Stick your mortgage on Dundee
Mackay puts his house in order
Dave Mackay sent out an SOS on business network site LinkedIn for work outside “the football bubble” as the rest of his life stretched out in front of him.
Now he’s right back inside it – and he couldn’t be happier.
Despite that, Dundee’s new first-team coach and head of opposition analysis still won’t give up the mortgage business he built on the side after losing his job at Stirling Albion.
Mackay is realistic enough to know exactly how often the bubble bursts.
The former Scot t ish Cup- winning captain of St Johnstone was snapped up by new Dens Park boss James McPake to complete a backroom team that also includes veteran campaigner Jimmy Nicholl for their assault on the Championship.
After spending the second hal f of last season doing Aberdeen’s match analysis for Derek McInnes, Mackay said: “It’s good to be back full-time because you miss it when you’re out of the game. It gets the juices flowing again. “I had 18 really good months at Stirling Albion and three
bad ones. It didn’t work out the way I’d hoped.
“When that came to an end last September, I loved doing what I did for Aberdeen as well, doing their opposition match reports. I learned a lot from the way they worked.
“But it’s completely different from coaching, and I always said to them that if a coaching job came up it’s something I’d want to get back into.
“I just finished my UEFA Pro Licence in December so it would be a bit of a waste to give up on that.”
Despite his return to the Dark Blues, 15 years on from leaving the first club he played for as a pro, Mackay has always been a realist.
His 600-game playing career included the g naw ing uncertainty of administrations and unpaid wages at Dundee and Livingston.
He said: “I had always been prepared to deal with life after football.
“I never thought that, after I stopped playing, I would still be involved. I hoped I would but I was always realistic.
“When you get to the age of 30-odd and you’re still a player, you’re thinking about how long you have left, whether you can go and start an Open University course that might take five or six years.
“It’s a difficult position to be in so when I put the message out on LinkedIn I got a great response.
“A lot of the contact was offering things in recruitment and sales, things I didn’t think I’d be particularly strong at
“But the mortgage advisory thing actually came from a boy I played with at St Johnstone, Danny Jardine, whose dad is an independent financial adviser.
“He asked me in for a chat and said he was looking for somebody to do the mortgage side of things because he does pensions and investments.
“I actually ended up signing his son for Stirling. That wasn’t part of the deal though, he was our best player!
“So I got through the exams in six months and I’m still doing work outside of football.
“I’m a mortgage advisor and I’m self-employed so I can fit it in off to the side.
“I’ve got clients who I’ve started working with, so I’m not going to just drop them. I’ll still keep it going.
“Being involved in footba l l , it would be silly of me to give that up because you never know how things go.
“You obviously hope things go well, but it’s always important to have something else to fall back on.
“When I went into Stirling the goal was to try and get full-time, but it’s not easy.
“You have to probably win a league in your first season, then maybe even win another one.
“You really need to stand out to step up. It might have helped if I had done well and the St Johnstone job came up, since I had the affiliation.
“But it’s difficult to go from those lower leagues to a job at a good level.
“With a bit of hindsight, if you know how the club’s run, I maybe made the wrong decision then.
“But things happen. I don’t have any regrets. I learned an awful lot there about myself and about how a club’s run – or how a club should be run.
“I’m just glad I’ve got the opportunity at Dundee, with probably the longest job title in Scottish football!”
Mackay and McPake did their pro Licence together with the SFA – and he reckons his former rival centre-half is more than ready for the job that lies ahead at Dens.
He is being tasked with getting the club straight back into the top flight at the first time of asking, after their relegation as bottom club from the Premiership.
The 38-year-old said: “It feels like a fresh start for both of us – and James is probably better prepared than I was before I went to Stirling.
“I was a player until a couple of months before I got that job, whereas James has had a good couple of years coaching the Under-18s.
“Plus , we’ve l ea rned a lot doing the Pro, because it’s not just about coaching, it’s about management, dealing with people.
“All of that will help James, and Jimmy’s experience will also be a massive help.
“Even myself, having been a young manager, there are things I can say that I did well, things that were mistakes.
“This is a hard league to get out of but I saw a lot of the Championship last season.
“When I star ted with Aberdeen I was out watching their loan players like Mark Reynolds and Bruce Anderson, so I know a lot of what we’re up against.”
I was always prepared to deal with life after football .. I didn’t think I’d still be involved