Cardiff City boss Malky Mackay relishing challenges of close season!Bluebirds boss Mackay, 40, has only had three full seasons as a manager.
Yet in that time, he has served under five chairmen and three chief executives at just two clubs, gone within hours of administration and then been at the forefront of a club’s push for an eyebrow-raising re-branding.
And that’s without mentioning the double heartbreak of Carling Cup and play-off losses last season after a major overhaul of the playing squad in his first term in South Wales.
It’s more than most seasoned campaigners experience in a lifetime.
Yet Mackay claims it’s made him a better manager, more aware of the true responsibilities of a club leader while giving him his own perspective on the hotly-debated culture changes at Cardiff this summer.
“I’ve been through a bit,” he explains. “I had three boards of directors, five chairman and two chief executives at Watford and I’ve had two chief executives here. It’s been interesting, put it that way.
“What I would say is it has been a good grounding.
“At Watford I was sitting with our chief executive when we were two hours from administration on a bleak Friday night in December.
“The office staff sat there realising that two hours later they could all be out of a job. That will never leave me.
“What it does do is make you appreciate money in terms of spending and the fact the club has to survive.
“Compared to that, this is nothing. They were some real dark times.”
Mackay has faced up to fans who have strongly opposed Tan’s shock decision to switch the club’s colours from blue to red and opt for a dragon crest ahead of the traditional Bluebird.
Whether the Scot’s views – or any views – would alter the thinking of those vehemently against the change, or have questioned the reasons for it, is uncertain. But, regardless, he is adamant that Cardiff City will be better off for his active role with club hierarchy as they aim for a bright future.
“I have been lucky enough at my previous club and certainly here that the directors have been transparent with me,” he said.
“I have sat with the owner over in Malaysia and here, and they have opened up their plans for the future and allowed me to come in and be a part of it.
“It’s what I offered at the interview. I had a plan for the football club and the structures I would like to put in place moving forward for the long-term success.
“They have been as good as their word and allowed me to do that. It takes up a bit more of my time but it’s a great grounding and something I am very grateful to Cardiff for that.
“What they get back is every ounce of my effort, energy and our staff’s time to make the club as good as it can be.
“People wonder if I’d be happy just to concentrate on football but that’s not the job of a manager. The job of a coach is to do that. The job of a manager is to manage the football club, manage players, staff and be involved in the management of the club as well. You have to manage the football club as well as being out on the grass.
“Don’t get me wrong, my absolute favourite is to be out on the grass coaching the lads every day which is what I do in the mornings – but the rest of my day is involved in the other side of it.
“I had just the coaching side of things when I was at Watford and then I was caretaker manager for a month – and that’s when I opened Pandora’s box.
“I was lucky because it gave me the chance to say, ‘Do I want that? Do I want all those extras? Do I enjoy that?’ And I did. It’s why I am a manager.”
One proposed advantage to come from the rebranding will be Mackay’s ability to spend like never before this summer, his signings of Joe Lewis, Jordon Mutch and Etien Velikonja already taking him past last year’s £2.3m outlay, with Korean Kim Bo-Kyung, Coventry defender Richard Keogh and, of course, Craig Bellamy also being targeted.
But Mackay says his past experiences means he won’t take the boost to the budget for granted and added: “Because of Watford, when I do spend money, I will always try and spend it wisely. I will not spend money flippantly.”
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