Having seven players in a photograph looks great until you find four of them can’t trap a bag of sand
MACKAY PLANNING TO PUT SOLID FOUNDATIONS IN PLACE AT COUNTY
MALKY MACKAY has the bit firmly between his teeth. After a slow start, the Ross County manager has secured his team a top-half Premiership finish and now has a shot at leading the club into Europe for the first time in its history.
Already, the 50-year-old has proved a point to those who felt his appetite for management was dulled by the six years he spent away from the front line.
Boldly appointed by Ross County owner Roy MacGregor last summer, Mackay inherited a squad that had narrowly avoided relegation and set about a rebuild comparable to the task undertaken by Ange Postecoglou at Celtic — albeit on a much lower budget.
Last a full-time boss at Wigan — a short-lived excursion that came soon after a messy end to his time at Cardiff City, Mackay had most recently been posted at the Scottish FA’s performance director.
He said: ‘At the start of the season, a radio commentator queried how I’d be back on the touchline again. Maybe I should have queried whether he could still be a presenter or a DJ if he wasn’t doing it at that precise moment!
‘I’ve managed in 250 games so far. I was asked to manage the national team for one night against Holland.
‘It’s something that’s in my blood. I was close to the seven national teams at the SFA and setting up the structure that they’d work from.
‘I’ve been immersed in Scottish football for years. I know most of the young players coming into the Premiership because they came through my teams. So I didn’t have any hesitation about that being an issue.’
Having timed their run to perfection — last weekend marked only the second round of fixtures after which County were placed higher than seventh — Mackay’s team is now facing the challenge of trying to make it into Europe.
‘Hearts are already safe in third so ourselves, Motherwell and Dundee United will all be pushing for that fourth position,’ he added.
‘All season we’ve spoke to the players about targets. At first that was to stay in the division then, after beating Dundee, the challenge was to get back into the pack by the time we got to the winter break.
‘We managed to do that and then we had a week training at Oriam during the break and spoke of pushing to achieve the top six.
‘The conversation we had on Wednesday was to see if we can make history by bringing European football to the club.
‘I have been delighted with our consistency as much as points and performances. We haven’t spiked up or down, we have consistently picked up points.’
County’s post-split fixtures start with a game against league leaders and title favourites Celtic.
The last time Postecoglou’s men visited Dingwall, it took a Tony Ralston goal in the seventh minute of stoppage-time to earn the points.
That night, Mackay railed against the match officials saying he felt the game was being played until Celtic scored. Pitch side, he has been vocal during matches but, as with that rare outburst, he is generally controlled.
Now 50, he sees little value in allow his emotions to control him during matches.
‘I’m really enjoying it,’ he said. ‘The managers I’ve come up against have been really respectful.
‘In the past, some people have had fights and arguments on the side but that’s not me. You’ll hear me but invariably, it’s towards my team. I want to direct traffic and ensure we play how I want them to.
‘The juices are back flowing again like they were at Watford and Cardiff.’
While the summer turnover of players gave Mackay scope to recruit the type of talent he wanted, he does not want to go through similar upheaval every summer.
He’s not given up on persuading Regan Charles-Cook to stay but even the prospect of European football may not be enough to outweigh the offers he will receive at the expiry of his contract.
In future, Mackay wants the club to retain more control over such matters and establish a trading model that sees the club profit from its efforts in the market.
‘I told the chairman we had to be as smart as possible in our recruitment, talent ID,’ he explains. ‘We had to build a department, so it wasn’t just agent driven. Everyone and their dog was being thrown into our place.
‘We have to recruit, develop, reward and sell. That’s the plan. The important part is the reward.
‘If someone is doing well for you, don’t think you’re smart because you’ve got them for nothing.
‘Give them more money, a longer contract and protect your asset, rather than have people walk out at the end of their contract and Roy isn’t making a return on his investment.’
One of Scotland’s richest men, MacGregor can afford to underwrite his football club but, like the renewable projects being pursued by the businessman he’d like to see the club become sustainable.
‘We’re a small business that earns a certain amount of money a year and that doesn’t balance the books,’ added Mackay. ‘Our owner has to write a personal cheque every year. I’ve got so much respect for that.
‘At Watford, we were a half hour from administration. Myself, the chief executive and sporting director kept the thing going for the ownership.
‘That gave me a handle on what it’s like for staff who are about to lose their jobs and wonder how their mortgage is going to be paid.
‘I’ve always been prudent with other people’s money as well as my own. So I wasn’t going to stack and rack players again.
‘I wanted to gradually build this club again. We have a couple of academy players in and around it, a couple of x-factor loans and young talent that will eventually be sellable assets for the club.
‘Roy bought into that. We got Enda Barron as head of analysis who was with me in England.
‘Roy likes to take a risk but you’ve got to be careful. Having seven players in a photograph looks great until you start training on a Monday and realise four of them can’t trap a bag of sand.’
If County’s turnover of managers has at times rivalled the regularity with which the playing pool changes, Mackay does not appear to treat his job as a short-term gig.
Fresh from his overarching role at the SFA, he has been imparting strategic insight to MacGregor and the club’s chief executive Steven Ferguson.
‘There was a reboot of German football when they didn’t qualify for a World Cup,’ he said.
‘It was disastrous for them, so they changed how they recruited players. If they hadn’t done that, they’d never have found Toni Kroos in a village team up a mountain.
‘We’re passionate about stuff like that. I was the same at the SFA trying to get English-based players for Scotland. And there is definitely talent up here. We have to make it viable so they can get to us and we can get to them.
‘Some of our kids come from hours away to train. There are massive logistical challenges — I’ve seen parents go two-and-a-half hours on a boat, jumped into a car on the mainland to come. Then they’ll jump back in the car and do it again.
‘Two boys who from Stornoway were on the bench against Rangers and one of them, Matty Wright, scores in the last minute. The fans love seeing one of their own. Josh Reid got a move to Coventry and we need the next one now.’