It's quite simple really. Saying that, if you ever see me sitting outside on the footpath there with a cap and a banjo you'll know that maybe it wasn't as good as I thought." It's a beautifully sunny morning in Glasgow, a short stroll from the leafy corner of the West End where McGhee lives and where his mate Gordon Strachan was a neighbour up until last weekend. The wee man, as McGhee calls him, is in La Manga now, golfing for all he is worth, purging his system of the disappointment of losing out on a fourth SPL title by whacking a golf ball around some choice parkland. Strachan departed on Monday but McGhee knew he was going a long time ago. "It was over the road there in Stravaigin (a restaurant] that he told me he was leaving. It was New Year's Eve. My brother was at a loose end about three weeks ago and Gordon asked if he would drive a van down to Southampton for him. (Strachan retained his house on the south coast). All the clothes and bits and bobs went in the van. There was no way he was changing his mind no matter what happened last Sunday. Win, lose or draw, the wee man was away." And so one of the most complex reigns in Celtic's history came to an end. Strachan won trophies but little warmth from the home support. For three seasons he got the better of their hated rivals from across the city but it was never quite good enough for the Parkhead crowd. They wanted better football, they wanted a more amenable manager, not a smart Alec, which Strachan undoubtedly was at times. "Look, the most endearing thing Gordon ever said about the Celtic fans was this week, after he left, when he talked about how fantastic they were. If he'd been saying that when he was in the job, life would have been a lot easier. He got this bug in his head I think, you know? "He took them on. But he's always been contrary. Some of the interviews I used to see when he was in England, I had to turn the television off because I was cringing at some of the stuff he'd come out with. One time when he was manager of Coventry he came in after the game and the goalkeeper was the boy Magnus Hedman who'd just had a great game and the interviewer says, 'Hedman's become a really good keeper' and Gordon turns and looks straight into the camera and says, 'Not as good as his agent thinks he is'. It was brilliant. Very funny. Typical of the wee man. To be fair, I think that's one of the things Dermot (Desmond] liked about him. "See if you went to Dermot now and said to him, 'I guarantee you three SPLs in the next four years and two years of last 16 football in the Champions League', I'd say you'd be the next Celtic manager in a flash." McGhee has been linked with the job but, so far, it's mere paper talk. No substance to it whatsoever, he says. Strachan will be a tough act to follow, but somebody is going to get the gig, sooner or later. Owen Coyle and Tony Mowbray remain at the top of the betting despite Burnley and West Brom doing their damndest to kill the speculation. McGhee hasn't gone looking for gossip but in his world it comes to him all the time. He's heard that Roberto Martinez, the promising Swansea manager, is well thought of at Parkhead. He's also heard that Craig Levein has a supporter or two. Most amazingly, somebody told him of a whisper last week that Steve McClaren was in with a shout. He lets all this stuff wash off him. His mobile phone rings and he sighs theatrically. 'That'll be Dermot again," he jokes. Of course, it isn't. But that's not to say that McGhee isn't without a chance of getting the job. Indeed Strachan has already recommended him publicly. There's also constant speculation – but again no phone call – from Aberdeen. Plenty of rumours there as well, naturally. He's heard the names of John Collins and Mark Venus among others. This kind of chat comes to him on an almost hourly basis. There's no escaping it. Celtic and Aberdeen. Aberdeen and Celtic. The mobile beeps once more. "That'll be Dermot again. He's probably looking for The System. Go away, Dermot, you've enough money!" All McGhee can deal with right now is reality and the reality is that Motherwell are back in pre-season training in little over three weeks time and will play their first match in the Europa League on July 2. That's enough to be focusing on right now. "Look, I know I'm being linked with these jobs but my phone hasn't rung and from the bits I hear from my sources, the newspapers aren't on the right track as regards either job. If I get a call then I'll deal with it. But for now, I've got things to do with Motherwell." The season was a strange one; disrupted by injury and plagued by bad results in the first half and infinitely better in the second half. From new year, Motherwell won more points than any other SPL side outside the title-chasing Old Firm and Hearts, and Hearts only just trumped them. So, yeah, they finished seventh, but they were a whisker away from better things despite having sold Chris Porter mid-season. The transformation from January gives him optimism even if the summer may see the departure of midfielder Stephen Hughes, goalkeeper Graeme Smith and defender Maros Krimpl, all three of them hugely important to his team. His decision to turn down the Hearts job last year is something that always comes up, particularly since Csaba Laszlo made such a success of it. He still has no regrets, he says. "Somebody said to me the other night, 'The mistake you made was not taking the Hearts job'. I said that's not right. If I'd taken the Hearts job I could have put a patch over one eye and tied one leg up behind my back and got third spot. I knew that. It wasn't an issue. I still maintain that when I get my best team on the pitch we're the third best side in the SPL. Statistics tell you that. Now, we might lose a few and that's a challenge to replace them. But if you ask me where do I think I will be come the start of the season I think I'll be here, preparing for Europe. I've heard nothing to the contrary." Where will his mate be? Hard to say what Strachan is going to do now. Maybe he'll take a year off, maybe not. We never successfully managed to second-guess the guy while he was here so there's not much chance of doing it now he's gone. The link with Desmond remains strong, says McGhee. "Dermot and Gordon are very tight. Dermot said to Gordon, 'You've got a job for life'. He'd never have sacked him. He phoned him last week, and said 'When you come back from La Manga we'll meet in London, have lunch and we'll sort out your future and we'll make sure you get a big club'. He deserves that. He shouldn't have to take a fire-fighting job down there now." McGhee, meanwhile, is happy with the one he has. The speculation carries on around him but he says he'd go mad if he paid attention to it. The mobile goes again. It's not Dermot Desmond and it's not Willie Miller. It's somebody connected with Motherwell. He goes out the door and into the real world. The fantasy he'll leave to others.

Heard that if he was willing to retire from football that the Celtic Board would've offered him the managers job. (Why not everyone else is getting linked. Should be really nasty and get that rumour going on the celtic forums)

The Express reports also that Celtic fans are holding off on buyin season tickets until they see who is the new boss. Charlie Nicholas inside says McGhee is good enough for either Aberdeen or Celtic. He alos goes onto spout pish about McGhee needing to get away from the worst pitch in the SPL. Surely that would rule out Pittodrie!!!!

I am going to wish Bob like every player that leaves Fir Park all the best for the future. Have to thank him for the goals from free kicks and his goal of the season? The one he scored with his gonads of course.

Looking at that we'll be seeded for the first two rounds. Then in the 3rd Round we could get an all Amber and Claret affair with Roma

European football lasted long for him. Having said that he got onto the pitch I suppose, more than he did for the rest of the season right enough. I hear that SemiChem may have to start shutting down stores now that Bob isn't going to be in to buy a dozen tweezers every week.

I had seen one paper reporting that it would be around the £200K figure if Celtic wanted him. Once again though that's down to where the paper gets it's info from. I would imagine that Aberdeen would be hard pushed to find that sort of money, as well as at least match his wages, a transfer kitty then pay any other compo if McGhee wanted Leitch to go as well. All if's and buts' and present though and we should really be looking ahead to a few weeks time and what players we are likely to sign for the start of the Europa League.

See that the Express is reporting this morning that Coyle has knocked back the Celtic job. If true there could be more twists and turns yet. Story about Coyle is that he's worried about the transfer pot at Celtic, his family not too keen on returning North and that he'll lose out on £1Million bonus for getting Burnley promoted. Apparently the only Board he has talked to this week has been his own to start talks on a new contract. Meeting was apparently arranged before the Celtic job came up. I will be really worried for us if land Yogi as a replacement for Mark.

If he has quit it's to go North as Real Radio are creaming themselves over the fact that Celtic fans are up in arms that Coyle has been offered the Celtic job and the board don't want to talk to Bilic.