Mark McGhee speaks to Bristol Live to discuss his time at Bristol Rovers, the influence of Sir Alex Ferguson on his coaching career, and current book projects

Former Bristol Rovers manager Mark McGhee spoke exclusively to Bristol Live, courtesy of Bet442, to discuss his short spell at the Gas, his relationship with Steve Evans, and the influence of Sir Alex Ferguson on his coaching career after playing for the legendary manager at Aberdeen.

McGhee spent 11 months as the Rovers boss - helping the club steer clear of the League Two relegation zone in the second half of the 2011/12 season, before he was sacked in December of the following campaign.

In 45 games in charge of the Gas, the Scotsman won 12, drew 12, and lost 21, with a win percentage of 26.7%. Reflecting on his time in north Bristol back in 2012, the 69-year-old said: "Yeah, well, there were key moments actually. And yeah, I went there and in a sense did what I'd been good at all the clubs I was at. I usually made a fast start and luckily enough for all the other clubs, it usually lasted for the three-and-a-half years.

OPINION

"At Bristol Rovers, it didn't quite last that long. But when I went in there, I discovered some good players, with Matt Harrold and Muzzy Carayol. We had a few really decent players. But they weren't performing as best as they could."

He added: "Shaun North [assistant manager] was determined that they were a lot better than they had been showing. But one of the things that was happening with Muzzy Carayol was that he was determined that he was leaving at Christmas - that he was getting a transfer out of Bristol Rovers.

"And what I did more than anything, I worked really, really hard to persuade Muzzy to stay. And I basically persuaded him that if he stayed and he did the business, then I would get him a much better move than he was about to get at that Christmas.

"And I persuaded him to do that, and to be honest, Muzzy was brilliant, and I think it was at the heart of why we stayed up. His performances really were, and of course, in that summer, I got him [a move away from Rovers].

"You know, I was party to all the shenanigans that got him a move to Middlesbrough, but I kept my word on that, so he was really important, but the others just stepped up, and his performances, of course, dragged everybody else up.

"But you know we stayed up comfortably. The following summer, we lost a lot of players.

"I mean, we lost Muzzy, we lost Matty to injury, of course, which was an absolute disaster, the first day of the season. We lost Danny Woodards. We lost good players, and I didn't have the knowledge, and this is what I found out.

"I didn't have the knowledge to know where players at that level that I could go and get and replace these because I never worked at that level before.

"And that was a failing in my part, and it found me out eventually because I didn't put together a new team that was good enough. Although I do think if Matt stayed fit, we'd have done a lot better."

Before Evans' appointment in December 2025, McGhee was the last Scotsman to manage Rovers. He was complimentary of the nine-time promotion winner, saying, "I love Steve. The last time I saw him was at one of the LMA dos. I walked in and was astonished to see how much weight he had lost. And he tells us that he did it by going swimming and by jogging.

"Well, I wonder, but he was looking brilliant, and I do love him. A great pal who has, and somebody who's worked with him, is Simon Rusk.

McGhee added: "Simon is a good pal of mine and you know tells me stories and speaks so highly of Steve. I feel sometimes I know Steve inside out. But I think with Steve there, they have as good a chance of any of being successful."

In the rest of his coaching career, he managed the likes of Reading, Leicester City, Wolves, Millwall, and Brighton & Hove Albion, as well as a few clubs in Scotland, including Motherwell and Aberdeen. This included three promotions from the Second Division (now known as League One) with three different clubs.

Before going into management, the Scotsman also enjoyed a successful playing career, particularly at Aberdeen, where he won two league titles, along with the European Cup Winners' Cup and the UEFA Super Cup.

He was signed by Ferguson in 1979 and, during his five-year spell at the Dons, learned a lot from the legendary manager, who went on to win 13 Premier League titles.

"Yeah, well, I mean, a question I'm often asked, and what I always say to people is that you become the sort of sum of all the parts that you've experienced," he said when asked about the influence of Ferguson on his coaching career.

"So I was lucky to have, of course, Sir Alex, but Billy McNeill and David Hay and I was in Germany playing under Ernst Happel and Günter Netzer and people like that.

"So I had a real fantastic kind of experience and learning about coaching, but, of course, Sir Alex was the main event.

"He was the genius that surpassed everyone. And of course, I took a lot from him, but it was more of a kind of unconscious kind of absorption of what he'd done rather than me consciously saying right, I'm going to do that because he did that and I'm going to do this because he said that.

"So you just were influenced in a huge way by his way, and there's an expression I use, and I try to encourage people around it. It's called discretionary effort. And it means that you give more than the required sort of thing.

He added: "If there was a huge thing that I think that's important that came out of Sir Alex was that he exuded discretionary effort, so it was a great example to all."

McGhee's last management job was with Dundee in 2022, and since then, he has stepped into the media world. He is also finishing his autobiography, along with another book unrelated to football.

"Yeah, I went to the World Cup with TalkSPORT, which was one of the best experiences of my football life, so I went to seven cities and 11 matches and did co-commentary on a lot of amazing games," he said when asked about what he's up to now.

"It was just a real experience, so I'm doing a lot of work, yeah, for TalkSPORT now and co-commentary and bits and pieces.

"I'm also doing some writing. I've been mostly persuaded, for the first time in my life, to eventually write an autobiography. I'm just going to finish that.

"I'm also doing another book, which I'm not going to bore you with, but it's a bit more ambitious. It's called 'The consciousness singularity'. And it's about a totally different thing, so it's just something of interest again, but I'm keeping really busy."