Tuesday 30 September 2014 14:20, UK
Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan insists he has no sympathy for Malky Mackay over the timing of the controversial dossier handed to the FA that ended his hopes of taking over at Crystal Palace.
Mackay was sacked by Cardiff in December last year and looked certain to take over from Tony Pulis at Selhurst Park in the summer only to drop out of contention after allegations surfaced of text messages and emails sent by Mackay and Iain Moody that were considered to be of a racist, sexist and homophobic nature.
In an exclusive interview, Tan told Sky Sports News HQ he did not deliberately scupper Mackay's hopes of moving to Palace, but is in no doubt about who is to blame for Cardiff's swift relegation from the Premier League last season.
"If the club discovers there is racism, you have to inform the FA, so we told him that since we sacked him we were not going to inform the FA and 'we'll leave it to you.' They didn't do it for three months, so we were advised to or the FA could fine us," said Tan.
I don't have a personal vendetta. I'm just doing what any normal person would do. I want to clear my image. I am not a madcap owner that the world thinks I am.
"It so happens that it timed when he was supposed to get a job with Crystal Palace. People said we timed it like that but we didn't, it was just too long.
"I had no sympathy for him after what he had done. He is the man responsible for us being relegated. £50m to buy players so that we don't get relegated. We spent more money than Hull and Palace and we got relegated. People will say we got relegated because I quarrelled with him, but I didn't. He didn't talk to me for a few months. I arranged to meet up with him, it was nothing personal, but he refused to meet me.
"I don't have a personal vendetta. I'm just doing what any normal person would do. I want to clear my image. I am not a madcap owner that the world thinks I am.
"Of course, all the pundits in Cardiff, they love him because he got Cardiff up after 51 years. They only think the manager got us up. They never think about the owner giving him money, that's not important. Maybe they should meet a poor owner then they would know. Try to get promoted without any money, then they would know."
Mackay’s successor, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer left earlier this month after a poor start to the season - citing a difference in philosophies with Tan who admits to being disappointed by the former Manchester United striker's remarks.
“Yeah it disappointed me,” he added. “Ole is a nice guy, he was a good footballer - a famous footballer.
“I supported him a lot. After relegation everybody actually wanted me to sack him. I decided to go on with him and it did not turn out well. The football results were against him so he left after Mehmet (Dalman) spoke to him.
“He resigned but I was quite disappointed with his statement after he left. He said we had a difference in philosophies. What philosophies? We want to win matches. We want to stay in the league. We want to be promoted. What are the different philosophies he is talking about?
“That disappointed me because it gives the impression that different philosophies meant I was interfering maybe I was doing this or doing that.
“So I was disappointed he said that. He should have just said thank you very much and left - the results were against him. Everybody knows that.”
