Mackay is axed by Wigan
After Textgate scandal and with Wigan on the verge of relegation...
MALKY MACKAY’S bid to rescue his managerial career was in tatters last night after he was sacked by Wigan. The 43-year-old was told of the decision during a brief meeting with new chairman David Sharpe after a 2-0 home defeat to Derby that leaves them on the brink of relegation from the Championship. Mackay was handed the job by former owner Dave Whelan in November despite the fact he faced an FA investigation into a series of text messages, exposed by Sportsmail. Mackay is accused of sending racist, sexist and homophobic messages while manager of Cardiff in an exchange with former head of recruitment Iain Moody. The FA probe has yet to be completed. Although Wigan did not announce a new manager, former player Gary Caldwell, currently working with the academy, is expected to be handed the job on a temporary basis.
COME the end of this season, Malky Mackay’s tenure at Wigan Athletic might just be remembered as one of the costliest appointments in the history of English football.
A second relegation in three seasons would be damaging enough for a club that enjoyed eight largely successful years in the Barclays Premier League.
And after failing to secure a single win at home in six months in charge — culminating in a woeful 2-0 defeat by Derby yesterday — Mackay would certainly shoulder much of the blame for that.
But Dave Whelan will also have to accept that his misguided decision to appoint the controversial Scot in the first place has cost him his reputation and seriously harmed the image of a fine football club too.
People did try to warn Whelan when he first entertained the idea of replacing Uwe Rosler with Mackay last November. But Whelan demonstrated how little regard he had for an football Association investigation into an exchange of racist, sexist, homophobic and anti- Semitic messages between Mackay and his former Cardiff City colleague, Iain Moody, by not only appointing him but then trying to justify the decision with some deeply offensive remarks of his own.
Whelan was punished by the FA for his comments about the Chinese and Jewish communities and was left with little choice but to step down as chairman, wisely handing the reins to a grandson who can now begin the process of repairing some of that damage.
It will take time, of course. Particularly when the response of too many in and around the club was to try to defend the indefensible, refusing to take any responsibility for the problems the club was enduring.
It could yet prove that the ‘very difficult decision’ announced by the new chairman, David Sharpe, last night has been made too late. Wigan are eight points from safety with only five games remaining, after all.
But it might have become an awful lot more uncomfortable before it got better, irrespective of where Wigan finish up in the Championship.
As Sportsmail revealed last month, an FA investigation first launched last August — with the publication of the Textgate scandal messages in this newspaper — was close to being concluded in february. But new evidence was presented to the FA that forced the governing body’s disciplinary chiefs to reopen the investigation, with sources suggesting it could be the summer before we have an outcome.
The FA had already spent months wrestling with the issue of private and public communication, and whether they could charge an individual when the emails and text messages were exchanged between Mackay and Moody in their capacity as manager and head of recruitment at Cardiff. Reports that suggested Mackay and Moody were likely to escape punishment prompted more witnesses to come forward, however, with individuals Mackay might have considered allies among those to have submitted fresh information.
Despite trouble on and off the pitch, Sportsmail understands he was granted a stay of execution in february after a 1-0 away victory at Reading.
Wigan were said to be content with keeping their boss until at least the end of the season and sources at the DW Stadium indicated Mackay was ready to build a similar recruitment structure to that at Cardiff and had been sanctioned to do so.
And hours before the Scot was sacked he talked up Wigan’s chances of Championship survival, despite overseeing a 10th home defeat in 13 matches.
‘It’s still mathematically possible,’ insisted Mackay. ‘I’ve got a team which is putting performances in every week. It’s fine lines between winning and losing in this league.’
Substitute Chris Martin and Darren Bent struck for Derby as they moved up to fifth in the table. In their dugout was Steve McClaren — a man overlooked for the Wigan job in June 2013 when Owen Coyle replaced the departing Roberto Martinez.
Ultimately, Mackay lost his job not because of an FA investigation but because he failed to win football matches. As a brief club statement highlighted, a return of only 19 points from a possible 72 is disastrous.
But at least the outcome of the FA enquiries is no longer Wigan’s concern. At least they can now turn to someone like Gary Caldwell, Alan Stubbs or Danny Wilson — the names thought to be in the frame last night — without the baggage that arrived with Mackay.
The harm has been done but now begins the recovery. Additional reporting:
JACK GAUGHAN