Embattled Cardiff City manager Malky Mackay refused to give reporters anything juicy at his press conference Friday ahead of Cardiff’s match with Chelsea.
Unfortunately, the cats continue to sprint out of the bag.
The Guardian is reporting that Cardiff owner Vincent Tan – already taking flak for his completely random sacking of recruitment chief Iain Moody – has been occasionally interfering with matchday operations, including sending his suggested substitutions and tactical changes in from the stands.
The report packs an additional punch with the whisperings that Tan knows next to nothing about the sport of soccer, and the Cardiff brass are well aware.
The Guardian cites a filmed conversation in Malaysia earlier this year between two executives of one of Tan’s pharmaceutical company. Al Chuah, managing director of te company, said, “He doesn’t know any rules about football. He invested in pharmacy without realizing what drugs are all about.”
Tan has proven devoid of emotion when running his “business” at Cardiff. Earlier this season, he changed the club’s color from blue to red, a move that caused much fan backlash due to the lack of respect for the club’s history.
Just last week, Tan out of nowhere fired the club’s chief of recruitment Ian Moody and filled the position with his son’s friend – someone who has zero prior experience in soccer.
This has caused massive tension between manager and owner, with many speculating Mackay could be out the door soon.
The manager defended his former colleague at Friday’s prematch press conference, saying he believes Moody’s £35 million ($56.6 million) spending spree this summer was actually under budget despite public suggestions by Tan that he was as much as £15 million ($24.2 million) over budget.
“Iain is an absolute class act as far as I am concerned” said Mackay. “He has done a very impressive job for the football club. In one of the periods of success, which we have been in over the last two and a half years, he has had a huge part to play in the restructuring of my squad. He helped bring in more than 20-odd players. He will be missed by everyone who works for our football club. He leaves with my utmost gratitude and respect. I would say our loss will be someone’s huge gain.”
However, Mackay refused to go any further into detail on the situation, even stopping short when the club’s press official twice intervened. Mackay said on six different occasions during the presser that he wished to only discuss Cardiff’s upcoming match with Chelsea.
Finally, Mackay for now reiterated his intention to stick this one out. “As far as I am concerned, again for clarification, under no circumstances was I asked to resign and at no time have I thought of resigning from the football club” said Mackay.
