Malky Mackay set to become Crystal Palace boss

Malky Mackay looks set to be named as the new Crystal Palace boss

According to reports Crystal Palace is set appoint Malky Mackay as their next boss. The Eagles have been without a manager since last Thursday, when Tony Pulis left the club by mutual consent.

Suspended

Mackay is reportedly the preferred choice of Palace’s co-chairman Steve Parish and betting has been suspended on Mackay being appointed as the next Eagles boss.

It now looks likely that Mackay will be appointed Palace boss in the near future.

Alternatives

A number of other candidates have been linked with the vacancy. Former-Tottenham boss Tim Sherwood was interviewed about the role over the weekend, while former-England boss Glenn Hoddle put himself out of the running, as he has only just taken up a coaching role at QPR.

Caretaker boss Keith Millen was also an outsider for the post, but Mackay looks to have secured the role.

Team-up

Mackay will once again team up with sporting director Iain Moody, who he had previously worked with at Cardiff. In fact Cardiff dispensing with the services of Moody had played a part in Mackay’s relationship with Bluebirds owner Vincent Tan turning sour.

Successful

Mackay started his managerial career at Watford, before moving to Cardiff where he really established his reputation as a highly promising boss.  Mackay became the first boss to guide the Bluebirds to Premier League.

Unsurprisingly he was a very popular character amongst the Cardiff fans, but fell out with Cardiff’s controversial owner Tan over a series of issues including Moody’s dismissal and the clubs transfer dealings.

Cardiff was 16^th in the Premier League table when Mackay left the Welsh club. The Bluebirds appointed Premier League rookie boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and they were relegated to the Championship.

The Cardiff hierarchy were believed to be unhappy with some of Mackay’s transfer dealings and claimed that is the reason he left the club. Nevertheless he was the boss that guided the club to the promise land of the Premier League and if he stayed who knows they may still have been in the top-flight this season.

Highly-rated

Mackay is still a relatively highly-rated boss from the achievement of getting Cardiff promoted to the top-flight and taking the Bluebirds to the League cup final the previous season. The Scot has been linked with a number of vacant jobs in the past few months including Celtic and Southampton.

The 42-year-old seems to be itching to get back into to management and Palace could be just the challenge for him.

Mackay does not have major experience in the Premier League as a manager, but he does have an air of confidence about him that he can do a very solid job in the top-flight.

Solid

As Crystal Palace showed on Saturday Tony Pulis has laid solid foundations within the Palace team. The Welshman made some clever signings in the likes of Joe Ledley, Jason Puncheon and Scott Dann last January, not to mention centre-back Brede Hangeland arriving this summer.

The Eagles were written-off as relegation fodder prior to Pulis’ arrival last November, but they proved everybody wrong and Mackay will have a solid group of players to work with this season.

Transfers

Ironically, Pulis’ departure was apparently down to the lack of new signings. However the club have now stated that the next boss will have more money to spend than any of the previous managers.

It seems like a strange situation, but the Eagles will have to operate quickly in the transfer market if they are to bring new faces in with the transfer window shutting in less than two weeks’ time.

Relegation

Since Pulis’ departure Palace have been made one of the favourites to be relegated this season at odds of 7/4. That makes the Eagles third favourites to go down.

However, if Mackay can get anything like what Pulis got out of the current Palace squad then they could make a mockery of the bookmakers and achieve safety in a relatively comfortable manner.

Can Malky Mackay keep Palace in the Premier League?