Mixed Feelings about a Fascinating Appointment

Although he almost certainly isn’t aware of it, Malky Mackay made Cardiff City history on Friday. Incredibly, the former Celtic and Norwich centre-half became only the third person to leave another job in club management in order to become boss of the Bluebirds.

The first was the legendary Fred Stewart, who quit as secretary-manager of Stockport County in May 1911 to take up a similar role at Cardiff. The Bluebirds were in the Southern League Second Division at the time. Stewart remained in the job for twenty two years, during which the club entered the Football League, won promotion to the First Division and lifted the FA Cup.

The second was George Swindin, who left Norwich City for Ninian Park in October 1962. The former Arsenal goalkeeper’s stay in South Wales wasn’t a happy one and he was eventually sacked in May 1964 following a series of rows with the club’s directors.

Mackay arrives in Cardiff after the Bluebirds board agreed an undisclosed compensation package with their Watford counterparts. City fans have grown accustomed to managers who were either discarded by their previous clubs or were working as coaches elsewhere, so the big Scotsman’s appointment is an unusual one by our standards. His profile is clearly that of someone whose stock is rising within the game, which makes a pleasant change.

I was desperately keen for Cardiff to employ an enthusiastic young manager who could bring new ideas to the club and give it some fresh impetus after six years of Dave Jones’ steady but stolid leadership, and Mackay certainly appears to fit the bill. He comes across as an intelligent, articulate and ambitious individual who is already a capable manager in his own right but is not afraid to seek advice from more experienced campaigners when he feels the need.

I can remember being very impressed by the interview Mackay gave to Sky TV before Watford’s brilliant 3-1 victory over QPR at Loftus Road last season. He struck me then as the sort of man I would like to take charge of my club in the future and that was before I watched his team blow Neil Warnock’s Championship leaders away with a superb display of attacking football.

The financial restrictions Mackay has had to work under at Vicarage Road are well-documented. The Hornets have one of smallest playing budgets in the Championship and have relied upon plenty of inexperienced youngsters in recent years. Therefore, mid-table finishes in each of the last two seasons have obviously been creditable, especially considering the quality of football that Watford have often produced under Mackay’s guidance.

Why, then, do I feel a sense of unease about the former Scottish international defender’s appointment as the new Cardiff City manager? Before I go any further, I should confess that I’m a pessimist by nature, especially where the Bluebirds are concerned. Having followed the club since the mid-Seventies, I almost always find it difficult to be optimistic about our prospects. In some ways I suppose my pessimism is a defence mechanism. During the past thirty six years I’ve become conditioned to expect the worst from City, so when things go pear-shaped, as they frequently do, I rarely feel too despondent because my hopes weren’t high to begin with.

However, on this occasion my reservations regarding our new manager are not simply the product of my natural pessimism. Instead, they are based on an examination of what happened during Mackay’s two-year stint as the boss at Watford. A little research has revealed the infrastructure at Vicarage Road is totally different to the one he has inherited at Cardiff and having looked at the way things operated there, I’m convinced his achievements with the Hornets are being somewhat overstated.

Mackay was installed as Watford manager in June 2009 after Brendan Rodgers departed for Reading. He’d previously enjoyed a brief spell as caretaker-manager in November 2008 following the sacking of Aidy Boothroyd and had worked as a member of the club’s coaching staff since April 2007.

During Boothroyd’s three and half year reign as Hornets boss, a gentleman by the name of John Stephenson arrived at Vicarage Road. He was initially appointed as the club’s Head of Player Recruitment in September 2007 but his title was altered to that of Head of Football Business and Development after the club’s academy was also put under his control in 2009. Stephenson had previously worked within the academy set-ups at Reading, Preston and Celtic and all the indications are that he became an important and influential figure behind the scenes at Watford. By the time Mackay took over as first team manager in the summer of 2009, many of the measures he had put in place were already bearing fruit.

Stephenson had implemented a complicated but effective six-stage recruitment policy that fully utilised the club’s scouting network. At that point in time, Watford had a dozen scouts working within the UK and various partnerships with other scouts across Europe. The scouts would watch a potential signing a minimum of six times before the club’s chief scout or assistant manager got involved in the recruitment process. If they were suitably impressed by the player, a forty-page dossier full of information would be presented to the manager, who would then watch the player for himself. Provided he liked what he saw, Stephenson would attempt to conclude a deal with the help of the club’s chief executive. The final stage of the strategy involved Stephenson and the coaching staff helping to integrate the player into his new surroundings.

In an interview with the Watford Observer earlier this year, Stephenson said: “The six-stage process is the key to how well we have done in terms of player recruitment in the last two years. The fact that people believe in it and allowed it to happen is a great credit to the likes of Brendan Rogers and Malky Mackay, who were supportive and believed the process could deliver players that would help the club be sustainable and maybe generate some revenue.”

Stephenson left Watford in March 2011 to take up a role as Head of Football Operations at League One champions Brighton & Hove Albion. When his departure was announced a couple of months earlier, Hornets CEO Julian Winter said: “During his time with us and most particularly during the last two years, we have seen a number of important pieces of key infrastructure at this football club not only take shape but burgeon under John’s guidance.”

Stephenson himself added: “It has been an incredible experience because we’ve had a rollercoaster ride in the last three-and-a-bit years since I joined the club. The highlights have come within the last two years, which is when I have had an influence. I was a part of the previous regime, but in terms of having an influence it’s only really been the last two years. To be able to bring in players of the quality of Don Cowie, Mike Williamson, Danny Graham, Stephen McGinn and Will Buckley were highlights. When they went on to do well for the first team it was great for me because it’s a contribution that has come directly from the recruitment department at the club.”

Danny Graham was the second player Watford signed after Malky Mackay had taken over as manager and he proved a huge success. The Gateshead-born striker, who arrived from Carlisle United in July 2009 in a deal worth £350,000, scored an impressive 41 goals in 98 appearances for the Hornets before being sold to Swansea City for £3.5 million. Mackay can undoubtedly take plenty of credit for Graham’s development during his two years at Vicarage Road, but it should be noted that the deal to take him there was originally sanctioned by Brendan Rogers.

John Stephenson explained: “You have to remember Malky was appointed to the manager’s job when the deal for Danny was already done, so it’s a great credit to Malky that he allowed it to come to fruition. Danny has gone on to prove that was the right decision.”

Such was Stephenson’s standing at Watford that the Hertfordshire club is currently seeking to employ two people to fill the void left by his departure. One will be put in charge of the Hornets’ academy while the other will concentrate on player recruitment. It can’t be a coincidence that talented forward Will Buckley, who was signed from Rochdale for a £300,000 fee in January 2010, has recently followed Stephenson to Brighton in a deal reported to be worth £1 million.

During Malky Mackay’s first season as Watford boss, a total of thirteen players made twenty or more appearances in Championship matches. Nine were already at the club when the Scotsman took over and seven were established members of the first team. As revealed by John Stephenson, the deal to sign Danny Graham was set up before Mackay assumed control, while the remaining three regulars during the 2009/10 campaign were Tom Cleverley, Henri Lansbury and Heidar Helguson, who were loaned from Manchester United, Arsenal and QPR respectively.

The other notable signings during Mackay’s Watford reign were defender Martin Taylor, who arrived on a free transfer from Birmingham City in January 2010, midfielder Stephen McGinn, who was purchased from St Mirren for £125,000 in the same month, forward Troy Deeney, who joined from Walsall in a deal worth £500,000 in August 2010, and midfielder Jordon Mutch, who was loaned from Birmingham shortly afterwards.

Mackay was also involved in one of the most bizarre transfers in Watford’s history when he sanctioned the purchase of 23 year-old left-back Jure Travner from Slovenian side NK Cleje in July 2009. Travner cost the Hornets £60,000 and according to Stephenson was the only player they signed during the last two and half years who did not go through his six-stage recruitment process. It quickly became apparent that buying Travner was a mistake and he didn’t make a single first team appearance in any competition before being shipped out to St Mirren on a season-long loan in July 2010. The Slovenian under-21 international eventually joined the Saints permanently in January 2011 after being released from his contract at Vicarage Road.

It is crystal clear that Mackay’s new job presents him with a very different set of challenges to those he encountered when he became the boss at Watford two years ago. Not only are the expectation levels significantly higher here in South Wales than they were in Hertfordshire, but he has been left with a skeleton squad by the previous manager and has no Head of Player Recruitment to help him rebuild the side. Despite the financial problems at Vicarage Road, it seems the infrastructure there in recent years has been excellent. Although things appear to be improving steadily here, I don’t believe the same can be said for Cardiff at present.

So, will our new manager prove up to the task despite his lack of experience? Well, if the truth be told, the way Watford ended last season doesn’t inspire any great confidence. The Hornets were sitting sixth in the table when they visited the Cardiff City Stadium in mid-January. After a 4-2 defeat by the Bluebirds, they managed just four more wins from their remaining twenty one matches and eventually finished in fourteenth position. It’s probable that they over-achieved significantly during the first half of the campaign but their subsequent collapse is a concern all the same.

Despite my reservations about his appointment, I sincerely hope that Malky Mackay is given time to get things right at Cardiff and the fans exercise plenty of patience with both him and his players next season. I don’t want to dwell too much on what the last manager did or did not achieve during his six seasons at the club, but I reckon Bluebirds supporters would do well to remember it took Dave Jones four years to improve on the points total Lennie Lawrence attained during City’s first campaign back at Championship level, and five years to get his side into the play-offs. I very much doubt Mackay will be afforded the same luxury by the present board, but I believe he must be given sufficient time to apply the lessons he learned at Watford. Employing him will have been a pointless exercise otherwise.

I’ll leave the last word to Brighton’s new Head of Football Operations. Before departing for the South Coast, John Stephenson told the Watford Observer: “Talking to Malky will be something that I’ll miss. I once said to him ‘Malky, you are a class act,’ and I really do mean that. He is a great guy, an excellent coach and I tell you what, he’s going to be a top, top manager.”

Let’s hope for our sake and for Malky’s that Stephenson is right.