Malkys wipe board...good read this I thought

By Gordon Waddell
Cardiff boss Malky Mackay puts top-flight promotion charge down to relationship with billionaire owner

7 Apr 2013 09:50
AFTER recent disappointments in the hunt for promotion to the Premier League, the Welsh side are on track having been top of the Championship since November last year.


Malky Mackay
THERE'S a whiteboard in Malky Mackay’s office. A clean year-planner he stood in front of nine months ago and wrote 46 fixtures on.

Win or lose, the first thing he does the morning after a game is take the cloth to it. Gone. Who’s next?

This morning? Watford? Gone. Who’s next?

It’s the kind of lasered-in focus which put Cardiff City on top of the Championship all the way back on November 24.

And incredibly for a cut-throat division where the stakes are the highest in world football, they haven’t been shifted since.

Today the board will be empty but for six games. A four-week spell which should see the club shed their image as
final-hurdle failures and become a Premier League team. One of the elite.

That board, though? Those empty boxes? They make it look like it’s all he has to manage. His team.

But in the current climate of English football, with half of the 24 clubs in the Championship now under foreign ownership, every bit as much of his time is spent managing UP the way.

And Mackay’s grasp of that has been tested this season more than any other.

From Malaysian billionaire owner Vincent Tan’s decision to work directly with his manager, to the controversial binning of Bluebirds history to become the red dragons as part of a Far East marketing strategy, the 41-year-old has had his management credentials put under the microscope.

That he is ready to emerge from a year like that with his reputation not only intact but enhanced is testimony to the big Scot’s tradecraft.

Mackay said: “Foreign ownership is the rule rather than the exception now.

“Our league is targeted for investment because for a moderately small amount of money the prize is huge. If you buy a club already in the Premier League, the price is off the charts.

“So for a lot of these clubs it’s now more about how you manage up the way.

“I was up speaking to the Pro Licence candidates in Glasgow recently and that’s mostly what I talked about – not managing a team or coaching.

“Our owner is hands-on. He has been the financier for four years.

“When I arrived two years ago I had a Welsh chief executive, a board, the chairman and the owner. Now myself and the owner discuss things on a daily basis. My job has changed.

“He doesn’t throw good money after bad at it, though. He wants value for it. He wants to know every pound and penny of what I spend, why I’m spending it and a document to back it up.

“It’s not an ego-trip for him. He doesn’t need the attention – I’ve been over there, I’ve seen his world!

“Armour-plated Rolls Royce, bodyguards, people book for weeks in advance to get an audience with him. He’ll be in four countries in four days.

“He’s building the biggest mall in China just now. He owns the lottery in Malaysia, gaming, hotels, leisure, gas, engineering, TV stations, radio stations – football is a tiny part of it. He’s worth something like £1.3billion.

“He flies in for every game on his private jet, 6000 miles to London, drives to Cardiff, then home again. At 61 that would exhaust most people but he’s not most people.”

The Malaysian pushed Cardiff to the limit last summer by changing their kit and Mackay is proud of a support which came through the ultimate test of loyalty with flying colours.

Red and blue? In this climate, he’s pragmatic enough to know nothing is ever black or white.

Mackay said: “I have played for Queen’s Park and Celtic so I know all about tradition.

“But he came out and said: ‘We need this change to help investment from Asia. If I do it, I’ll invest in the team, I’ll build a training ground, put another tier on the stadium and deal with £20m of debt– OR you can have your club and I’ll walk away.’ It was a no-brainer. We had 19,000 season ticket holders – 60 gave their book back.”

Despite having backing like never before, it hasn’t altered the former bank clerk’s philosophy on building a team.

An understanding honed through 15 years as a player in England which saw him promoted to the top flight three times with three different teams, fine-tuned as he learned the ropes at Watford and now being brought to its peak in the Welsh capital.

Mackay said: “I know the type of people who are needed to succeed.

“Decent guys with a bit of self-discipline, loyalty and integrity.

“The last 18 months has been all about raising standards. Now it’s about tweaking that and adding a better quality of player.”

His highest-profile signing this season was as far removed from most people’s definition of a Mackay “type” as you can get – Craig Bellamy.

But the Scot said: “We’ve known each other a long time. I met Craig when he was a kid at Norwich.

“We sat down and I gave him two pieces of paper. My expectations of him and what he could expect of me. If there was anything on either sheet he didn’t want to adhere to, we’d have shaken hands and not done it. But he was committed.

“Probably for the first time in his career he’s putting his arm around a young kid and talking to them about football.

“You don’t do that at Manchester City, Newcastle and Liverpool because it’s dog eat dog. Not here.”

Mackay has added to his belief system behind the scenes to build a culture from top to bottom, bringing in former FA coach educator Dick Bate to run his academy. But he’s not daft. He knows all that matters is that board in his office.

Considering they’ve lost two play-off finals and a semi in the past three seasons, promotion is the only agenda. The title will come if it comes.

Mackay said: “The doom-mongers who have been waiting for us to drop off, the way we have before, haven’t had their way. The place runs like a Swiss watch.”



http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/foot ... ts-1816477

I just saw this on Facebook, good read.

Just goes to show that all this talk that we need 'a football man' is bollox.

Malky has full control of all football matters - how it should be.

Fair play, that was an excellent read - I've had my doubts about Malky, but reading that, I'm starting to think that he's an integral part of Vt's vision, and with both of them at our club, the sky's the limit

In VT and Malky we trust

Just goes to show who and what we are and have been dealing with on our rise to te top of The Championship. We have Malky in charge of all things football and an ambitious owner who simply wants to succeed. To date, both have delivered on their promises and both should be saluted for putting us where we are

A telling statement from Malky sums it up for me (quote): “But he (Vincent Tan) came out and said: ‘We need this change to help investment from Asia. If I do it, I’ll invest in the team, I’ll build a training ground, put another tier on the stadium and deal with £20m of debt– OR you can have your club and I’ll walk away.’ It was a no-brainer. We had 19,000 season ticket holders – 60 gave their book back.”

And some still think we had a choice

Mackay said: “The doom-mongers who have been waiting for us to drop off, the way we have before, haven’t had their way. The place runs like a Swiss watch.”

Quote of the Gods. #IMWT

0.31% of season ticket holders give their season tickets back because of the change according to the figures presented.

Just goes to show who and what we are and have been dealing with on our rise to te top of The Championship. We have Malky in charge of all things football and an ambitious owner who simply wants to succeed. To date, both have delivered on their promises and both should be saluted for putting us where we are

A telling statement from Malky sums it up for me (quote): “But he (Vincent Tan) came out and said: ‘We need this change to help investment from Asia. If I do it, I’ll invest in the team, I’ll build a training ground, put another tier on the stadium and deal with £20m of debt– OR you can have your club and I’ll walk away.’ It was a no-brainer. We had 19,000 season ticket holders – 60 gave their book back.”

And some still think we had a choice

^^^^^^^^^^^^^Some people still believe the earth is flat mind, as well

Just goes to show who and what we are and have been dealing with on our rise to te top of The Championship. We have Malky in charge of all things football and an ambitious owner who simply wants to succeed. To date, both have delivered on their promises and both should be saluted for putting us where we are

A telling statement from Malky sums it up for me (quote): “But he (Vincent Tan) came out and said: ‘We need this change to help investment from Asia. If I do it, I’ll invest in the team, I’ll build a training ground, put another tier on the stadium and deal with £20m of debt– OR you can have your club and I’ll walk away.’ It was a no-brainer. We had 19,000 season ticket holders – 60 gave their book back.”

And some still think we had a choice

^^^^^^^^^^^^^Some people still believe the earth is flat mind, as well

Best they be careful not to fall off the end

0.31% of season ticket holders give their season tickets back because of the change according to the figures presented.

Indeed. But it also needs to be remembered that many of those used the red/blue issue to get refunds for 'other' reasons after their own circumsatnces changed, e.g. a guy I know had Child Care issues and it suited him to get a refund via that route (the red/blue thing)

Not knocking him for that but it does shed some extra light on the true numbers who 'walked away' becasue of the red

Just goes to show who and what we are and have been dealing with on our rise to te top of The Championship. We have Malky in charge of all things football and an ambitious owner who simply wants to succeed. To date, both have delivered on their promises and both should be saluted for putting us where we are

A telling statement from Malky sums it up for me (quote): “But he (Vincent Tan) came out and said: ‘We need this change to help investment from Asia. If I do it, I’ll invest in the team, I’ll build a training ground, put another tier on the stadium and deal with £20m of debt– OR you can have your club and I’ll walk away.’ It was a no-brainer. We had 19,000 season ticket holders – 60 gave their book back.”

And some still think we had a choice

^^^^^^^^^^^^^Some people still believe the earth is flat mind, as well

Best they be careful not to fall off the end

I think that's what some of the anti VT fans would be doing in wanting VT to leave - thankfully, that is not representative of our fan base as a whole.

A good read.

I find it encouraging MM talks directly to VT

Just goes to show who and what we are and have been dealing with on our rise to te top of The Championship. We have Malky in charge of all things football and an ambitious owner who simply wants to succeed. To date, both have delivered on their promises and both should be saluted for putting us where we are

A telling statement from Malky sums it up for me (quote): “But he (Vincent Tan) came out and said: ‘We need this change to help investment from Asia. If I do it, I’ll invest in the team, I’ll build a training ground, put another tier on the stadium and deal with £20m of debt– OR you can have your club and I’ll walk away.’ It was a no-brainer. We had 19,000 season ticket holders – 60 gave their book back.”

And some still think we had a choice

^^^^^^^^^^^^^Some people still believe the earth is flat mind, as well

Best they be careful not to fall off the end

I think that's what some of the anti VT fans would be doing in wanting VT to leave - thankfully, that is not representative of our fan base as a whole.

Indeed

A good read.

I find it encouraging MM talks directly to VT

That's what's really encouraged me in reading that - I feel as a club we couldn't be more secure than under the current regime

Bellamy has also always said he was speaking with the Malaysians last year, even when he wasn't at the club - so I definitely think that VT is doing things the right way, and we don't need anyone else coming in to add their bit to the mix - we're doing fine as we are

Onwards and Upwards

Just goes to show who and what we are and have been dealing with on our rise to te top of The Championship. We have Malky in charge of all things football and an ambitious owner who simply wants to succeed. To date, both have delivered on their promises and both should be saluted for putting us where we are

A telling statement from Malky sums it up for me (quote): “But he (Vincent Tan) came out and said: ‘We need this change to help investment from Asia. If I do it, I’ll invest in the team, I’ll build a training ground, put another tier on the stadium and deal with £20m of debt– OR you can have your club and I’ll walk away.’ It was a no-brainer. We had 19,000 season ticket holders – 60 gave their book back.”

And some still think we had a choice

Tan would walk away.....can you show me besides this article where Tan has quoted that?

Just goes to show who and what we are and have been dealing with on our rise to te top of The Championship. We have Malky in charge of all things football and an ambitious owner who simply wants to succeed. To date, both have delivered on their promises and both should be saluted for putting us where we are

A telling statement from Malky sums it up for me (quote): “But he (Vincent Tan) came out and said: ‘We need this change to help investment from Asia. If I do it, I’ll invest in the team, I’ll build a training ground, put another tier on the stadium and deal with £20m of debt– OR you can have your club and I’ll walk away.’ It was a no-brainer. We had 19,000 season ticket holders – 60 gave their book back.”

And some still think we had a choice

Tan would walk away.....can you show me besides this article where Tan has quoted that?

It's a fairly accurate summary of what was said in TG's statement after the initial turn back to blue in May last year. If you recall the statement said that they would look for other investors, and we all know they wouldn't have been found.

VT wasn't then going to subsidise us by a million a month out of the generosity of his feelings after we'd just stopped him following his plan through. The tone of that statement made it obvious that he was not going to invest anymore in us, and that would in reality have caused us to be liquidated within months.

Just goes to show who and what we are and have been dealing with on our rise to te top of The Championship. We have Malky in charge of all things football and an ambitious owner who simply wants to succeed. To date, both have delivered on their promises and both should be saluted for putting us where we are

A telling statement from Malky sums it up for me (quote): “But he (Vincent Tan) came out and said: ‘We need this change to help investment from Asia. If I do it, I’ll invest in the team, I’ll build a training ground, put another tier on the stadium and deal with £20m of debt– OR you can have your club and I’ll walk away.’ It was a no-brainer. We had 19,000 season ticket holders – 60 gave their book back.”

And some still think we had a choice

Tan would walk away.....can you show me besides this article where Tan has quoted that?

It's a fairly accurate summary of what was said in TG's statement after the initial turn back to blue in May last year. If you recall the statement said that they would look for other investors, and we all know they wouldn't have been found.

VT wasn't then going to subsidise us by a million a month out of the generosity of his feelings after we'd just stopped him following his plan through. The tone of that statement made it obvious that he was not going to invest anymore in us, and that would in reality have caused us to be liquidated within months.

Yes other investors but people have jumped to the conclusion that mean't walking away like straight away.

For Tan to find other investors he would have to make sure the business was in good tact. That is what businessmen do. That would have required continuous investment to make the business viable. By not investing we would most likely be mid table or relegation fodder. That would not be good enough to get new investors, we don't have a tradition like Leeds to show interest from others. Tan needed us to be either challenging for premier or even better us there already.

Great read that
I just hope Tan doesnt deem malky and his staff surplus to requirements and go for a big named manager after the hard work has been done.

Just goes to show who and what we are and have been dealing with on our rise to te top of The Championship. We have Malky in charge of all things football and an ambitious owner who simply wants to succeed. To date, both have delivered on their promises and both should be saluted for putting us where we are

A telling statement from Malky sums it up for me (quote): “But he (Vincent Tan) came out and said: ‘We need this change to help investment from Asia. If I do it, I’ll invest in the team, I’ll build a training ground, put another tier on the stadium and deal with £20m of debt– OR you can have your club and I’ll walk away.’ It was a no-brainer. We had 19,000 season ticket holders – 60 gave their book back.”

And some still think we had a choice

Tan would walk away.....can you show me besides this article where Tan has quoted that?

With all due respect, you are clutching at straws if this is your best reply (you are usually better than this ) and I can reverse the question by simply asking "Do you have any concrete evidence he would NOT have walked away if our fans had shown such a disrespect (in his eyes) towards what he was/is trying to do?"

Vincent Tan has put his money where his mouth is and we have reaped the dividends of that, i.e. a financially secure base from which we have taken the Championship by storm with a manager who has the resepct of owner, fans and (particularly) players

I fail to see what more you (and others) could have expected from anyone involved with the club in the last year or two and if changing the shirt colour to red to suit the money markets he is targeting is such a haenous crime then I suggest some people must have little else in life to worry about

Just goes to show who and what we are and have been dealing with on our rise to te top of The Championship. We have Malky in charge of all things football and an ambitious owner who simply wants to succeed. To date, both have delivered on their promises and both should be saluted for putting us where we are

A telling statement from Malky sums it up for me (quote): “But he (Vincent Tan) came out and said: ‘We need this change to help investment from Asia. If I do it, I’ll invest in the team, I’ll build a training ground, put another tier on the stadium and deal with £20m of debt– OR you can have your club and I’ll walk away.’ It was a no-brainer. We had 19,000 season ticket holders – 60 gave their book back.”

And some still think we had a choice

we did, unfortunately the majority see the premiership as more important than the identity of the football club

Just goes to show who and what we are and have been dealing with on our rise to te top of The Championship. We have Malky in charge of all things football and an ambitious owner who simply wants to succeed. To date, both have delivered on their promises and both should be saluted for putting us where we are

A telling statement from Malky sums it up for me (quote): “But he (Vincent Tan) came out and said: ‘We need this change to help investment from Asia. If I do it, I’ll invest in the team, I’ll build a training ground, put another tier on the stadium and deal with £20m of debt– OR you can have your club and I’ll walk away.’ It was a no-brainer. We had 19,000 season ticket holders – 60 gave their book back.”

And some still think we had a choice

Tan would walk away.....can you show me besides this article where Tan has quoted that?

With all due respect, you are clutching at straws if this is your best reply (you are usually better than this ) and I can reverse the question by simply asking "Do you have any concrete evidence he would NOT have walked away if our fans had shown such a disrespect (in his eyes) towards what he was/is trying to do?"

Vincent Tan has put his money where his mouth is and we have reaped the dividends of that, i.e. a financially secure base from which we have taken the Championship by storm with a manager who has the resepct of owner, fans and (particularly) players

I fail to see what more you (and others) could have expected from anyone involved with the club in the last year or two and if changing the shirt colour to red to suit the money markets he is targeting is such a haenous crime then I suggest some people must have little else in life to worry about

OK what proof is that that he would have not walked away. First of all he said he would find other investors. That would not happen overnight, infact there was quite a bit of work needed to get any interest such as sorting out Sam and getting to the premier. Secondly his last statement saying that if we were rude to him he would go but leave us in a good state. Those statements are not of a man who would just drop us in it. Come to think of it I'm giving him more of a good character refererence than you red or dead brigade.

funny this hasn't been stickied

OK what proof is that that he would have not walked away. First of all he said he would find other investors. That would not happen overnight, infact there was quite a bit of work needed to get any interest such as sorting out Sam and getting to the premier. Secondly his last statement saying that if we were rude to him he would go but leave us in a good state. Those statements are not of a man who would just drop us in it. Come to think of it I'm giving him more of a good character refererence than you red or dead brigade.

He would have stopped pumping money in to keep us afloat. There were two directions for us to achieve the dream of a club with a manageable debt situation (I won't say debt-free just yet). (a) is Premier League money and trying to tap foreign revenue sources, (b) is to cut costs to match turnover. VT effectively said we can do (a) in red or (b) in blue. I have no idea if (b) was even possible but (a) is looking plausible now. We were losing over a million a month and our wage bill was probably between 15 and 20 million at that point. So to do it in wages alone would mean getting rid of >2/3rds of the squad and replacing them with players on pittence - my view is, then relegation would have been quite likely I guess. We would then have been a smaller club with debt at 7% to VT and still a massive debt to Sam

I really rate Malky - see how he referred to the season tickets as 'books' - old fashioned term that, resonated with me.

He is a force for good at our club - I know the history of managers keeping their jobs after promotion to the Premier league is not good, but Pulis has stuck at Stoke, Reading and QPR changed owners and then managers, I don't see why Vinnie would sack Malky when he's had a pay rise on the back of last year's Cup Final.

Obviously if results are dire then perhaps.

I am also intrigued by Vinnie's involvement - I've worked in big multinational corporates, and I've worked for Companies where the owner is king - I preferred the latter when it comes to job security, if you had a relationship with the top man, which Malky appears to have.

And how Vinnie travels all over the world to see us when he has much bigger businesses to look at just makes me think, or hope, that he has the City under his skin a bit more now - that feeling makes me hope we can engage with him about wearing blue away more next year, it was a tonic seeing us in it on Saturday, never felt so happy singing and standing on a seat in all my days.

Up the City

OK what proof is that that he would have not walked away. First of all he said he would find other investors. That would not happen overnight, infact there was quite a bit of work needed to get any interest such as sorting out Sam and getting to the premier. Secondly his last statement saying that if we were rude to him he would go but leave us in a good state. Those statements are not of a man who would just drop us in it. Come to think of it I'm giving him more of a good character refererence than you red or dead brigade.

He would have stopped pumping money in to keep us afloat. There were two directions for us to achieve the dream of a club with a manageable debt situation (I won't say debt-free just yet). (a) is Premier League money and trying to tap foreign revenue sources, (b) is to cut costs to match turnover. VT effectively said we can do (a) in red or (b) in blue. I have no idea if (b) was even possible but (a) is looking plausible now. We were losing over a million a month and our wage bill was probably between 15 and 20 million at that point. So to do it in wages alone would mean getting rid of >2/3rds of the squad and replacing them with players on pittence - my view is, then relegation would have been quite likely I guess. We would then have been a smaller club with debt at 7% to VT and still a massive debt to Sam

I'm getting exhausted trying to explain why I believe Tan would have not stopped pumping money into the club. He has just said he would leave us in a good position. He also said in the pass he would look for new investors. How do you think he is going to achieve this without still investing?

Loss of face out in the Far East is a cross not worth bearing.

OK what proof is that that he would have not walked away. First of all he said he would find other investors. That would not happen overnight, infact there was quite a bit of work needed to get any interest such as sorting out Sam and getting to the premier. Secondly his last statement saying that if we were rude to him he would go but leave us in a good state. Those statements are not of a man who would just drop us in it. Come to think of it I'm giving him more of a good character refererence than you red or dead brigade.

He would have stopped pumping money in to keep us afloat. There were two directions for us to achieve the dream of a club with a manageable debt situation (I won't say debt-free just yet). (a) is Premier League money and trying to tap foreign revenue sources, (b) is to cut costs to match turnover. VT effectively said we can do (a) in red or (b) in blue. I have no idea if (b) was even possible but (a) is looking plausible now. We were losing over a million a month and our wage bill was probably between 15 and 20 million at that point. So to do it in wages alone would mean getting rid of >2/3rds of the squad and replacing them with players on pittence - my view is, then relegation would have been quite likely I guess. We would then have been a smaller club with debt at 7% to VT and still a massive debt to Sam

I'm getting exhausted trying to explain why I believe Tan would have not stopped pumping money into the club. He has just said he would leave us in a good position. He also said in the pass he would look for new investors. How do you think he is going to achieve this without still investing?

Loss of face out in the Far East is a cross not worth bearing.

I guess we just see the situation differently then. I haven't read the statement since it was issued but I don't think anything was mentioned in it about finding new investment, that came a lot later in the infamous 'trousers up to his chin' interview.

OK what proof is that that he would have not walked away. First of all he said he would find other investors. That would not happen overnight, infact there was quite a bit of work needed to get any interest such as sorting out Sam and getting to the premier. Secondly his last statement saying that if we were rude to him he would go but leave us in a good state. Those statements are not of a man who would just drop us in it. Come to think of it I'm giving him more of a good character refererence than you red or dead brigade.

He would have stopped pumping money in to keep us afloat. There were two directions for us to achieve the dream of a club with a manageable debt situation (I won't say debt-free just yet). (a) is Premier League money and trying to tap foreign revenue sources, (b) is to cut costs to match turnover. VT effectively said we can do (a) in red or (b) in blue. I have no idea if (b) was even possible but (a) is looking plausible now. We were losing over a million a month and our wage bill was probably between 15 and 20 million at that point. So to do it in wages alone would mean getting rid of >2/3rds of the squad and replacing them with players on pittence - my view is, then relegation would have been quite likely I guess. We would then have been a smaller club with debt at 7% to VT and still a massive debt to Sam

I'm getting exhausted trying to explain why I believe Tan would have not stopped pumping money into the club. He has just said he would leave us in a good position. He also said in the pass he would look for new investors. How do you think he is going to achieve this without still investing?

Loss of face out in the Far East is a cross not worth bearing.

I guess we just see the situation differently then. I haven't read the statement since it was issued but I don't think anything was mentioned in it about finding new investment, that came a lot later in the infamous 'trousers up to his chin' interview.

Ye I think we do find it different.

Great read that
I just hope Tan doesnt deem malky and his staff surplus to requirements and go for a big named manager after the hard work has been done.

Well after reading that, there is nothing in it to suggest he would

how comes a decent thread like this dont get a sticky?


EDIT
ive just seen some of the things on sticky

a plug for annis's books and a thread with the league table? why is the league table even a tread

Good insight into the relationship MM has with VT