I'm not remotely unhappy that Malky is on verge of leaving and going to Cardiff if i owned a car i would drive him there myself Yes last we had a few impressive wins most of which were lucky Ipswich away Cardiff at home when both Bellamy and Bothroyd were injured the pitch was stickier then a treacle tart and it was played in a pea souper But lets not forget the infuriating tactic of having every outfield player in the penalty area when the opponents had a corner and the poor run of results at the end of last season dropping from a creditable 6th to 14th The pass and stand still football we played zzz The poor defensive record the comical goals we kept conceding the dropping of Sordell and Buckley ,The loan signing of Drinkwater the lack of a leftback. The blaming of the referee after nearly every defeat. Good riddance to bad rubbish i say and please take Dyche with you
Can't say I disagree.... But then again the point is more....who could we get to do a better job?....
Even after my thread I do understand where you are coming from although you have to bare in mind that Malky was new to management when he took over and he still is very new to management. He over achieved with very little financial backing, keeping us in the Championship at all this season was a job well done despite the poor streaks throghout the season. I don't for one second think he is irreplacable but the likliness is that we will get another inexperienced manager (my money is on Dyche) and the whole process will start again.
What youve done is listed the negative aspects of Malky's reign, and left out all the positives: - over two seasons he kept us in the division on a shoestring budget with a squad made up primarily of kids - we were in the play-off race for almost all of last season despite the afforementioned handicaps - 14th is 9 places higher than most people had us at the start of last season - for every Danny Drinkwater there was a Tom Cleverley (in fact, the good loanees outweighed the number of flops in my opinion) - we played some decent quality football despite the state of the pitch - our poor defensive record was cancelled out by a brilliant attack (id personally rather win/lose 3-2 than draw 0-0 every week) - statistics show that less goals are conceded from corners when every player is back to defend - Malky is young and will only keep improving I havent decided whether im happy to see Malky go or not, but to paint his two years with us in an entirely negative light is naive to say the least.
Ok fair enough, but i have to disagree! Firstly we were not lucky against Cardiff at all!! We beat the team which was playing and was still full of quality. No team can ever blame the pitch unless it is seriously appalling like some of the pitches in the 70's-80's when they were more mud than grass. You should not be playing football if you cant adapt and play to the conditions. To be fair to MM he probably was right to choose that tactic as we could never defend set pieces, so the more players back the less chance of a goal against us, and we have no real quality player who can run the length and score, or hold it long enough to get support up the pitch. The poor run of results came against some really tough opposition, including the eventual winners of the league and a team with an internationally qualified manager and a money banks owner. I agree Preston was a poor result, but it was a very young squad, including an unexpected debut for our CB, wich can throw the best of teams. How is it the managers fault if the players take the decision to pass it sideways or backwards? It is the players choice based on the game as he sees it, we often played a 4-3-3 formation which is rather attacking. Its the same principle as the goals, you can not blame the manager for the defenders mistakes! You can not have a pop at Malky for signing Drinkwater, whilst i agree that in hindsight he was a poor choice, Malky had no way of knowing what he would be like. After all he could have been as good as Taylor and Weiman, but he was not. When it was realised he was naff Malky did not play him if he could. I agree you should not just blame the ref for every shortcomming, but there were occasions where the ref was appalling (leicester's 2nd goal for one) and offered Buckley no protection, but would give a free kick after a gust of wind blew over the opposition striker. Sordell was dropped cos he had not scored and we can only play 11 men at a time, and obviously Malky thought others deserved a shot. There is rumour that MM and WB had a falling out, which led to him being dropped, but the first time he came back even stronger for it!!. All in all i think we could have done a lot worse this season and would love to shake Mr Mackay's hand and wish him the very best of luck in his future, and i will be cheering his name should he return to the vicarage road stadium.
gdb11572, I remember a guy on 606 called Garry, who never rated Mackay either. Guess he'll be happy to see the back of him as well.
BBT - that's a pretty good summary. I have been a big fan of Malky, even if I don't agree with defending corners! He has made good progress AND he's had to build 2 teams every season, because the loanees he has improved have then cost too much to retain as their parent clubs want them back - just look at Mutch and A Taylor. I think many of us are getting angry because we don't want him to go ........... but I can see that Malky will probably enhance his career best by moving to a club with "better prospects". Boy that hurts to admit it!
First welcome to newbie BobbyDove This is a good thread. It has brought out the strengths and weaknesses of MM. We have to remember that he is a good young manager "with promise" - not the finished article but a man learning fast. That is why he should stay at Watford - he will be kille dby the expectations - no DEMANDS that Cardiff will put on a new manager - they sacked Jones for two successive play-offs - they want promotion or niothing
A fair bit more to DJ's sacking than that. His falling out with players being one, One of our best prospects in Adam Matthews who has just signed for Celtic because of DJ was frozen out and criticised through the media by him. His inexplicable loyalty to certain players like McPhail and more indefensibly Lee Naylor (who is just so bad I just cant bring myself to discuss it further), the latter cost us several games due to his incompetance as a football player IMO. Also his attitude to the media, moan, moan, moan, refs fault, dirty opposing players blah blah blah. Man up take it on the chin and admit we were outplayed. Finally and most importantly, he had at his disposal one of if not the best INDIVIDUAL team of players, he just had to get them playing as a team, this came at a big cost and failure at a big cost usually comes with big consequences. He's had 7 years with us, time for a change. Onto MM and expectations (if he does come to Cardiff). With us currently having 14 players, nobody is expecting miracles, we have lost 4 of our best players and goal scorers (Chopra, Bellamy, Burke, Bothroyd). The new manager will have a chance to build his own team and have funds to do it (if rumours are true). I have read a few comments on here saying he should stay at Watford as there's no demands due to low expectation so basically immunity from the sack, if these reasons are a motivation for MM not to leave you then its best he stays as it would just show a lack of ambition from him.
I can understand your last comment, based on what has been said - but I think staying here would by no means point to a lack of ambition. He has to almost rebuild a squad each year after selling players to services debts. This means he has to develop new youngsters every year while playing the transfer market. What our fans means is we have a low-expectation because of all this, so we are expected to struggle - so being safe is a huge achievement for us and for him - to start a season with all the problems we have, having to blood more youngsters than is ideal, to ask the very few'senior' players we have to carry the others... I beleive this points to being ambitious.... the problem is, how long do you want to keep swimming against the tide - maybe Malky was just fed up of all of that... maybe jumping ship so he doesn't have to, points to a lack of ambition knowing he has plenty of money to play with!
To start with, just so you know where I stand. MM would be third at best in my choice of realistic managers. Hughton and Di Matteo being before him but I would certainly not be disappointed in him coming as long as its done fast because as I pointed out before we need to start signing players quickly. From MM's point of view though, stay at Watford from what I understand by your comments a relative safety net of a job, you lot seem to worship him and he is held in high regard, although admittedly most of you mention mid-table would be a sucsess. or....manage a club with higher expectations (although not as high as some of you suggest) have money to spend and consistenly in the higher positions of the league standings, also contrary to what has been suggested on here, he would be given time. Dave Jones spent 7 years with us, I think thats the longest serving manager in this division.
I bumped in to Malky a few years back and he struck me as a really nice bloke. To be honest it looks like he lost interest in us after the Burnley Job offer as this was when our form really started to dip. As mentioned before he is human and is looking after number 1 first as we all do. We would all love it if another company (slightly bigger) said we will give you more money and a better opportunity. Change is not that bad for us remember when Lewinton left that caused outrage on the same scale as Malky and again we lost our top scorer (HH) and our best winger (TS), being optimistic but could that be a sign ????....... Were going up next season!
I think he has gone far too early for him to be considered too much of a legend here... I think most thought he has potential to be a very good manager as he has had to do things on a very tight budget so far - but he has been fortunate enough to have a very good academy behind him with the addition of 1 or 2 'money' signings - not big money, but money, none-the-less. Yes I'd say your expectations are higher, but you have only been 'consistently' higher than us after the last 3 seasons, (before that we have consistently done much better than yourelve, and I would suggest a lot of that is down to us trying to gamble on trying to get back to the Premiership 4 seasons ago which failed, and us having to cut back once the Premiership money ran out. No-one knows Malky's motives for going (yet), be it ambition, money or just fed up with the people above him. Some Watford fans will wish him well, some will feel a certain amount of bitterness, but it's done, we all move on and our clubs will do the best they can!
hornets, in regards to looking after NO1 which as you said we all do, I very surprised at the wages we are rumoured to be offering him. £160k pa with a £500k bonus if promoted. Now the £500k bonus is nice but we were paying Dave Jones £750k pa basic If I was MM I would be asking why is my basic wage nearly 5 x less than my predecessor.
Hi city ace. I think that is one for malky agent. Tbh i have no idea what he was on at Watford compaired to the Cardiff offer/deal but can only assume he has better terms. DJ was with you guys for 6years and his contract must have improved. I am sure if Malky impresses then his will improve to higer levels than DJ, thats just basic business.
