Malky MacKay is simply a man who has made a mistake

Let the punishment fit the crime. That should be just as important a principle in football as in society.

Unfortunately, I fear that for Malky Mackay, the punishment meted out over his text message shame is going to be far too severe.

I understand that’s not a statement that’s likely to win me many friends. So to put things into context, let’s get one thing straight at the outset.

I agree that the content of the messages allegedly sent between Malky and Iain Moody was disgraceful. There is simply no excuse for the kind of comments purportedly made by the two, especially in a professional capacity. It’s only right that some form of punishment is handed down.

However, when I hear certain people calling for Malky to be banished from football forever, I can’t help but think that things are getting out of hand.

These allegations, along with the news that the FA are investigating them, have already cost him the manager’s job at Crystal Palace. That’s right and just from every perspective. But suggesting that he should never work in the game again is absolutely ridiculous.

After all, as undoubtedly offensive as the texts in question were, their existence doesn’t suddenly make Malky Mackay a bad football manager. What they do make him is a man who has made a mistake and who amongst us can honestly say they aren’t guilty of that?

When I think back to my time as a kid watching Celtic from The Jungle at Parkhead, the thought of some of the language that got thrown around the place makes me shudder. I know for a fact that pals of mine from the other side of the great Glasgow divide would say the same. And let’s not kid ourselves, it continues at grounds up and down the country to this day.

That behaviour wasn’t right then, and it’s not right now, and getting involved in those situations feels like a mistake in retrospect. But should everyone who has ever launched an offensive word across a segregation fence in the heat of the moment be banned from watching football for life? Of course not!

For me, that’s the level of argument we’re reaching when people are shouting for Malky to be ostracised from the game for the rest of his life. That’s ludicrously over the top!

Everyone in the public eye has to be incredibly careful of what they say and do these days even in private and Malky will undoubtedly feel he has learned that lesson over the last few days. He has also apologised for the words he used although that apology was botched by the League Managers’ Association.

Having admitted his mistakes and said he’s sorry, if I were a club chairman, I would have no hesitation in appointing Malky in future if I felt he was the right man for the job.

I just hope that, in the fullness of time, a chairman somewhere proves he’s got the bottle to forgive and forget too.

The alternative the ruination of a man’s entire career strikes me as a potentially huge injustice.