McGhee turns down Hearts manager job to stay at Motherwell

Published on Tuesday 27 May 2008 10:17

MARK McGHEE has told Hearts he will not be pursuing their managerial vacancy after backing out of a planned eight-day trip to Lithuania yesterday.

The Tynecastle club confirmed there will be no further discussions about luring McGhee to Tynecastle.

The Evening News can reveal he spoke with Mindaugas Nikolicius, a financial expert from Vladimir Romanov's Ukio Bankas Investment Group, today to convey the message that he would remain as manager of Motherwell.

"Hearts today confirmed that Mark McGhee will not be interviewed for the vacant managerial position at Tynecastle," said a statement on the club website.

"The club continues its search for a new manager who can meet the aims of the board in delivering on-field success for Hearts."

Hearts were refusing to give up on their pursuit of McGhee this morning as he has yet to sign a new deal at Fir Park.

However, following a telephone call between Nikolicius and McGhee, who is at home in Brighton, Romanov has reluctantly accepted that he must now look elsewhere for the man who will transform Hearts.

McGhee failed to board his flight to Lithuania yesterday afternoon, where he was scheduled to spend an astonishing eight days negotiating terms with Romanov for the Hearts vacancy.

As he waited at London's Stansted airport for a flight to Vilnius, a persuasive phone call from Motherwell chairman John Boyle convinced him to rethink his intentions.

Although the Fir Park club posted a statement on their website last night claiming negotiations had been "successfully concluded" to keep their manager, Hearts believed they had a chance of persuading him to swap Lanarkshire for Edinburgh.

McGhee and his assistant, Scott Leitch, have been offered a salary increase by Motherwell but nothing in the region of the 375,000 a year Romanov had dangled in front of McGhee.

Leitch was due to fly out to Lithuania today to engage in further talks with Romanov alongside McGhee, however that plan has also been aborted.

Nikolicius wanted to give McGhee every opportunity to rekindle negotiations today and but the former Leicester City, Wolves, Millwall and Brighton manager has declined the chance to replace Hearts' outgoing caretaker Stephen Frail.

McGhee had previously met Romanov face to face for initial discussions but the Russian businessman will now focus on alternative names on his managerial shortlist.