Meeting Mark McGhee: Oldest Dundee manager since 1950s pleads for benefit of doubt from fans

He knows he will never be revered to the extent of the names of the heroes adorning the wall behind him. The deeds of Scottish title winners Bobby Cox, Alan Gilzean and Alex Hamilton are inscribed on plaques in the room where Dundee’s latest manager was being unveiled.

At 64, Mark McGhee is the oldest man to hold this position at Dens Park since the bowler-hatted George Anderson in the 1950s. He has been in the game long enough to appreciate he was not everyone’s choice to succeed James McPake. In fact, he might only have been the preference of one admittedly influential individual. He acknowledged he is only there because Gordon Strachan, the Dundee technical director and his long-time friend, went into bat for him.

“Without Gordon it would be unlikely that I would be sitting here,” said McGhee. “How can I deny that?”

The whiff of nepotism has not gone down well with Dundee supporters already perplexed at the timing of the decision to axe McPake after successive wins.

McGhee asks only that Dundee supporters put some trust in him. “I am not asking for patience,” he said. “We don’t have time for that. What I am asking for is the benefit of the doubt. I want people to look at my record and my record in this sort of situation, as well as multiple promotions, is good.”

Not everyone remembers this version of McGhee. It seems crazy that the exploits of someone who once set up a winning goal in a European final, later won a double with Celtic and scored for Scotland against England have, for a certain generation, been reduced to a grainy mobile phone clip of him confronting Aberdeen fans five years ago.

“Steve, warm the seat up!” bellows one supporter after the Motherwell manager was sent to the stand at Pittodrie during a 7-2