This is an excerpt from this week's McGarry on Motherwell, a free Motherwell newsletter written by Graeme McGarry that goes out every Thursday at 6pm. To sign up, click here.
A trip to Dens Park, with the greatest of respect to the famous old ground, can sometimes be a less than enticing prospect.
Particularly so when it is for a bottom six clash, and it is the fourth time this season that the sides will meet. Who needs a bigger division, eh? But that’s another column.
The win over St Johnstone last weekend too has - thankfully, don’t get me wrong - removed any real jeopardy that Motherwell will be sucked into the relegation mix. Famous last words, and all that. So, when trying to justify the expense of tickets and petrol to drag the kids up the road to Tayside once more, I’ve been reaching a bit this week.
Which brings me nicely to Jordan McGhee. When fellow member of the Motherwell media mafia Nick McPheat of the BBC broke the news in January that the Dundee defender (though, I believe this may be the first time in the history of newspapers that McGhee’s name hasn’t been prefaced with the word ‘versatile’) had agreed a pre-contract agreement with Motherwell, it seemed like great news.
It is often a good indicator of a player’s past performance and ability in such situations to have a squizz at what their current club’s fans are saying, and almost universally, the Dens Park faithful expressed disappointment at the prospect of losing McGhee, particularly to a direct rival.
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So, not only did the opportunity to pay a bit closer attention to McGhee this weekend seem like a tick in the pro column when it came to making the call to travel, but all signs seemed to suggest that this was a solid bit of business from Motherwell.
Only, McGhee may not be playing at all. The 28-year-old missed the Dee’s brilliant win at Tynecastle last week with a troublesome Achilles issue that has been bothering him for much of the season. Which represented a cross in the con column for both player and the chances of my boys seeing their team in the flesh this weekend.
McGhee, in fairness, has managed 28 appearances this season and has been in the starting XI for over 60 percent of Dundee’s league matches despite also suffering a hamstring issue earlier in the campaign.
Either way, these days there are of course other ways of gauging the potential value of a signing beyond the old eye test. Which, incidentally, has been favourable whenever I have watched McGhee over the last few years.
What he is, first and foremost, is a solid defender who can operate right across the backline. He can also play in midfield, with his versatility no doubt a valuable asset. But predominantly, he has been utilised on the right of the defence by Tony Docherty this term.
It was from here that he scored two sumptuous goals against United in the Dundee derby, an emphatic diving header and a brilliant curling effort, showing his athleticism and a willingness to get forward as well as impressive composure.
Indeed, McGhee has managed to find the net on five occasions this season, which is the same tally as Motherwell’s top scorers – Apostolos Stamatelopoulos, Tawanda Maswanhise, Callum Slattery and Tom Sparrow.
It is the other side of his game though where McGhee excels, scoring highly for turnovers and currently residing in the top one percent of players in the league for successful aerial duels.
It rather begs the question of just where Michael Wimmer might wish to deploy McGhee.
He could certainly operate in the right wingback role, where Sparrow has proven himself to be a real threat of late, or on the right of the back three with his defensive qualities.
With Stephen O’Donnell already tied down for next season, what that might mean for Paul McGinn remains to be seen, but McGhee’s arrival does leave that area of the squad looking a little overstocked.
He is vastly experienced, with over 350 senior appearances to his name, and has been described by his current manager Docherty as ‘a warrior’. Gary Locke, in his Hearts days, hailed him as ‘a fantastic footballer’.
While at Falkirk, then manager Ray McKinnon had this to say about McGhee: “I promise you, Jordan is a proper captain. The way he plays, the way he trains, the way he leads - it is excellent.”
So, the stats are encouraging, the testimonies are lavish in their praise, and hopefully the ink has now dried on his pre-contract agreement.
If he does play this weekend, here’s hoping he shows up well despite Dundee’s eventual defeat, and he avoids further injury.
And if he doesn’t play, well, it seems there are plenty of reasons to look forward to seeing him in a Motherwell jersey.
Ah, to heck with it. I'll see you all up there.
