Mark McGhee

Born in Glasgow, McGhee was raised in Cumbernauld. He began his professional career in 1975 at Morton, where he developed into a very promising centre forward. In December 1977 he moved to England, signing for Newcastle United. Despite an encouraging start at St James' Park, managerial changes at the club saw McGhee fall down the pecking order. McGhee returned north in March 1979 as Alex Ferguson's first major signing for Aberdeen. McGhee won the SFL Reserve Cup with the Dons in 1979. He made his debut for the Dons on 1 April 1979 against former club Morton. This was the start of the most successful part of McGhee's playing career. He won his first major honour the following season when Aberdeen won the Scottish Premier Division, the first time in 15 years that a club outwith the Old Firm had finished Scottish champions. At Aberdeen McGhee won a further league title in 1984 as well as three successive Scottish Cup wins from 1982 to 1984. He was part of the Aberdeen side that defeated Real Madrid 2-1 (aet.) in the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1983, with his cross from the left setting up John Hewitt to score the winning goal. McGhee also won the European Super Cup the following season, with him scoring against Hamburg in the second leg at Pittodrie. During his time at Aberdeen, he won the Scottish PFA Players' Player of the Year in 1982. McGhee moved to Germany in the summer of 1984, with Hamburg paying Aberdeen a transfer fee of £330,000. His time there was not…

Reading

McGhee's management career began as player-manager at third tier Reading in 1991, succeeding Ian Porterfield, after being recommended for the post by his ex-manager Alex Ferguson. He officially retired as a player in 1993 and won the Division Two title with the Royals the following season and quickly adapted to the second flight during the next campaign, taking the team as high as second place by December 1994.

Leicester City

This spotlighted him as an up-and-coming young manager and he was offered the chance to move to Premier League Leicester City. His move in December 1994 came despite having agreed to a long-term contract to remain at Reading. However, he joined with the Foxes adrift in the relegation zone and was unable to keep them up, finishing second bottom. He remained at Filbert Street post-relegation and set about launching a promotion campaign but did not see the season out after being approached by Wolverhampton Wanderers. He left to take control at Wolves in December 1995, less than 12 months after arriving at Leicester.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

McGhee moved to Wolves on 13 December 1995, taking his assistant Colin Lee along with him, following the sacking of Graham Taylor. The club's hopes of promotion lay in tatters at the time after just five wins from their previous 21 games, and his first game saw another loss, as they went down 1–0 to Port Vale at Molineux. He quickly added midfielders Simon Osborn and Steve Corica and…

Club

International

Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each McGhee goal

Managerial record

As of match played 15 May 2022

As a player

Greenock Morton

Scottish Football League First Division: 1977–78 Aberdeen

Scottish Premier Division: 1979–80, 1983–84 Scottish Cup: 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84 European Cup Winners' Cup: 1982–83 European Super Cup: 1983 Celtic

Scottish Premier Division: 1985–86, 1987–88 Scottish Cup: 1987–88, 1988–89

As a manager

Reading

Football League Second Division: 1993–94 Millwall

Football League Second Division: 2000–01 Brighton & Hove Albion

Football League Second Division play-offs: 2004