APPROACH THE BENCH
Rory a law unto himself as he stays at home to study and escape Killie woe
RORY McKENZIE admits he can’t make a case for Kilmarnock’s defence – which is why the striker is opting to stay home.
The 24-year-old has become far too accustomed to the manager’s office at Rugby Park having a revolving door – by the time the club’s directors appoint a successor to Lee McCulloch, who quit two weeks ago, he’ll have had seven managers in as many years.
Sitting bottom of the Premiership is bad enough for everyone at the club but those who live nearby, like Rory, find it difficult to find a respite from worried punters quizzing them for information.
McKenzie admits that can drive him nuts at times but fortunately for him, he has his studies to keep him sane.
Like some footballers, he is planning on having a career at the bar, only he’ll be swapping shorts for briefs as he pursues his dream of becoming a lawyer. McKenzie said: “Even when things are going well it takes your mind off the football at times. That’s what you need – you can’t think about football 24/7. It can only be a good thing. “I’m just starting my third year of the Open University course so I’ve got three years left. At the moment it’s just law in general then I’ll pick my area of expertise once I’m done. “But I would like to stay in sport in some way. I know [ex-Aberdeen, Dunfermline and Wigan keeper] Derek Stillie well. He went through the same course.
“And he told me there were better lawyers than him at the company he works for but, because he’d worked in sport, he was passed contracts work and it was just natural to him as he’d been involved in football.
“Ideally I would like to stay in the game and do the sports side of things for someone eventually.”
His more pressing concern is helping Killie off the bottom of the table by beating Partick Thistle at Firhill today.
Neither side has won a league game this season and McKenzie is hoping the Jags blink first in this shoot-out.
He said: “It’s never nice being bottom of the league. You don’t really want to talk about football once you are away from here – it’s the last thing on your mind.
“Of course if we were further up the league and flying you wouldn’t mind bumping into people in the street and talking about it. But when you’re stuck at the foot of the table and haven’t won a game it’s no fun.
“With your family and friends it’s not quite so bad as they know when you don’t want to talk about it.
“I’ve been here long enough and they know the times when you don’t want to speak about football.
“But when you’re out walking the dog – and where I stay there are a lots of Killie fans – you don’t want to talk about it but they’re as interested as anyone else.
“They want to know who the new manager is going to be but we don’t know.”
Academy coach Paul McDonald has been taking training along with Andy Millen since McCulloch left and he’ll be in charge today.
But Killie’s directors are understood to have narrowed down their short list to three names (not including former Portugal skipper Jorge Costa) and an announcement is expected next week. McKenzie said: “I’ve been in this movie far too often. I can’t put my finger on why I’ve had so many managers but Kilmarnock is a difficult job with a small budget.
“We’re not winning games so managers are going to come and go. It’s tough for any manager but we need to take responsibility as players.
“We’ve not been good enough – especially this season – but we need to look forward now and hopefully the new man can come in and turn it around.
“When I first came into the team Mixu Paatelainen was the manager. Then we had Kenny Shiels and there have been another four since then.
“It’s not good because someone is losing their job at the end of the day. But it’s happened again and now we need to look ahead.
“We’re in mid-October so the players who have got us into this position will need to get us out of it.
“It’s still early in the season so whoever the new boss is they’ll have a good chance of turning it around. It’s by no means the end of the road yet.”