Malky Mackay Shocked After Vincent Tan Replaces Lain Moody With Son's Friend.

MALKY MACKAY'S position at Cardiff City has been significantly undermined as the club made the shock decision to suspend his right-hand man.
 Owner Vincent Tan is understood to have replaced head of recruitment Iain Moody with 23-year-old Kazakhstani Alisher Apsalyamov, thought to be a friend of Tan’s son and a man with no known previous experience in football. Moody has been a key part of Mackay’s backroom team, spending two years under him in Wales as well as assisting the Scot at Watford.
 Mackay frequently cited Moody’s influence in the marquee summer signings of Steven Caulker, Gary Medel, Kevin Theophile-Catherine and Andreas Cornelius, highlighting the extreme diligence Moody puts into Cardiff’s scouting and recruitment programmes.


Moody’s departure is sure to have shocked and disappointed Mackay, though the club did not respond last night to requests for an explanation
. Club sources did, however, confirm to Sportsmail that Moody has been suspended. On a biography on a social networking site, Apsalyamov admits he has no previous experience in football but it is believed he has spent several weeks shadowing Moody. The development comes just days after Mackay refused to discuss the recent row that erupted between Tan and the players over end-of-season bonuses.
 As an upshot of that row, Sportsmail understands that the players have requested Tan does not enter the dressing room before or during games. Mackay was caught in the middle of that dispute, though he claimed after Saturday’s defeat against Newcastle that it was issue between the players and the club and not himself. It is the latest surprising decision by Tan, who riled supporters by changing the club crest and swapping their primary colour from blue to red.
 However, he backed Mackay in the summer by sanctioning the signing of more than £30million in transfers after Cardiff won the Championship and were promoted.