Premier League: Cardiff owner Vincent Tan lifts threat to sack Malky Mackay

Malky Mackay: Reprieve for Cardiff boss

Tan sent Mackay an email last Monday telling him to resign or be sacked as their relationship appeared to turn increasingly sour.

But Mackay, who has received widespread backing from both Cardiff supporters and other managers, reiterated that he would not be resigning after the 3-1 Premier League defeat at Liverpool on Saturday.

Cardiff chairman Mehmet Dalman, who had met with Tan on Friday, said Mackay was safe - for now at least - though he stopped short of saying the manager's long-term future was guaranteed.

"The crisis for the time being is over," Dalman said. "My definition of diplomacy is to create space for dialogue. I have spoken to Vincent Tan and he has agreed I can go into bat to try to bring a solution to this situation.

"There's goodwill on Vincent's side. I've not had a chance to talk to Malky just yet, but I will obviously do that as well. We need to have further dialogue to see if we can get through this together for the good of the club, which is the most important thing.

"We managed to create space for everyone to work together back in October and we have to see if we can do that again in order to move forward. At least we have a platform for dialogue, which gives us an opportunity to try to work our way through this.

"If we wish to work towards a reconciliation, Vincent Tan has offered us that opportunity to move towards that. If it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't. But at least I as a responsible person and chairman of this football club have tried my best.

"I'm not taking sides in this, I'm just trying to do my best for the good of the club. Let's see if we can fix it. We can't keep having the club under a cloud, so this is it. We managed to get two or three months leeway last time and we need to create something similar again. I'm not putting a timescale upon this, but we have to try.

"Vincent Tan is in London for a while, so at least he is physically here which makes it easier to have that face-to-face dialogue."

When asked if he had had a replacement lined up for Mackay, Dalman added: "I can tell you categorically that I, as chairman, have not initiated any dialogue with anybody else.

"Can we go out and get another manager? Of course we can. But I've read and heard so much nonsense about us speaking to four different candidates and that sort of thing. It's simply not true."

Mackay steered Cardiff to the Championship title last season and they are currently 15th in the table, four points above the relegation zone.

Dalman also urged supporters to rein in their protests against Tan - so evident at Anfield on Saturday - for Boxing Day's home game with Southampton.

"If I had one wish for Boxing Day, it's that they don't hold up 'Tan Out' or 'Malky In' banners, but rather one that says 'Talk to each other'," he added.

It was also confirmed that the supporters' club and trust will meet with Tan before next Saturday's home game with Sunderland in a quest for further rapprochement.

"We are hoping that will lead to a much better dialogue with the fans," a supporters' spokesman said. "We strongly believe he (Tan) needs to rebuild a relationship with the fans and one way of doing that would be to announce that from next season we will be returning to play in blue.

"I think he has a lot to do to get the fans back on his side. We were delighted with his financial support, but Malky has done a fantastic job and has the support of the fans and we need to pull together."