Euro friendlies will help McGhee expand Motherwell squad

Jul 10 2008 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

MOTHERWELL manager Mark McGhee has set his sights on snapping up as many as four new stars in time for the SPL kick-off on August 9.

And the Fir Park gaffer admitted his side will be under added pressure to deliver following an excellent league campaign that saw them qualify for the UEFA Cup after finishing third.

He said: “Everything is going fine in pre-season, the players are back in tip-top condition and they’ve met all the levels that we set them before they went away. We’re really pleased with them.

“We start to play football next week and we’re off to Austria on Sunday. Last year’s trip was useful to us but it will be even more important now because we’re involved in European competition.

“We’ve arranged two games against top-class opposition - one of those is against the Romanian champions - and both will be really hard games.

“The game against CFR Cluj will be very constructive because we’re playing against a team who are in the Champions’ League, so that will be good.

“We’ll be taking trialists over to Austria with us to have a look at them and we might take two or three, or even three or four players in different positions.

“We want to add four players to the squad and that’s why we’re looking at people... we definitely want to expand our squad.”

McGhee added: “This coming season we will be under more pressure and the expectations will be different.

“Teams will come up against us with a different attitude and will know what to expect now, so that will make it more difficult for us.

“But we haven’t set them any great targets – we just want them to do their best and try their hardest.”

Mark declined to get involved in an escalating war of words after Motherwell claimed that Spanish cracks Villarreal had pulled out of a friendly to mark the renaming of the Fir Park main stand after tragic former captain Phil O’Donnell on August 2.

The Spanish side had responded to fierce criticism resulting from the call-off, claiming no formal agreement had been put in place, and that ’Well simply couldn’t afford their services.

McGhee simply said: “These things happen in football and we’re subject to their whims, basically.

“We need to get on with it and try to secure different opposition.

“I would hope to have a game on August 2.”