BACK TO THE DAY JOB WITH PRIDE INTACT
Mixed emotions for Scotland’s interim boss, who enjoyed his stint in the dugout but must return to vital Project Brave role
Malky Mackay made mark by blooding young Scots at Pittodrie but now he’s getting his feet under the desk again
Stewart Regan and Malky Mackay made a very public show of being locked in what looked like intense discussions in the centre circle at Pittodrie around 45 minutes before kick-off on Thursday.
It seems inconceivable that Regan hadn’t dropped into this conversation the small matter of a radio interview. Mackay was surely inquisitive about the SFA chief executive’s activities earlier in the day.
“So up to much this afternoon then, Stewart?”
“No, just a mooch around Aberdeen, Malky, a bracing walk down to the beach to clear the head, nothing out of the ordinary.
“No, wait, there was an interview. TALKSPORT. That funny Jim White bloke. I told them you weren’t getting the job. No chance. Not even up for consideration. Other than that it was just your usual matchday, really.”
There has since been talk of Mackay being “Malkied”. He has been depicted as being dealt a bolt from the blue when informed of Regan’s comments on radio. This was not quite the case. But it’s fair to say Mackay didn’t sound overly thrilled at the prospect of returning to working behind a desk at Oriam, having enjoyed a brief taste of management again in the 1-0 defeat by the Netherlands.
Asked if he expected to have a say in the next managerial appointment, he replied: “That is not my call is it?” As for his thoughts on what, in his opinion, the top candidate should be able to bring to the table, he said: “I have no idea. I am coming off the back of the game and I am thinking about that at the moment. That is not my call. That is the board’s call, to actually decide what they would like.”
Suchareactionseemsunderstandable. Mackay did a more than serviceable job of taking the team in what was always going to prove a tricky fixture against Dick Advocaat’s side.
All week the prospect of a player, Ryan Jack, being jeered by his own supporters was raised – and then came to pass. Mackay, meanwhile, was also missing his two most experienced outfield players in Scott Brown and Darren Fletcher, while also looking to blend in several debutants. Added to all this was the surrounding uncertainty of where exactly Scotland go next, and under whom?
Mackay isn’t ruling out ever becoming Scotland manager. It’s just clear it won’t be any time in the near future. “Who knows?” he said. “Who knows what happens in life? I am delighted and proud and honoured to have, not only managed the team, but to have managed them to a performance like that. And to have a group of players who have done their country proud in terms of the way they have played.”
He was glad to answer the call and step into the breach from performance director, SFA credentials already wellestablished. “They needed to hear there was a leader, somebody they were going to listen to, somebody who wasn’t a lame duck,” he said. “That would not have helped us. They needed clear direction. If nothing else there was clarity.”
What next for Mackay? He now goes back, he said, “to the day job”. He was asked yesterday if he recognises how important this day job is (it’s been described as far more crucial to Scotland’s longterm future than the potentially more temporary manager’s post). “I certainly do,” he said. “Trust me. But everybody does. Everybody works hard. I am proud to do the job I am doing because I think we need to keep that pathway going. We have got to start having our youngsters qualifying for tournaments.
“There has got to be a connection between the under-21s and the first team. There has to be that ability to not just go in and plunder the under-21s because they have got a chance of qualifying. There has to be a pathway coming through, there has to be joined-up thinking.”
Never mind Project Brave, the SFA’S Project Michael O’neill could he nearing completion. Northern Ireland’s 1-0 defeat by Switzerland in
“Who knows what happens in life? I am delighted and proud to have, not just managed the team, but to have managed them to a performance like that”
MACKAY ON HIS FUTURE