The Big Interview Mark McGhee

“Wee Gordon always lets me know who is in charge!”

Mark McGhee stands head and shoulders above Gordon Strachan.

But that doesn’t stop the Scotland boss telling his assistant to sit down and shut up!

Some 30 years after they shared a dressing-room at Aberdeen, the pair are back together in charge of their national team.

Recent performances and results have given the Tartan Army rare encouragement after years of failing to qualify for major tournaments.

McGhee, however, reveals that hasn’t happened without the odd ear bashing from his old team-mate.

“Teaming up again with Gordon has been easy,” he said. “It’s been good and healthy in the respect I don’t think I’m some kind of sycophant.

“Equally, there have been occasions where the wee man has told me to shut up and sit down! I think that’s a good thing for the dressing-room too.

“He is the manager and he has the final say. It’s been a really good working relationship, but Gordon has made it easy for myself, Stuart McCall and goalkeeping coach Jim Stewart because it is democratic.

“He sits us down and asks our opinion and we all have our say.

“If there is a decision to be made between two players, then ultimately Gordon will have the final word.

“In terms of the workload, we are all involved in taking sessions and doing presentations to the boys. It’s been brilliant, it really has.”

It was under Sir Alex Ferguson’s glorious spell at Aberdeen that McGhee and Strachan forged a close friendship that would eventually lead to them masterminding the revival of the Scotland national team.

As team-mates, the pair enjoyed great success at Pittodrie, winning the European Cup-Winners’ Cup in 1983 and the UEFA Super Cup the same year.

They both departed Aberdeen in the summer of 1984 but have remained close friends.

Even so, McGhee had no pre-conceived notion that Strachan would appoint him his assistant when he became Scotland manager at the beginning of the year.

“When Gordon was appointed, I knew he had some great people he could call on,” said McGhee.

“Garry Pendrey, in particular, who he’d worked with through the years. There was also Gary McAllister, who is as good a friend to Gordon as I hope I am.

“I hoped he might give me the call. I knew it might not be me. But he did and I had absolutely no hesitation.”

And so the partnership that first blossomed on the field was now to be put to the test off the field in the international arena.

Sharing a dressing-room as players is one thing, being friends for many years is another. But forming a management duo is altogether different again.

McGhee has a wealth of experience himself as a manager and sometimes joining as an assistant can prove problematic.

That, however, most certainly isn’t the case in this instance as McGhee believes his friendship, and the fact he knows his gaffer so well, makes it the perfect pairing.

He said: “Everybody had a voice in that Aberdeen dressing-room. That was one of the main strengths of that team.

“There were characters who wanted a say and had a decent opinion.

“Gordon was one of them, me to a degree and Willie Miller and Alex McLeish.

“We were very different. Without doing myself a disservice, I would say I was a slightly less professional than Gordon.

“He was always on my case and felt I should have been more disciplined at times. He would set the tone as it were and fall out with me over certain things.

“He was good for me as a player. And listening to him and watching has been good for me as a manager too.

“It makes it easier for me that I know Gordon so well. Both as a friend and a manager.”

Sometimes it’s the little things that make such a difference and McGhee insists that’s where he can prove beneficial to the Scotland manager.

“I don’t think Gordon would mind me saying this, but on the Friday before the Belgium game, we had two or three players who, because of the numbers, were set to sit in the stand,” explained McGhee.

“Gordon was going to have to tell those players, and as a manager I knew he’d be worrying about them. I also knew the most important thing for him was to focus on the game.

“I knew that would gnaw away at Gordon all afternoon. So I suggested he spoke to them at lunchtime and get it off his mind.

“It’s one my responsibilities to try and take something off his plate by saying something like that or suggesting I deal with it myself.”

There is, of course, renewed belief that Scotland can finally qualify for a major competition under Strachan and the man at the helm has even admitted he feels he can lead his team to France 2016.

The recent victory in Macedonia, and the convincing manner of the performance, has increased expectations but McGhee says there’s still a lot of work to be done.

He said: “Gordon is entitled to say he is confident. But we could improve 100% on what we’ve done already and still come up against four teams that prove to be very good and on the day force us out of qualification.

“On the other hand, we could get the luck of the draw and qualify. There are a lot of variables the draw, who’s fit or not at the time, who comes through.

“What we can say is that the signs are that we’ll have a better chance.

“I wouldn’t call it a revival just yet, particularly as we’re about to finish the group having not qualified. It can only justifiably be called a revival the day we qualify.”