Mackay won’t walk away from Bluebirds

Cardiff boss Malky Mackay says he has “too much passion and pride” to walk away from the club despite finding himself on the end of more criticism from the club’s controversial owner Vincent Tan.

Tan hit out at Mackay through club chief executive Simon Lim, who said Tan was “extremely upset” that the manager had gone public with his desire to strengthen his squad in January.

It is the latest setback in the relationship between Tan and Mackay, which first came to a head in October when Tan removed one of Mackay’s closest allies, head of recruitment Ian Moody.

Tan’s latest outburst alluded to an alleged £15 million overspend during Cardiff’s £50m summer transfer dealings — and the Malaysian tycoon added that Mackay would not be receiving “a single penny” to strengthen the squad in January.

Mackay said: “I will certainly not be resigning from my post. I’ve got too much passion and pride in the job I’ve got here. It’s a job that’s three-quarters done as far as I’m concerned in terms of making Cardiff a sustainable Premier League team. It is my duty to make sure we continue to do that and it would be wrong of me to walk away from a job because our owner doesn’t want to give me money in January.”

Mackay added: “I know the task in hand over the next few months and my driving force and only focus is on making sure this team competes as well as we can in this league and we give ourselves the best fighting chance.”