McGhee: Coyle right to snub Bhoys

Mark McGhee insists Owen Coyle was right to snub Celtic to stay in the Barclays Premier League.

Coyle revealed at his unveiling as Bolton manager yesterday that he had rejected the chance to “quadruple” his salary by leaving Burnley for Parkhead during the summer.

Aberdeen boss McGhee, who lost out to Tony Mowbray in the race to succeed Gordon Strachan once Coyle had declared himself out of the running, fully understands the former St Johnstone boss’ position.

“Someone like Owen Coyle is looking at Celtic,” he said. “Okay, you’ve got your Champions League interest, which this year for Celtic ended very quickly. I don’t know how much of a draw that is these days.”

McGhee, who had a brief spell managing in the English top flight at Leicester, added: “There’s no argument, the Premier League in England is one of the best couple of championships. That’s where, as a manager, you should want to be.

“Somebody has to be very careful about leaving that because getting back into it is not that easy. Once you’re in it, you should try to stay there.

“Without it ever being a slight on Celtic as a club, I think the English Premier League is where it’s at.”

McGhee takes his Dons side to St Mirren tonight in a Clydesdale Bank Premier League fixture rearranged from St Stephen's Day due to the big freeze.

The recent spate of call-offs has prompted the Pittodrie boss to renew his call for a detailed look into the merits of summer football.

“We’re overdue a proper explanation of the implications,” he said. “What would it do to the fanbase? What would it do to the crowds? What would it do to the TV interest, to the media interest?

“On the footballing side, I think it would be a great thing...in the purest sense of the football and of training, and for our youngsters.

“But in terms of maintaining the finances of the game then that’s a question I can’t answer. Other people need to find out that on our behalf and tell us.”

Aberdeen were on a poor run of results when they were originally due to play at St Mirren Park.

The interim has seen them record back-to-back wins, but the same turnaround in fortunes also applies to their hosts tonight, who are also looking for a hat-trick of victories.

Manager Gus MacPherson said: “Aberdeen went to Tannadice and won and then obviously had an excellent win against Hearts in the cup.

“So they’ll be in a confident frame of mind coming to Paisley and will believe that they can get the three points. But we believe if we play how we’re capable, we can cause Aberdeen problems.”