It’s a long time since my path crossed with Mark McGhee’s.
Back in the day I nearly signed for him!
It was 2007 and I was on my way out at Leicester City.
I trained with Mark’s Motherwell team and it looked like a deal was going to get done.
For reasons behind the scenes that I’ll not go into, that didn’t happen.
It was a bit of a career regret because playing for the team I supported would have been great.
What I can say is I was really impressed by him back then.
His coaching was very good and he had the Motherwell players buying into what he was wanting from them.
You don’t lose your man-management skills or your ability to get your ideas across as you get older.
I should know – I’m working alongside Dick Campbell, who has got better and better at his job over the years.
It bucks the trend of clubs going for younger managers but Dundee have gone down the experienced route because of the predicament they’re in.
I would expect a couple of free agents to be signed.
Mark will have good contacts down south and will want to put a bit of a stamp on the squad, even though he’s restricted in the transfer business he can do with the window shut.
He’ll be really disappointed the St Mirren game was postponed.
Tonight’s cinch Premiership match with St. Mirren has been postponed due to a waterlogged pitch #thedee pic.twitter.com/c2buEBFtD9
— Dundee Football Club (@DundeeFC) February 23, 2022
Dundee came very close to getting a point at Celtic Park and the sooner he can get his team building a bit of momentum the better.
The touchline ban is obviously far from ideal.
It’s the pre-match and half-time stuff that is the biggest downside because there’s actually something to be said for a manager to be in the stand for a game.
Our gaffer does that for the first half out of choice.
Mark will know he has to win the fans over.
And he will also know he doesn’t have much time to do it.
It’s Bobby Linn’s testimonial dinner on Sunday at the Apex hotel and, unsurprisingly, it’s totally sold out.
Bobby came through the ranks at Dundee just after I left and I’m sure he would have loved things to have worked out for him there.
What a great career he’s had since, though.
It might be a bit of a regret that he didn’t get the chance in the top flight but that’s not something which was in his control.
What I do know is, he’ll be doing everything he can to help Arbroath finish the season off strongly.
He doesn’t play as regularly as he used to but whenever he goes on it’s with the message ‘give us a bit of magic’.
More often than not he does just that.
Bobby 𝙈𝙁𝙞𝙣𝙜 Linn 💥😱
📹 @officialdafc // @ParsTV_Official pic.twitter.com/OS4JXFy2rT
— Alan Temple (@alanftemple) October 31, 2021
We were struggling to beat Dunfermline earlier in the season at Gayfield until Bobby came on and turned it around for us.
And in our first year in the Championship he carried us.
Bobby is absolutely adored by Arbroath fans and he deserves a special night.
Huge congratulations to my fellow Courier columnist, Eve Muirhead.
I was one of the millions who stayed up to watch the curling final in the early hours of Sunday morning.
What a special achievement to win an Olympic gold.
I’ve definitely been bitten by the curling bug and it’s on my list to give it a try!
