Aberdeen chief Willie Miller defends manager
Aberdeen director of football Willie Miller says that under-fire manager Mark McGhee is ready to continue in the role at the Scottish Premier League club after holding discussions with the first-team boss.
McGhee has struggled to generate the results that the board expected from him when he was appointed in the summer of 2009. Last season, he guided the Dons, with whom he won the European Cup Winners' Cup as a player as well as the UEFA Super Cup, to a ninth-place
finish.
This term, however, Aberdeen have found themselves in an even more difficult situation. They have won just three of their 13 league games to leave themselves just one point ahead of last-placed Hamilton, and a third of the way into the campaign, relegation
is already becoming a real threat.
McGhee came under especially heavy criticism after his side lost 9-0 to SPL giants Celtic at Parkhead on Saturday 6 November, after which the board held two days of talks with him before determining that he should continue as the club's boss.
While Miller conceded that there were serious problems at the club, he has given his public backing to his manager.
He told the BBC that: “We have problems and issues, but we've discussed it with the manager. After a defeat like that (against Celtic), you've got to take a bit of time to consider things. I don't think it would have been right for us not to have taken that
time. We took two days and we got criticised for it.
"We had long and frank discussions with the manager to find out where he was and if he was still up for the fight. There was no doubt there was going to be a lot of speculation and it would be a difficult period for us. We had to be sure that he was still up
to continue. He certainly came over as still being as passionate as he was when he came to the club."
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