Mark McGhee interview: Conservative advice

SO WE'RE talking about the Scotland job and the gnawing feeling he had at the time that maybe he shouldn't be doing this, shouldn't be offering himself up for selection, not with the little doubts that he had, the reservations that perhaps this was not the ideal moment to be managing his country. "Then I remembered a conversation I had with William Hague's father," he says.

"A conversation with who?!"

"Aye, William Hague's father," says Mark McGhee. "I knew him, sort of, below in Brighton."

"Er, okay. From William Hague's old man to the Scotland job, talk me through it..."

"I asked him why did William take the Conservative leadership so young."

"Riiight..."

"Because he was on a hiding to nothing at that stage and maybe if he'd waited once or twice down the line he might have inherited a party in better shape. And his father told me he accepted it because he was offered it, he couldn't turn it down, not when they asked him. The Scotland job is a bit like that. You're offered it, you don't knock it back. But I always felt I was kind of pushed up for it. I didn't apply for it. You had Gordon (Strachan) and, in particular, Big Alex (McLeish) saying I was the guy and suddenly I was the hot candidate. But I was never convinced it was right for me, never convinced it was the right time for me to be doing that. I had things to do at Motherwell and I also felt that Scotland was a really difficult job. I don't mind difficult jobs, I took one on here, but... it's not an impossible job at Hampden but it's much harder than what I've got at Motherwell. The possibilities worried me. I thought the chances of Scotland qualifying were not huge. I would, I hope, have come across in the interview as somebody who wanted it, but I didn't necessarily stamp my feet when I didn't get it."

No regrets there, then. But what of turning down Hearts in the summer. Now there is a team with possibilities. Five wins out of five before yesterday's visit to Parkhead, a throbbing stadium, a recent victory over Rangers, Europe on a plate if they don't implode. These are all the things that McGhee craves yet he had his chance and said 'no thank you' and now look at him. Four defeats in the last five in the SPL. One point from the last 15. One goal in 540 minutes of football. Few fans. Down at the arse-end of the division. A frozen pitch. Embarrassment all around.

This time last year he was the major ticket in town, sitting third in the SPL and about to complete his fifth league win on the bounce. His team had 12 more league points than they have now, had scored more and conceded less. They made Europe. They won at Parkhead in the eighth last game of the championship and appeared to have done terminal damage to Celtic's title aspirations.

McGhee always said that as a man born into a Celtic family and who went on to play for Celtic that it was vitally important that he take points off them as soon as he got the Motherwell gig, "just so I could look Rangers people in the eye walking down Byres Road" near his home in the west end of Glasgow. That he did. The day of their win at Parkhead was the same weekend Derek Riordan destroyed Strachan in print. Things looked grim for his big mate in the Celtic chair. "No doubt that result put doubt in Gordon's mind. He didn't speak to me after," he says, laughing. "I went round to his office for a drink but he was staring at the telly. I think it was going through his head that maybe that was that. Somehow he rallied the troops and pulled himself back from the abyss. A great feat of management really."

If McGhee thought success might buy him a little extra leeway with the board he was wrong. He put in for John Kennedy of Celtic, a loan deal that would do wonders for his defence. The board said 'no, too much money'. He accepted the decision and knew his place again.

Did he pine for Tynecastle at that point? "No. When I turned it down I knew I was turning my back on third spot in the SPL. Pretty much. I always felt that the guy who got that job should be finishing third or else he wasn't doing his job completely right. The job's not finished here, that's why I stayed. I stayed because it's an interesting job here and because of loyalty. I still felt I had a bit of a reputation of a mercenary about me from my days in England and I needed to commit to the club. I did that.

"Not getting John (Kennedy) was a blow but I understand the reasons about not wanting to take on big salaries like they did before they went into receivership that time. Fair enough. We're in a bad spot right, but I'm not worried. Nobody should be worried."

The problem, he says, is down largely to the strikers. Chris Porter and David Clarkson were terrific last season but they haven't found their consistency yet. In training? Great. John Sutton, too. In games? Something missing. As a team they're not sweeping forward as they did a year ago, not as dangerous and as a result the pressure is coming on the defence. Undue pressure. It'll change, he's sure. Recently, in the scoreless draw with Rangers he saw things he liked. "That was as good a performance as anything in my time here." He thinks they're not far off going on a wee run that will take them out of trouble and into a better place.

Which, in fairness, they had better do because in McGhee's ideal SPL world there will only be 10 clubs in the top league. That's one of the things he'd change about domestic football. He'd reduce the number of teams and do something about the way the game is presented on television. He cringes sometimes when he sees vast rows of empty seats in Setanta's live games, wondering what people down south make of it. "Twelve clubs in the SPL is not bad but 10 would be better. I think that there are each season a couple of clubs that are definitely out of their depth.

"They have worked hard to get there and they deserve it but it's not concentrated enough for me. Don't get me wrong I think it would be fantastic if there were 16 or 18 clubs of the calibre of the top six but there's not. Now, I'm saying this as manager of a club who by Saturday evening could be joint bottom of the league. We're not immune from this. But I think you have to maintain the competition. Have fewer games and the quality would be better. You'd then be able to have a bit of a winter break.

"What I worry about, and the likes of Gordon raised this at the meeting we had at Hampden the other week, we don't always showcase our games well enough when they're seen on telly. You see what is a really good game of football in some of our stadiums and there's no stand or there's big gaps and it looks terrible. People down south switch on the Setanta game and they think it's Mickey Mouse when in actual fact the quality of the game is better than that. It's just your eye is drawn to the rows of empty seats."

Other things occupy his mind for now. On Thursday the board met the council and discussed the feasibility of a stadium at Ravenscraig. It's light years away but in principle it has McGhee's backing. "The good news is that the study is under way. Maybe put a 12,000-seat stadium there, maybe 10,000 would be enough. Good access, good facilities. You have to consider it."

More pressing is the visit of Kilmarnock on Monday night, then it's Hamilton, Inverness and St Mirren. "If we have any hope of being anywhere near the top six then we should be winning those. If we come out with 10 points then we'll be back in the mix. If we don't then we can resign ourselves to a long winter. I'm optimistic."

There's no other way to be.