Mark McGhee (not dead)

[Kingswood Wolf]

International week, yawn.

I would love a bit of 'remember when' about the McGhee era as I was only 7 and don't recall much...

Were you happy when he was linked/came in? Especially when Leicester then went and got Martin O'Neill... and went up... and won a cup

What about the dross he signed? Adrian Williams anyone? Or was that more Hayward junior and Richards' fault?

Let's not mention the FA Cup Semi, eh?

Didn't he play 352 in the mid-nineties the absolute visionary!

And a midfield of Corica and Osborne with Atkins and Sedgely in reserve? Good lord.

 

[Highlandwolf2]

His tactics were largely based on ball retention, although it meant endlessly passing the ball around at the back, with the opposition making no real attempt to gain possession. Osborne was a fair player but the other you mention were mediocre at best. Occasionally fell asleep watching his teams play (Hoddle being nearly as bad).

Trouble was the nonsense he spouted made things much worse viz "Steve Corica is world class" - not sure what at but not football. His pre match comments e.g. "we are a much better team than...." only spurred the opposition on.

Not to mention his semi final team selection v Arsenal!....

 

[NewarkWolf]

I was over the moon when he was linked. Loved how he got Reading playing in what was Taylor's first season. Some of the players he had at reading I thought were going to transform us, Osborn being the main (he was actually better than a lot want to remember and bully even now lauds how good he was).

I remember the first game in charge, it was comical really, pass pass pass pass just for the sake of it. He seems a decent forward thinking manager at Reading and maintained that at Leicester, he seemed to lose all that not long after he arrived with us....

 

[AndyWolves]

Excited when we got him as he was the next big thing in management, people were genuinely thinking of him going to man United at some point.

The writing was on the wall pretty quickly with the first game Leicester came to our place and turned us over.

Osborne was absolutely quality when he first came here and Corica had games he looked good! Unbelievably lightweight though and we had a fit Geoff Thomas on the bench at the time.

Leeds away in the FA cup was sensational, we actually played a 343 formation!

Ultimately though, he was a colossal big Ben end and rubbed everyone up the wrong way. We also missed out on some really good local players from Crewe and Port Vale at the time (Neil Lennon, Danny Murphy, Steve Guppy etc) and signed some absolute dross without seemingly having any kind of strategy.

At one point we would have had 5 or 6 first team strikers.

 

[SuperGran]

I was over the moon when he was linked. Loved how he got Reading playing in what was Taylor's first season. Some of the players he had at reading I thought were going to transform us, Osborn being the main (he was actually better than a lot want to remember and bully even now lauds how good he was).

I remember the first game in charge, it was comical really, pass pass pass pass just for the sake of it. He seems a decent forward thinking manager at Reading and maintained that at Leicester, he seemed to lose all that not long after he arrived with us....

Same here - he was such a let down

 

[Mile End Wanderer]

Such a let down indeed, no wonder sir Jack didn’t want to waste more millions after this idiot left us. Colin Lee was no better, did alright. Failure at making ago of promotion. Then came Dave Jones who took a load of cash to get us promoted.

 

[Boss Hogg]

He was also “great” at giving the opposition their own team talks by belittling their clubs -just before they played us - eg Barnsley

 

[Lupus ad Penn]

He was a big headed fool, who beleived he would be the next Alex Ferguson.
It showed how clueless Jonathon Hayward was when he sacked Graham Taylor, after an underwhelming start to the season, and cost the club a fortune in compensation to Leicester to obtain McGhee and Lee.
His signings were expensive and mainly poor e.g.
Corica
Iwan Roberts
AdrIan Williams
Simon Osbourne,
but his biggest **** up was the Leicester goalkeeper Zejlko Kalac who cost us £650,000 and we couldnt get a work permit to play him! He should have been sacked just for that alone.

There werevmore expensive signings, we messed up promotion yet again, and of course his actions prompted the “golden tit” interview from SJH.

McGhee set us back years meanwhile the Premier League got richer and richer, and of course harder to get in and survive.

 

[SuperGran]

Wouldn’t have minded his arrogance if he was able to back it up but he was all talk
in fact that pretty much summed up that mid nineties period for wolves we were all talk and no action.
Failure after failure. Teams like Barnsley Bradford Stoke and the Baggies got to the premier league before us despite the money we had.

 

[bully9]

His tactics were largely based on ball retention, although it meant endlessly passing the ball around at the back, with the opposition making no real attempt to gain possession. Osborne was a fair player but the other you mention were mediocre at best. Occasionally fell asleep watching his teams play (Hoddle being nearly as bad).

Trouble was the nonsense he spouted made things much worse viz "Steve Corica is world class" - not sure what at but not football. His pre match comments e.g. "we are a much better team than...." only spurred the opposition on.

Not to mention his semi final team selection v Arsenal!....

Sorry mate hoddle was by far the worst manager I’ve seen at wolves utterly ****e

 

[Boss Hogg]

Sorry mate hoddle was by far the worst manager I’ve seen at wolves utterly ****e

Don’t say you’ve forgotten Saunders already?

 

[OLDGOLD]

Miller on the right and Camara in the middle still gives me nightmares. A very good manager at motivating the opposition unfortunately.

 

[bully9]

Don’t say you’ve forgotten Saunders already?

Never classed him as a manager mate

 

[Jonzy54]

I remember his first game,pretty sure it was Port Vale in a midweek night game .
They came to defend and just dropped deep .We just passed for pass sake with zero intent simply because that was the instruction.Vale won 1-0

 

[Jonzy54]

Who could ever forget that ridiculous SF line up at Villa Park -joke

 

[lets all have a disco]

Who could ever forget that ridiculous SF line up at Villa Park -joke

In the days before everybody checked their phone for the team an hour before kick off...... When the team was announced at villa Park there was a collective grown from the wolves fans and a big slump in the atmosphere.....

 

[JJ59]

He was a big headed fool, who beleived he would be the next Alex Ferguson.
It showed how clueless Jonathon Hayward was when he sacked Graham Taylor, after an underwhelming start to the season, and cost the club a fortune in compensation to Leicester to obtain McGhee and Lee.
His signings were expensive and mainly poor e.g.
Corica
Iwan Roberts
AdrIan Williams
Simon Osbourne,
but his biggest **** up was the Leicester goalkeeper Zejlko Kalac who cost us £650,000 and we couldnt get a work permit to play him! He should have been sacked just for that alone.

There werevmore expensive signings, we messed up promotion yet again, and of course his actions prompted the “golden tit” interview from SJH.

McGhee set us back years meanwhile the Premier League got richer and richer, and of course harder to get in and survive.

I may be wrong but didnt he buy Zejlko with another player from Leicester as part of the deal. He then denied that he had bought the goalie and Leicester threatened legal action and clown McGee backed down. It was revealed that he had indeed bought 2 players. To add insult the new goalkeeper had a nightmare on his debut and let in 4 goals? He didnt play many more times but later in his career played in a european final. Feel free to correct me folks.

 

[JohnMatrix]

Sorry mate hoddle was by far the worst manager I’ve seen at wolves utterly ****e

Talking out your backside mate, completely ****e managers can't go on an 18 game unbeaten run, even though he bored the opposition into submission. Stale Fraudbakken, Terry Connor, Dean Clownders, Paul Thickbert and Walter Dumba were all worse.

 

[whitnash wolf ex.dewsbury]

I may be wrong but didnt he buy Zejlko with another player from Leicester as part of the deal. He then denied that he had bought the goalie and Leicester threatened legal action and clown McGee backed down. It was revealed that he had indeed bought 2 players. To add insult the new goalkeeper had a nightmare on his debut and let in 4 goals? He didnt play many more times but later in his career played in a european final. Feel free to correct me folks.

spider never played for wolves

 

[AndyWolves]

Spider played for AC Milan in his later career

 

[Norman Bell]

I may be wrong but didnt he buy Zejlko with another player from Leicester as part of the deal. He then denied that he had bought the goalie and Leicester threatened legal action and clown McGee backed down. It was revealed that he had indeed bought 2 players. To add insult the new goalkeeper had a nightmare on his debut and let in 4 goals? He didnt play many more times but later in his career played in a european final. Feel free to correct me folks.

Zeljko Kalac was on the bench as back up goalkeeper to Dida when AC Milan beat Liverpool 2-1 in 2007 Champions League Final. He never joined Wolves but you are right all sorts of legal action was threatened and it was originally going to be a two player deal and I cannot recall if that player was Iwan Roberts or Steve Corica.

I hated the McGhee era and it was summed up by the fact that Leicester got all that Wolves compo for McGhee, Colin Lee and some other backroom bloke added to the farcical amount we played for Steve Corica when that other Aussie Skippy the Bush Kangaroo would have been cheaper and more effective. Leicester went out and got Martin O'Neill who took them up in his first part season which was the season McGhee arrived at Wolves ( 1995/96 ) and established them as Premier League team. All the three years of the Scottish egomaniac achieved was Sir Jack pulling the plug and the awful major consequence of the McGhee years was the arrival after the " Golden Tit " speech of one Jez Moxey.

 

[Highlandwolf2]

Sorry mate hoddle was by far the worst manager I’ve seen at wolves utterly ****e

Fell asleep whilst both were managers - I mean really fell asleep! They were both tedious in the extreme. Difficult one to call.

 

[Big Saft Kid]

He was a useless over-rated ****

 

[WickedWolfie]

Sorry mate hoddle was by far the worst manager I’ve seen at wolves utterly ****e

Nope, l can't agree that Hoddle was the worst ever - Clownders for one....

 

[sillytuna]

That FA Cup semi - just incredibly poor management.

We did at times play decent stuff but mostly it was boring with poor tactics, team selections and dumb transfers. I will credit him for getting Bully playing well and bringing Keane into the fold, then ruining that good work with Claridge and the sf.

Steve Corica tho - I mean, why? Looks like he went on to do well as a coach but as a player he was way below the standard needed for English football. Perhaps he had the skill but not the physicality or temperament, and he was also injured a fair bit. Hard to blame Corica when it was MM piling on the pressure and picking him.

 

[Kingswood Wolf]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

Can anyone recall who McGhee beat to the job? I see that when we appointed Graham Taylor, we were also considering Robson and Gerry Francis!

 

[whitnash wolf ex.dewsbury]

That FA Cup semi - just incredibly poor management.

We did at times play decent stuff but mostly it was boring with poor tactics, team selections and dumb transfers. I will credit him for getting Bully playing well and bringing Keane into the fold, then ruining that good work with Claridge and the sf.

Steve Corica tho - I mean, why?

pompey fans remembering claridge said he was a fans favourite where ever he played and scored goals
couldn`t be bothered to give them my opinion!

 

[Oldgold Wolfcub]

Don’t say you’ve forgotten Saunders already?

If anyone out there has not forgotten Saunders then let me suggest it is a good thing to work on this immediately as remembering him can be extremely dangerous to your mental health. It is particularly important for me to post this as today is mental health day.

 

[Mile End Wanderer]

If anyone out there has not forgotten Saunders then let me suggest it is a good thing to work on this immediately as remembering him can be extremely dangerous to your mental health. It is particularly important for me to post this as today is mental health day.

Saunders finest hour beating Bristol city at home says a lot

 

[WickedWolfie]

pompey fans remembering claridge said he was a fans favourite where ever he played and scored goals
couldn`t be bothered to give them my opinion!

Think that we were just about the only club where he wasn't pretty prolific. Similarly Dougie Freedman.

 

[Oldgold Wolfcub]

At that time the place I got most of my info about Wolves was the radio and the papers. Yes McGoo was being touted as the next big thing and we were supposed to be lucky to have got him. But the thing I remember most was neutral footie fans phoning in detesting what we had done by poaching him from Leicester. It caused a lot of dislike of our club and has been said by many turned out to be nowhere near the initial hype.

 

[SuperGran]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

Can anyone recall who McGhee beat to the job? I see that when we appointed Graham Taylor, we were also considering Robson and Gerry Francis!

McGhee no I don’t remember but we poached him can’t remember any one else being in the frame

I remember when we appointed Hoddle the Mail had a headline with Bobby robson and Terry butcher saying that they were taking over, unfortunately it turned out to be complete bull**** and we’d signed Hoddle instead

 

[Blackpool Wolf]

Can’t remember a great deal with any precision now, but I recall Reading coming to Molineux the season before and appearing to be light years ahead of us. i was therefore excited when he joined us and even more so when we signed Osborne and Williams who appeared to be two of Reading’s main men in aforementioned good team.

 

[whitnash wolf ex.dewsbury]

Think that we were just about the only club where he wasn't pretty prolific. Similarly Dougie Freedman.

the one season he played got a dozen goals for us

 

[Oldgold Wolfcub]

Saunders finest hour beating Bristol city at home says a lot

Unfortunately I can still hear his interview on BBC when he first joined and said about our team "If anyone is not fired with enthusiasm they will be 'fired' with enthusiasm!"

 

[SingYourHeartsOut]

pompey fans remembering claridge said he was a fans favourite where ever he played and scored goals
couldn`t be bothered to give them my opinion!

Lost count of how many times I shouted at the radio when I heard Claridge described as "someone who scored goals everywhere he went". When we signed him he wanted to go to Portsmouth but they couldn't afford him, so he came to us and made sure he looked like he wasn't worth what we paid for him.

 

[whitnash wolf ex.dewsbury]

Unfortunately I can still hear his interview on BBC when he first joined and said about our team "If anyone is not fired with enthusiasm they will be 'fired' with enthusiasm!"

when we were relegated he said "the rebuilding starts now"
good job it started with getting rid of him

 

[Mile End Wanderer]

Unfortunately I can still hear his interview on BBC when he first joined and said about our team "If anyone is not fired with enthusiasm they will be 'fired' with enthusiasm!"

Him and Pennannt said we know how to get out of this division they weren’t kidding

 

[xbomber]

Hoddle was more dull but not by much.

We were quite positive when we got MM although less so inheriting Colin Lee after a few boring seasons.

I suppose one way to sum it up would be to tell you about a great 97 shirt I bought a few seasons ago. Match spec issue and signed by Mark himself. The autograph washed out a treat with a bit of elbow grease

 

[Macman]

Wouldn’t have minded his arrogance if he was able to back it up but he was all talk
in fact that pretty much summed up that mid nineties period for wolves we were all talk and no action.
Failure after failure. Teams like Barnsley Bradford Stoke and the Baggies got to the premier league before us despite the money we had.

Always remember that final day of the season at Molineux when Paul Jewel’s Bradford won promotion. We were just mid table rubbish, and it hurt a lot seeing a team like Bradford celebrate in front of our own eyes, getting to the ’promised land’ while we just fannied about with so much expectation of a manager and team capable on paper of promotion, but clueless on grass. Season after season.