MacKay Takes Scotland Job
Only hours after Gordon Strachan resigned as manager of Scotland due to personal reasons the SFA have appointed former Cardiff manager Malky MacKay. The resignation of Strachan came as a great shock to Scotland after only being appointed after the sacking of Craig Levein. However, the Tartan Army already have a new leader. MacKay earned five caps for Scotland as a player and has now been appointed manager on a one year deal.
With Scotland 6 points behind second place in the qualifying group for the world cup it is a big ask for the Scots to qualify. A packed press conference at Hampden questioned MacKay on his targets for the Scotland team. "Unfortunately I don't believe we will be able to qualify for the World Cup as we are faced with four tough games needing to win 3 to qualify. This wont be easy because we have to travel to Belgium and win, which is a very difficult task. So our first target is to qualify for 2016." MacKay stated.
He was then asked on how he will set his Scotland side and what type of football he wishes them to play. "I am hoping we will be able to change our style of football and become more of an attacking style of play. I will be looking to have a mix of experience and youth in my squad and hopefully we will develop into a strong side. Currently we are 52nd in the World rankings, this simply isn't good enough for a footballing nation such as ourselves. We hope that we will be able to rise up the rankings and get into the twenties within the next year."
So Malky MacKay takes charge of Scotland for the first time against Holland in a friendly before his first competitive matches against Belgium and Wales, both away from home.
