Future of Cardiff City manager Malky Mackay uncertain after backroom shakeup that triggers fears the club is heading for calamity Cardiff City today denied that the club's owner Vincent Tan has asked manager Malky Mackay to resign, after the owner's decision to replace the club's head of recruitment with a 23-year-old friend of his son left the Scot's future looking deeply uncertain. Several sources have told The Independent that Tan asked Mackay to quit, during a tense meeting with senior members of club staff on Tuesday, and that the Scot - who is determined to carry on at the south Wales club - had categorically refused. But Mackay's relationship with Tan, whose unusual perspective on football leads him to believe that Cardiff were promoted to the Premier League because of the "lucky red" strip he introduced, is now deeply damaged. The Malaysian is understood to believe that Cardiff have overspent, should be in the Premier League top four and that their start to the season - which includes victory over Manchester City - is not good enough, after his own investment of £11m plus £70m in loans. In the most extraordinary move yet of his controversial three-year tenure, Tan has replaced Iain Moody - the club's head of recruitment, with whom Mackay first worked at Watford and to whom he is close, with 23-year-old Kazakhstani Alisher Apsalyamov. It is the clearest sign yet that the Welsh club's ascent to the Premier League under the Malaysian may be heading towards calamity. Apsalyamov, whose experience of football appears to be limited to computer games, attended the same Swiss finishing school as Tan's own son. It is understood that his first job at the Premier League club entailed painting walls at the club's stadium. But The Independent understands that he has also been shadowing Moody in the last six months, with the general impression being that Apsalyamov's own father - a multi-millionaire - may be about to invest in a club where the 23-year-old might also play some kind of professional role. Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan celebrates his team's promotion to the Premier League But after working alongside Moody - who was Mackay's right-hand man - Apsalyamov was often seen watching Cardiff games on a laptop. The situation finally came to a head when Moody received a letter, explaining at some length why he was being removed from his position. The letter was withdrawn last night, when Tan received legal advice telling him that he was unable to suspend Moody. Instead, Moody was place on gardening leave until the end of the season. Cardiff said today that they were "unable to comment due to the sensitivity of the issue" though privately refuted the idea of Tan demanding that the popular Scot, who has managed the South Wales club through the most successful period in their history, should go.