Malky Mackay is taking Ross County as far as he can behind the scenes to build structure for on-field success
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Ross County manager Malky Mackay believes the Dingwall outfit are in a much better spot behind the scenes now compared to when he first arrived at the club.
The Staggies entrusted Mackay with not just delivering on-field success, but also overhauling the club off the pitch to implement best practice.
County's chief executive officer Steven Ferguson has spoken in the past about working on a minimum three-year project with Mackay, and even in recent months the impact of what they have been trying to achieve has been seen.
One of the first things Mackay did was bring Enda Barron to Dingwall to upgrade their recruitment system, but the youth academy was the latest beneficiary of the project with Gary Warren, Carl Tremarco and Gordon Duff each taking on new, more refined roles.
In his third season with County, then, Mackay has been reflecting on the progress that has already been made – saying it would not have been possible without the support of Ferguson and club chairman Roy MacGregor.
“I can only be thankful to Roy and Steven because they have bought into everything I have suggested," Mackay explained.
“As a structure, everything we do has got to be for the good of the club. They bought into it on the very first day, when we talked about bringing some of the high performance aspects from the performance director role at the Scottish FA here.
“I would love to take us as far as I could, but there are limits to how we can achieve that.
“I have been at various companies, different sports and different clubs around the world – leadership, teamwork, excellence and best practice is not always money.
“Necessity is the mother of invention. You have got to find out how to do what we’ve got to do with the limited resource we have.
“You can always be broad-minded and try things that might work. You actually become more efficient, because I have been places where people have been doing half-jobs because there’s too much excess money. There’s certainly not that here.
“Roy and Steven have seen that if you invest in certain aspects of structure, it’s actually better than investing in that extra loan player for six months.
“You invest in sports science and equipment and the medical side of the club, that’s going to help. We have managed to get a consultant in for the last two-and-a-half years which is fantastic, who has given us great advice.
“We have invested in Enda Barron and the recruitment side. Over a period of years, it will save the club money – and save Roy money.
“That’s what Roy and Steven have bought into, and that gives us an extra bit of a chance to bring in players we might not get who were wobbling towards going somewhere else because it’s not about money."
