Coach Mackay gets Cardiff EPL reprieve

Dec 22, 2013 - 5:22 PM Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan has lifted his

threat to sack manager Malky Mackay, the Premier League club's chairman, Mehmet

Dalman, announced on Sunday.

Tan reportedly sent Mackay an email last Monday telling him to either

resign or face the sack, after the relationship between the two men broke down.

However, Mackay carried out his duties as usual in Cardiff's 3-1 defeat at

Liverpool on Saturday, and Dalman says that the club are willing to look for a

solution that will enable the Scot to hold onto his job.

"As things stand Malky is in charge for the foreseeable future and will be

until something else happens," Dalman said in an article on the Cardiff website.

"I don't want to go game by game on this, with people asking if he will be

in charge.

"The crisis for the time being is over. The emphasis as of today is for us

to create space and dialogue."

Dalman said that he would work on Tan's behalf to keep the existing

management structure in place.

"I have spoken to Vincent Tan and he has agreed I can go into bat to try to

bring a solution to this situation," he said.

"The important thing is that we try to find a way through this predicament."

Dalman said that reports claiming that Cardiff had opened talks with

potential successors to Mackay were "simply not true", but warned that the

manager would be replaced if talks failed.

"What I do have is Vincent's word that if we don't succeed with our

dialogue with Malky, I and the board will be handed the responsibility of going

out and getting the manager we think is best to take the club forward," he said.

Mackay has a frosty relationship with Tan and reportedly angered the

Malaysian by publicly expressing a desire to sign three new players in the

January transfer window.

Earlier in the season, Tan sacked Cardiff head of recruitment Iain Moody,

one of Mackay's closest allies, and replaced him with Alisher Apsalyamov, a

23-year-old Kazakh with no previous football experience.

Mackay received vocal backing from Cardiff's supporters during Saturday's

game at Anfield, with some fans brandishing anti-Tan banners.

"I reiterate 100 percent that I absolutely won't be resigning from the

football club," he told BT Sport after the game.

"I am a proud, passionate man to lead this football club and lead this

team. I have done for two and a half years and my staff, my players -- I

certainly couldn't look at myself if I was to resign on those people."

Source: AAP