Thu Jul 04, 2013 6:47 pm
Mackay running the numbers toward success
Malky Mackay seems to be wearing his former banker’s hat as he sifts through his summer transfer options.
As an amateur playing for Queens Park in Glasgow, Mackay worked full-time in a bank before moving into the world of professional football. Numbers are second nature to the man. As a Scot you would also expect him to have a healthy respect for value and money.
How then you might ask, has Mackay been linked with so many huge multi-million pound bids for players like Tom Ince and Victor Wanyama as well as smashing the Bluebirds transfer record with the 7.5 million purchase of a relatively unknown Andreas Cornelius?
Part of the reason was explained by Mackay himself when responding to Swansea Chairman Huw Jenkins who was apparently ‘staggered’ at the size of the fee quoted for Ince. Mackay is on record as saying “You have to look at every individual case … you’ve got to look at the evidence”.
What Cornelius, Wanyama and Ince have on their side is time. They are all very good young players. Whether they become very good Premier League level players is yet to be determined. If they do then these ‘staggering’ investments will offer huge returns.
If these are some of the players who can keep Cardiff City in the Premier League then their return on an investment of somewhere in the region of 25 million pounds will itself be ‘staggering’. Premier League teams are due a huge gross from improved TV rights of close to 100 million pounds this season.
If these players do well there is also the hope they themselves will be worth more in three to four years’ time, more than the cost of purchasing them. Not an impossible scenario given their age. If they prove to be flops then so too will Cardiff’s adventure and Mackay’s future.
Perhaps the most interesting piece of evidence and a peep into Mackay’s financial soul comes from the Cardiff City website. On ‘Cardiff City Player’ you can find a video article called ‘In the City: Cornelius’. It’s not what Mackay says in this interview but look to the right, besides his left arm, there you will see books on a shelf. Standing out from the crowd you will see a red book, title – ‘Moneyball’.
The Cardiff manager is playing the numbers game and how well he plays it will determine the long-term future of the club. Of course only Cornelius is signed right now. The real conjecture starts if the Wanyama and Ince bids fail.
I believe Mackay has the right idea and the right manner for success. The toughest part will be persuading these players to join him and to begin a new revolution in the ongoing saga that has been Cardiff City over the past decade or more.
Even with these or similar signings it will take all his motivational and coaching strength to keep the Bluebirds up. The only missing ingredient to becoming a top class manager is experience at Premier League level. Something Mackay is hoping to put right in the immediate years ahead.