The Managers: Mark McGhee, 1994 -1995

[davieG]

Club Historian John Hutchinson continues his series on Leicester City’s managers with a look at Mark McGhee's spell at Filbert Street between 1994 and 1995.

Despite creating an attractive footballing side capable of promotion to the Premier League, the nature of McGhee’s departure from Filbert Street in December 1995 turned him into one of the most controversial managers in Leicester City’s history.

 

As a player, his 37 goals in 64 games for Morton between 1975 and 1977 prompted Newcastle United to pay £150,000 for his services in December 1977.

The Magpies were relegated from the top flight along with City in 1978 and, in March 1979, McGhee signed for Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen for £80,000.

In his five seasons at Pittodrie, McGhee was Scotland PFA Player of the Year in 1982, was capped by Scotland, and was in the Aberdeen sides which won the Scottish League twice, the Scottish Cup three times and which defeated Real Madrid in the European Cup Winners Cup Final and SV Hamburg in the European Super Cup Final.

McGhee's spell at Aberdeen was a hugely successful one.

After just over a season playing in the Bundesliga for SV Hamburg, McGhee returned to Scotland in November 1985, going on to win two more Scottish League titles and two more Scottish Cups (which included a league and cup double in 1988) with Glasgow Celtic.

 

He was Scotland’s joint top scorer in 1989. A move to second tier Newcastle United in August 1989 was followed by his appointment as Reading’s player-manager in 1991.

McGhee led them to the third tier title in 1994, but with his attractive Reading side looking likely to be promoted the Premier League the following season, he left the club to become City’s manager in December 1994.

The Foxes, reeling from the abrupt departure of Brian Little for Aston Villa, were struggling badly in their first season in the recently-established Premier League.

 

 

Despite spending £1M on striker Mark Robins, signing Garry Parker and Mike Galloway and giving a youthful Emile Heskey his Premier League debut, McGhee couldn’t prevent City’s relegation at the end of the season, 19 points from safety.

To prepare for an immediate return to the Premier League, McGhee sold Mark Draper, Ian Ormondroyd, Gavin Ward, David Oldfield and Nicky Mohan, and signed skilful midfield players Scott Taylor and Steve Corica.

Further quality was added with the arrival of Sweden’s World Cup semi- finalist Pontus Kåmark, but injury in his second game for Leicester City sidelined him for a year.

In December 1995, with his skilful and attractive side looking good for promotion, McGhee walked out of the Club to become manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux, taking his coaching staff with him.

McGhee's first season at Wolves ended with a disappointing finish in the second tier.

He felt that Wolves were a bigger club with more potential. Leicester City tried to block the move, before settling for a record compensation deal.

The Foxes were promoted back to the Premier League at the end of the season, whilst McGhee’s Wolves finished 20th in the second tier. McGhee’s subsequent managerial career took him to Millwall, Brighton and Hove Albion, Motherwell, Aberdeen, Bristol Rovers and Barnet.

He was also Scotland’s assistant manager between 2013 and 2017.

 

https://www.lcfc.com/news/1048644/the-managers-mark-mcghee-1994-1995

[davieG]

The Future's Marked Out

 

Wasn't much of a future!

[Crinklyfox]

The chant of 'Are you watching, Mark McGhee' after we won the play-off final will always live long in my memory.

[Ric Flair]

5 minutes ago, Crinklyfox said:

The chant of 'Are you watching, Mark McGhee' after we won the play-off final will always live long in my memory.

Thinking about it now still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, hahahaa what a complete pleb he was.

[surrifox]

Didn’t we sellCorica to wolves for bundles  of dosh only for him to turn into a crock 

[hairy]

F*** you Mark McGhee

we're off the Wembley 

Edited 6 February 2019 by hairy

[Tuna]

A disloyal prat.

Edited 6 February 2019 by Tuna

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

Couldn’t win at home but great away, well that’s my memory of that time but it’s a little cloudy now, thankfully he left us and we got a real manager in! And then what then become a wonderful time for the club ?

[MPH]

this is the one that left a bad taste in my mouth... Little to villa you could almost understand..

[katieakita]

Had us playing decent football then made a career ending decision to walk out but all that glistened was not gold. Such is life we went onto Premier league glory with MON and cup wins he went off to Millwall

[Sir Shep]

Ah yes, Wolves were a sleeping giant, Leicester went on to promotion and league cup victories without him, thank you Mark 

[Vacamion]

 

He really is beloved up here in his native Scotland.  

 

 

 

 

[Hitesh]

Now Mark McGee is definitely what you boo at

[Al-aLondon-Foxile]

That twitter vid of him is funny as hell. He was a turd for what he did to Reading with his staying/going/staying stuff before he came to us, then for his big move to wolves, it was such karma the way it turned out. 

[RoboFox]

Remember being sat in my old man's Ford Escort at the crossroads in Wigston, hearing on the radio that he'd left for Wolves... WOLVES.

 

Didn't he also take Iwan the Welshman with him? That f**ked me off.

 

Ah well, his managerial record since speaks for itself. And his leaving paved the way for Sir Martin of Neill, so that turned out alright.

 

Edited 6 February 2019 by RoboFox

[Izzy]

What a cvnt.

 

Although some of the football we played under him was superb to watch.

[SouthStandUpperTier]

I find it almost impossible now to get angry about anything that happened to our club before 2015/16. It's like everything that happened to us, whether good or bad, was just leading us to that one wonderous moment. So thank you Mark McGhee. Thank you for walking out on us.

Edited 6 February 2019 by SouthStandUpperTier

[reynard]

Disloyal to the core.

Some of the football though was very good and in Parker, Kamark and Scott Taylor you have to say he signed some half decent players.

[Guest Markyblue]

Wa..er end of

[boots60]

I will only leave Leicester City to go to a big club like Manchester United, Rangers, Newcastle & ....er...Wolves.

 

Its took the sleeping giants over 20 years & numerous managers to wake up.

[Babylon]

1 hour ago, davieG said:

Mike Galloway

Forgot about him being in a bad car crash whilst here... christ the drama around this club is unreal. 

[davieG]

Just now, Babylon said:

Forgot about him being in a bad car crash whilst here... christ the drama around this club is unreal. 

Was it him who clashed with Duncan Ferguson and got him sent off.

 

Had a really bad time after that crash.

 

Former Celtic star Mike Galloway tasered by police after knife siege - https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/former-celtic-star-mike-galloway-987150

 

Didn't realise he was English born in Oswestry according to Wiki.

[Babylon]

1 minute ago, davieG said:

Was it him who clashed with Duncan Ferguson and got him sent off.

Yeah... loved that!!!

[SouthStandUpperTier]

59 minutes ago, RoboFox said:

Remember being sat in my old man's Ford Escort at the crossroads in Wigston, hearing on the radio that he'd left for Wolves... WOLVES.

 

Didn't he also take Iwan the Welshman with him? That f**ked me off.

 

Ah well, his managerial record since speaks for itself. And his leaving paved the way for Sir Martin of Neill, so that turned out alright.

 

Took the genius that was Steve Corica with him too.

[fazzyfox]

"The future's marked out" became "The future's f***ed off".

 

Deeply unpleasant man, pantomime villain got an appropriate ending of failure as the good guys moved on to bigger and better things. Sowed some important seeds by signing Kamaark and Parker, disgusting treatment of others, huge big headed ego not reflected by his managerial achievements.