Mackay Apologises to Tan

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Relegated: Cardiff owner Vincent Tan
Mike Calvin
By Mike Calvin
Last updated: 09 May 2014, 09:38 BST
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Farewell, then, Norwich City, Cardiff City and Fulham.

Truth be told, there will be no national outpouring of grief when the Premier League cortege passes on Sunday. The doomed trio fit the modern stereotype of small clubs who won’t be missed.

Technically, Norwich are not yet relegated, yet there is more chance of Delia Smith being reduced to flipping burgers at the local drive-through than their engineering the 17-goal swing required to send West Bromwich Albion down in their place.

How do you get relegated? It is simple. Follow these five rules, and failure is guaranteed.

When In Doubt, Panic
Norwich sacked Chris Hughton with five games to go. Fulham have had three managers this season, and no one quite worked out what Ray Wilkins and Alan Curbishley were doing. Cardiff sacked Malky Mackay and mounted a personalised campaign against him, and his principal support staff. WBA needlessly sacked Steve Clarke and survived only because of the incompetence of others. Spot the pattern?

Turn the Club Into a Vanity Project
I suspect Vincent Tan secretly likes the inevitable comparisons with a Bond villain. Such a shame he is closer in spirit to Mr Bean. Tan’s vanity and foolishness have come to define Cardiff’s disastrous season in the Premier League. Relying on yes men with no direct football knowledge is a no-no. Over at Fulham, new owner Shahid Khan failed to bridge the cultural chasm between the PL and NFL.

Turn the Transfer Market into a Tombola Stall
Bad recruitment is a manager’s quickest way to his P45. Ricky Van Wolfswinkel and Johan Elmander could play non-stop against a team of dustbins until Christmas without troubling the scorers. Cardiff compounded Mackay’s initial mistakes in the summer market by allowing the inexperienced Ole Gunnar Solksjaer a supermarket sweep in January. Fulham’s signings lacked a coherent strategy, and resulted in an ageing, unbalanced squad.

Employ an Excitable Chief Executive
There is nothing like a sense of perspective. David McNally, Norwich’s CEO, distinguished himself by suggesting relegation was “worse than death.” His words were ludicrous, and his actions, in consistently undermining Hughton, compromised the club’s reputation as one of the most sane and stable in the English game. In any other industry he, too, would be looking for another job.

Shut Up and Pay Up
No meltdown is complete without alienating those who pay up, and are expected to shut up. Cardiff supporters continue defiantly to wear blue instead of red, and fair play to Norwich fans who have retaliated by voting in droves for third choice goalkeeper Carlo Nash as player of the year. Generally, badly-run clubs ignore such resistance, and fail to value tradition, common sense and loyalty. They get what they deserve.
 
Yeah thanks for that Dai !!

Malky apologising tells a story in itself, i wonder if Mr Tan will now air his dirty laundry in public, as he always said he would tell the story once everything was settled. Well Mr Tan it looks like its settled, so over to you.
 
I expect part of the deal is that VT uses his private laundry not a public one, i.e. he keeps his soiled smalls to himself.

This has been settled through mediation and the usual outcome is that in consideration of the agreement both sides keep their thoughts and opinions to themselves.
 
Can this be over now? MM's gone, we've discussed his successes and failures to death. We've got a **** load of current problems and issues to discuss.

Apology - I think you've got to know this is a cash settlement and lets all get on with our lives.

Are we worried by MM as Norwich manager? He'll certainly grind out results and it seems they have the players to play his 'style'. I certainly wouldn't be surprised to see a MM led Norwich in 1 of the top 2 spots next May.
 
Yep about Malky at Norwich Stevie - and I wonder who he'll try to take from us eh?

A settlement to suit both parties no doubt, and I wouldn't mind betting that Tan virtually wrote Malky's statement for him as part of it.

Still, time to move on, and what a scenario we'd have in the Championship if Malky does go to Norwich. I see we've already been installed as joint favourites with Fulham by Skybet to gain promotion next year back to the Prem.

Solskjaer v Mackay v Magath seems to be the talk, but I bet there's a dark horse or two already down there that'll shake that cosy little threesome up as we go through the season - who's your money on to spoil the party?
 
The Championship is a very difficult league (don't we know that!), relegated teams have tended to scrape their way back rather than dominating the division in the style of Newcastle.

The 3 teams that don't get out of the playoffs will all be looking to sort it out automatically next year for a start, then look at Burnley this year who'd have picked them as an auto promotion side before a ball was kicked.
 
'If I have caused any offence to anyone during this time, especially to Vincent Tan, then I apologise without reservation.'

that doesn't really seem to be a proper apology, he's not apologising for anything in particular, it was probably part of the settlement that he puts out a statement like this which of course he doesn't mean.
 
To apologise "without reservation" is akin to saying the other party was completely in the right.
To further that it is said he was not paid any compensation, also he paid his own legal fees.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...ff-considered-Norwich-West-Brom-West-Ham.html

Seems MM didn't have a leg to stand on if that is right.

Was a great championship manager for us though and perhaps that should be how he is best remembered.
Too much went on during his time in the PL and is best put aside now this legal stuff has come to a conclusion.
 
The only one that is gullible is you Dai, as it is a standard requisite that such an apology is made in such cases.

As it stands this is just paper gossip, and was posted as such.
 
Could it be because he's getting a new job soon? If he was to pursue legal action, wouldn't he not be allowed to take up another managerial position? Similar to how Di Matteo hasn't worked since Chelsea because he's on £130,000 a week?
 
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