ABERDEEN will not be appointing Motherwell management Craig Brown and Archie Knox to replace Mark McGhee.
70-year-old former Clyde and Preston boss Brown and assistant Knox work without contracts at Fir Park, and they spoke with officials from Aberdeen on Tuesday.
However a Motherwell statement released this morning insisted the pair will remain in charge of the Lanarkshire club for the foreseeable future.
Brown and Knox briefly took Motherwell to third place in the SPL this season, but have sank back into fifth behind Inverness Caley Thistle in recent weeks - the position they finished last season.
By comparison, Aberdeen's recently-sacked boss McGhee took the Steelmen to third place in 2008.
Motherwell chief executive Leeann Dempster said: "We can confirm that representatives from Aberdeen Football Club met briefly with both Craig Brown and Archie Knox yesterday afternoon.
"However, both have decided to reject any approach and reiterated their commitment to Motherwell Football Club."
Although AFC officials have been reported saying they want an experienced gaffer to replace McGhee, appointing septuagenarian Brown would have been a bizarre move for a club with loftier ambitions than merely escaping relegation and finishing mid-table.
Brown would have no long-term future at AFC, will not be poached by a bigger club even if he does well, and will not win us the league, so AFC would have had nothing to gain from it at all.
Hopefully the board will pursue an alternative route, preferably attempting to uncover the next big thing rather than 15 years ago's distinctly mediocre scraps.
