Malky Mackay has urged Ross County fans to judge him on the pitch rather than on his past – despite a furious backlash.
The former SFA performance director was unveiled as successor to John Hughes on Wednesday but walked in to some flak with a section of Staggies supporters complaining to the club over his appointment and threatening to not renew season tickets.
Mackay’s managerial career was sunk six years ago when a bitter split with Cardiff City ended up with incriminating text messages being made public.
The 49-year-old was cleared of any racist, sexist, anti-Semitic and homophobic charges but the controversy dogged him during his brief spell at Wigan and his four years at the SFA.
Ex-Watford and Cardiff City boss Mackay is determined to make a fresh start and hopes fans will look to the future rather than rake up history.
Mackay said: “That was something that was seven eight years ago now, well-documented a variety of times, nothing to hide there in terms of the whole aspect of it and the interviews I went through for the next three, four years.
“Since then I have worked for another club (Wigan), the Scottish FA and the governance of the game in Scotland for the next four years, been asked to be interim manager of the national team, and more recently UEFA and FIFA.
“I always try to attain to be better every day and I would hope that the people who genuinely know me and have come across me, especially in the last four years in Scottish football, make their own mind up as to who I am.
“What I can tell you is for the good of Ross County I will do everything in my power 24 hours a day to make sure the chairman and chief executive and more importantly the fans and the community in the Highland are actually seeing someone wholly committed to their football club and genuinely wants to make a difference here and help the club improve.
“Judge me on what I say to you, what you see on the pitch and in press conferences. I’m sure in the next few months we’ll be going out to talk to fans in Q&As.
“Judge me on the fact I want the very best for this football club and I’ll work 24 hours a day to do it.
“The message to the fans? Hold on for the ride ahead.”
County chief exec Steven Ferguson insisted Mackay was the perfect man to implement the new vision of the culture in Dingwall.
He said: “We know everything about Malky and what went on in the past. There is genuinely no skeletons in his cupboard on that one.
“He’s taken a battering and he’s still standing and still so passionate and hungry and has a clear vision himself on what success looks like.
“We need to make sure everything ties together, whether it be talent identification, analysis, recruitment, development, Malky’s CV tells you that he excels in every one of those facets.
“For us to have that at our disposal, at our club, I ask the fans to give him a chance to implement what he wants to implement and be judged on what he does at Ross County. You can’t change the past but you can be really positive about the future.”
