Mark McGhee, the Motherwell manager, claims he’d be ‘amazed’ if Oxford United land his star player Marvin Johnson – insisting he’s too good and too expensive for them.
HeraldSport revealed yesterday that the Fir Park club had a low offer rejected for the 25-year-old winger on Wednesday having been contacted the day before by the English League One outfit the day before. Johnson, who has two years left to run on his deal in Lanarkshire, is thought to come with a £1million price tag that Oxford are understood still to be some way off.
McGhee has been candid about his astonishment that Johnson, after a season and a half in claret and amber, is still a Motherwell player.
READ MORE: Motherwell knock back bid for £1million-rated Marvin Johnson from Oxford United
And while he refused to go into specifics of the offer made by United, he respectfully reassured the Fir Park support that if Johnson is to leave any time soon, the Kassam Stadium is unlikely to be his destination – especially at a cut price.
“Listen, I don’t know what Oxford have in their coffers but I’d be amazed if they could afford to buy Marvin Johnson,” said the Motherwell manager.
“I’d be even more amazed if Marvin – and I don’t mean any disrespect to Oxford as a club, I’m only talking about the level they’re playing at at this moment in time – would settle for that.
READ MORE: Motherwell knock back bid for £1million-rated Marvin Johnson from Oxford United
“Should Marvin leave here any time soon then the absolute minimum he should be looking at is the Championship down south.
“He has more than enough about him to go and be comfortable at that level. I was at the Brighton v Lazio game last Saturday and, although it was a friendly, he could walk into their team and cakewalk it – there’s no danger about that.
“I’ve no idea why he hasn’t moved before this – maybe it’s a problem with the perception of Scottish football but Burton Albion took the boy Jackson Irvine from Ross County.
“You’ll have heard managers saying before that they can’t wait for the transfer window to close and that’s the case with me and Marvin because I hope that he’s still our player when it shuts this time.”
Johnson has bloomed significantly since McGhee took charge at Fir Park last October, particularly in recent months.
Originally used as an out-and-out wide man, the current Fir Park manager has added an extra streak of dynamism to the former Kidderminster player’s game with a licence to roam freely through the middle as well as on the flanks.
Already this season Johnson has hit three goals and, while Motherwell want £1m for him just now, McGhee firmly believes that if he continues to progress as he has been then that figure could very well double.
He said: “Apart from anything else, whatever he may be worth now I’m convinced that, by the time the January window comes along, he’ll be worth double that if he continues to develop the way he has been..
“You also have to remember that he’s been a late developer. He came here from Kidderminster and the thing about Marvin is that, the higher the level he plays at, the more it will draw out of him.
“He’ll be a better player for operating in a stronger division and he’ll respond positively to having better players around him. There’s a lot more to come from him.
“I think he suffered a little bit when we played him wide on the left. That’s why we changed it last season: other teams recognised the threat he posed and they began to target him.
“By that I mean tactically rather than physically – other managers would deploy extra players down that side to try and close him down.
“We gave him more space and he’s benefited from that and so have we. And, although he still sometimes plays on the left, we’ve given him a licence to roam which allows him to exploit his pace to make the runs he’s capable of making.
“There are all sorts of rumours circulating about Marvin being sought after but that doesn’t surprise me – what bamboozles me is that it hasn’t happened before now.
“Last year he was outstanding for us and this year he’s started in the same way – in fact, if anything, he’s even better."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel