Malky Mackay thought he had experienced a big rebuilding job during his early days at Cardiff City – until he joined Ross County.
Mackay’s view on squad revamps quickly changed when he walked through the door as County manager for the first time last summer.
Today marks the one-year anniversary of Mackay’s appointment at Victoria Park, after chairman Roy MacGregor selected him as the man to replace John Hughes.
His immediate task was to construct a new-look squad, after 16 players from the previous campaign’s pool were moved on.
Over the course of the summer, 12 new faces arrived, the last coming when striker Alex Samuel joined on the August 31 deadline day.
Although Mackay brought in the same number of players during his first window as Cardiff boss in 2011, he says the overhaul of the Staggies squad was far more rigorous.
Mackay said: “When I started we had 20 players out of contract at the club, and we kept four.
“I thought it was a big summer we had at Cardiff when I walked in there, but that was nothing compared to this in terms of actually building a whole first team squad.
“Obviously there were highs and lows of attempting to get players to come, being dealt blows and pushing that to one side and moving on to the next one.
“We (then) had to deal with players leaving in January as well, which was disappointing.
“There was certainly plenty going on – a nice, little boring week would help – but it’s a fabulous football club with great people.”
Mackay’s vision has been supported by owner MacGregor
Aside from the recruitment of half a squad, Mackay also identified the need to change working practices at Dingwall.
The Staggies had been beset by numerous injury problems in previous campaigns.
The County boss feels this has enabled him to get a better return from his squad.
Mackay added: “Roy embraced it and demanded the high performance aspect.
“Coming in here that was one of the main things.
“Those situations then led to this squad being brought together by recruitment, but then being kept in shape by sports science, medicine and coaching.
“It was all about giving them a little bit of funding to give us a chance to get into the top six.
“That’s something that happened over the year. There have also been intense periods of games and then no games, which was frustrating at times when we were just getting into a rhythm and then there was nothing again.
“That’s outwith international breaks, and there were a lot of those this year as well.
“Then we had periods where we were playing every midweek, which again was challenging logistically for the club and the size of the squad that we’ve got.
“We planned to go away at Christmas time and get ourselves over to Spain, which was cancelled by a review of Covid procedures around Christmas time across the country, which I fully understand.
“We had to pull together a trip down in Edinburgh in about an hour, which we managed to do and I’m thankful to people for that.”
‘Rollercoaster’ season has had happy ending for County staff… and, crucially, fans
Former Scottish FA performance director Mackay had to win over sections of the County support when he was appointed, following a six-year absence from the dugout.
The backing his Staggies side received over the course of the season has been gratifying for the 50-year-old, none more so than when they clinched a top-six place with a victory against Aberdeen at Pittodrie.
Mackay feels the “rollercoaster” season has put County firmly on the right track.
He said: “We’ve laughed about it – the only thing that hasn’t happened is a big wave coming off the Cromarty Firth and washing us all away.
“It has certainly been a rollercoaster, put it that way.
“There are certain things that we have had to deal with that have come up out of the blue – even certain situations that have come up privately with players that I’ve had to be involved in.
“There was the Covid situation, even me coming to the club and the reactions to that.
“People have been coming back to the football club after two years off – they’ve had the confidence to come back into the stadium and be with each other.
“We’ve had the success of finishing sixth this year, and it’s an important thing for the club.
“We weren’t in a situation where with two weeks to go we were praying we weren’t going down, and we couldn’t plan because we didn’t know what league we were going to be in and whether players or staff would have jobs.”
