McGhee: Leicester title win can spur us on

McGhee (59) – who managed Leicester between 1994 and ’95 – was delighted that the Midlands side defied pre-season odds of 5000 to 1 to win the English Premier League ahead of big guns like Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester City.

“I was rooting for Leicester as soon as they were in contention to win the league,” McGhee said.

“Towards the end I was praying they would get over the line.

“I was thrilled for them when they won it because it was an unbelievable achievement.

“The night Leicester were confirmed as champions, a pal of mine sent me an email saying that at least the good work I had started at Leicester had paid off, 20 years and 25 managers later!

“I thought that was quite funny.”

McGhee said that Leicester’s title triumph had been “a slap in the face” for people involved in Scottish football who thought that Celtic and Rangers couldn’t be beaten because they had more money.

“Leicester have shown that with hard work and good playing you can challenge the big boys,” the ’Well gaffer added.

“Teams like Aberdeen – who aspire to take on Celtic and Rangers – us and Hearts can no longer use having less money as an excuse.

“We need to work harder.”

When asked his targets for Motherwell next season, McGhee said simply “staying up”.

He added: “We want to focus on getting as many points as possible early on, consolidating and giving ourselves a good chance of competing to be in the top six.

“We are a club whose budgets have been cut. We are a mid to bottom of the table side in terms of budgets, but we do the best we can.

“If we do as we did last season (when Motherwell finished fifth in the Scottish Premiership having been second bottom in February) then we will be happy.”

McGhee said that his main goal for Motherwell was for the team to go out and play positive, attacking football.