Passionate Mackay will not quit

Cardiff boss Malky Mackay says he has "too much passion and pride" to walk away from the club despite finding himself on the end of more criticism from the club's controversial owner Vincent Tan.

Tan hit out at Mackay via a statement from club chief executive Simon Lim, who said Tan was "extremely upset" that the manager had gone public with his desire to strengthen his squad in January.

It is the latest setback in the relationship between Tan and Mackay, which first came to a head in October when Tan removed one of Mackay's closest allies, the club's head of recruitment Ian Moody.

Tan's latest outburst alluded to an alleged £15million overspend during Cardiff's £50m summer transfer dealings - and the Malaysian tycoon added that Mackay would not be receiving "a single penny" to strengthen the squad in January.

Mackay told BBC Radio Wales Sport: "I will certainly not be resigning from my post. I've got too much passion and pride in the job I've got here.

"It's a job that's three-quarters done as far as I'm concerned in terms of making Cardiff a sustainable Premier League team.

"It is my duty to make sure we continue to do that and it would be wrong of me to walk away from a job because our owner doesn't want to give me money in January."

Mackay expressed his surprise over Tan's reaction to comments the manager made after Saturday's 1-0 win over West Bromwich Albion, in which he suggested he would like to add players in three positions in January.

Mackay added: "At the weekend I was asked in an ideal world how many signings would you like in January and I responded that in an ideal world I would like cover for defence, midfield and attack - that's all.

"There's nothing different, there's no alarmist wording with that, and I don't think it changes anything in terms of expectations.

"There's no change to anything on my part in terms of any transfer recruitment and obviously word has come back that there won't be any money so that's fine.

"If that's what we have to do it's case of in January we crack on with the squad we've got. I can make recommendations but at the end of the day it's my job to be focused and concentrate on my team winning games."

Tan's latest outburst has once again made Mackay favourite to become the next Premier League manager to lose his job, with odds as short at 4-6 in some places, but he insists his only goal is to prepare the team for Saturday's trip to Liverpool.

Mackay added: "I'm really calm. I've got a game on Saturday against Liverpool and we've just come off the back of a great win against West Brom.

"We're going into the Christmas period and we've now got 17 points on the board. I know the task in hand over the next few months and my driving force and only focus is on making sure this team competes as well as we can in this league and make sure we give ourselves the best fighting chance."