Dundee will find “ways around” Mark McGhee’s touchline ban, according to managing director John Nelms.
The new Dens Park boss has a six-game SFA suspension keeping him out of the dugout with his new club, which dates back to the end of his time as Motherwell manager.
But it didn’t stop Nelms and technical director Gordon Strachan from coming to the conclusion the 64-year-old is the right man to keep the Dark Blues in the Premiership.
“Mark has a touchline ban, everyone knows about that,” said Nelms.
We are delighted to announce that Mark McGhee has today been appointed manager of the club.
He arrives at the club with Simon Rusk who will join Dave Mackay is assisting Mark #thedee
➡️ https://t.co/bUsMtod66p pic.twitter.com/UM5n3bMsRG
— Dundee Football Club (@DundeeFC) February 17, 2022
“We think there are ways around that.
“We think that is not going to hinder anything that we do on the park.
“We have, along with Mark, Simon Rusk coming along, and they’ll be working alongside Dave (Mackay).”
Nelms added: “Staying in the Premiership is the only thing we worried about in this moment in time.
“We’re not even thinking about the future.
“I’m a big person who is always thinking about and working towards the future.
“Right now, the future is us staying in the league and that is the task in hand.”
James McPake’s departure planning
Nelms revealed that he and Strachan started planning for life after James McPake several weeks ago.
“First of all, I’d like to thank James McPake for everything that he’s done for us,” he said.
“James is like a son to us.
“He’s been with us for eight-and-a-half years.
“He’s been a player, a captain, an under-18s manager, caretaker manager, manager.
“We put his knee back together.
“We want to thank him for everything that he’s done and he is a much loved and beloved member of the Dundee Football Club family.
“That is all I’m going to say about that and all I’m going to say about James.
“He knows our feelings.
‘We have a problem’
“Now, we’re in a situation where we thought it was time for us to have a change.
“We thought we needed… we have a problem.
“We need to stay in the league, we want to stay in the league. We have to take a look at where we’re at.
“Do we think that we can do it the way we were doing it and be successful?
“We took that decision and said: ‘No, we don’t think we can do that’.
“Gordon and I started having conversations a few weeks back and started talking about we can and cannot do.
“We started having external conversations with people to say: ‘Is there a better solution than what we currently have?’
“We’ve come to the resolution that we think there might be from what’s been said to us in these conversations.”
