Mark McGhee is looking to make up for the “failures” of Bristol Rovers and Aberdeen after assuming his new post as Scotland assistant manager.
The 55-year-old Glaswegian’s managerial experiences north and south of the border began in 1991 when he became boss of Reading but he was most recently manager at Rovers before being sacked last month with the English club second from bottom of npower League Two.
Aberdeen were second bottom of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League when his troubled spell at Pittodrie ended in December 2010.
McGhee was asked last week by Gordon Strachan to join him at Hampden after his former Aberdeen team-mate was named as the new national boss.
At Hampden yesterday, McGhee, interviewed for the top job in 2008 before George Burley was appointed, was honest about his recent record.
He said: “I see those two episodes (at Aberdeen and Bristol Rovers) as failures as well therefore, as far as I am concerned, I would imagine that people would be questioning my ability, my motivation to still be doing the job, all those things.
“So yes, I think I have questions to answer and I think I can only do that below the surface. I am not the manager, I am not there as the number one, all I can do is give Gordon as much support and make him the best manager I possibly can and hope that people see the job I’m doing and appreciate it.”
However, McGhee, who had spells as boss at Leicester, Wolves, Millwall, Brighton and Motherwell, saw no reason to justify his appointment and is looking at it as an opportunity to address his “unfulfilled” managerial ambitions.
“I have enjoyed Christmas at home and my intention was to be a football manager or coach,” he said. “I am not going to sit here and go into what happened at Aberdeen and Bristol Rovers but I feel I have a legitimate right to consider myself a viable football manager.
“You only have to look at the nature of our business. I am not the only manager who has lost his job and got another job that’s what happens.”
He added: “To be successful, managers need to get the rub of the green,” said the former Hamburg and Celtic striker.
“I am not sure that Craig (Levein) always got that so we have to hope that we get that fair wind behind us and we go the right way in those ‘sliding door’ moments.”