I would never rule out taking Scotland job, says Mackay
Malky Mackay yesterday declined to rule himself out of contention as the next Scotland manager, although he did declare it impossible to combine the job with his current post as performance director of the Scottish Football Association.
Mackay will be in charge of Scotland, on an interim basis, for the friendly against Holland at Pittodrie on Nov 9 and named a squad of 24, including four newcomers in Ryan Christie, Jason Cummings, Paul Hanlon and Ryan Jack.
In a nod to the match venue, the Aberdeen pair of Kenny Mclean and Graeme Shinnie were selected alongside club-mate Christie.
Mackay, however, spent much of his media briefing responding to the suggestion that he could be in the mix to succeed Gordon Strachan, who was cut adrift by the SFA at the end of Scotland’s failed World Cup qualifying campaign.
“What Scottish manager wouldn’t take the Scotland job? It’s ludicrous to say that – I’m not being false in that,” Mackay said. “I’ve got a job and the board have got a decision to make on where they want to go with that, but my day job has been put on hold for a month.
“Last month, I was in eight countries in four weeks. Last week, I was down at Llanelli with our Under17s, in Estonia with them, then in Ireland with the Victory Shield team, so this is a lovely little distraction – and it takes up my whole focus, don’t worry about that.”
Asked if the two tasks were compatible, he said: “No, I don’t think so. I’m in charge of seven teams right now, not including the national side, so I’m actually in charge of eight right now.
“I’ve got a variety of managers and teams out around Europe right now, and whoever is doing the performance director’s role has to look at strategy and to look ahead, see where we can be innovative and where we can go.
“I’ve been in Morocco recently talking to their FA about a pathway for our youngsters and their youngsters in order to be a bit more innovative and to go further afield in terms of experience for our players.
“That’s better than playing the same teams over and over again, and just picking up different ideas so that when they do go into Champions League games or top international games, they have had a bit of experience of that before.
“So, you couldn’t do both. I’m on an awful lot of planes at the moment and all over the place, but I’m really enjoying it.”
The former Cardiff City manager was expansive in praise of Cummings. “Jason’s scores from the scouts who have watched him this year have been terrific,” he said of the Nottingham Forest striker.
“He is getting stronger and fitter and is understanding how to play the Championship, which is a tough league, as I know to my cost. We see him as a young player coming through, who in some quarters is seen as a young Leigh Griffiths.
“We are not blessed with a massive array of young forwards, so we target the ones we think have a chance to play international football and try to nurture them.”