Cardiff City have sacked manager Malky Mackay in one of the most bizarre cases to date in Premier League history, and following his fall-out with controversial owner Vincent Tan, according to Sky Sports. That report says that Mackay and Tan had been set to meet on Saturday, but that the club have issued the following, unsurprisingly abrupt statement, announcing that action has been taken:
"The Board of Directors at Cardiff City Football Club have today relieved Malky Mackay of his duties. A new first team manager will be appointed and announced in due course."
Former Manchester United striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has quickly become the favourite to succeed the Scotsman, whose last game was yesterday's 0-3 home defeat to Southampton. It is reported that Bluebirds owner Vincent Tan sent Mackay an email on Monday asking him to stand down as manager, or face the sack instead. Tan is also believed to have listed his reasons for this, including his transfer fund requests, summer signings, results on the pitch and his style of play. (BBC Sport) This isn't the first time Tan has taken criticism for his way of running a football club. Shortly after his arrival at the South Wales club, the Malaysian controversially swapped Cardiff's traditional blue home kit to a red one, and changed the main emblem on their club badge from a bluebird to a dragon. He also replaced Head of Recruitment Iain Moody with a 23 year old friend of his son, who has no experience in football. Quite whether Solskjaer will respond well to Tan's courting remains to be seen, given the controversy that the owner has already attracted since 2010, but we have already put together suggestions of who else could step into the role.
Joseph is a sports journalist, who has previously worked for Sky Sports News, Soccer Saturday, UEFA's coverage of the Champions League and Europa League and The London 2012 Olympic Games, as well as football clubs such as FC Halifax Town, Corby Town and Crystal Palace FC.
