Former Toon Star Gives Up On Celtic!

Last updated : 08 June 2009 By Footy Mad - Editor

The Motherwell boss, 52, has been the favourite for the job since Calderwood left Pittodrie three weeks ago but was thought to have been holding out for the chance to manage Celtic.

It appears he has given up on that dream and - pending compensation - he looks set to return to the club he played for between 1978-84.

McGhee: "There is compensation to agree but the talks were encouraging.

"For me, there is an element of sentimentality attached to the Aberdeen job. This is an opportunity to manage a club where I had fantastic success and memories as a player. The same would have applied at Celtic. So there is an element of going home about the Aberdeen job for me and I quite like that."

Motherwell held on to McGhee a year ago when he turned down the chance to move to Hearts.

"If I had left when offered the Hearts job a year ago, my contract would have been extraordinarily better than the one I was on at Motherwell.

"That does not apply with the Aberdeen job so it is not about money.

"It's amazing the number of people who say to me that the mistake I made was not going to Hearts and that if I had gone there and finished third I would have walked into the Celtic job.

"But last year it would have been wrong to leave Motherwell to go to Hearts. Aberdeen represents a different challenge. There is sentimentality involved for me, a bit of romance to that job."