This article originally appeared in the matchday programme on Saturday 8 August 2009. The matchday programme is available in and around Vicarage Road every home matchday.

IMAGINE getting a taste of something you want really badly - only for it then to be denied to you for six months.

How would you cope with those emotions? Would it drive you crazy? Or would you bank it as great experience, section it off in your mind and crack on?

Malky Mackay had to cope. He had to put those feelings away, revert to a role he felt he'd moved on from and wait. Thankfully for him, he didn't have to wait too long.

And look at him now. The new Watford boss, after a one-month caretaker spell in November of last year that left some of us wondering why he didn't get the job there and then.

Some people are born players, some are born coaches and some are born managers. It's the hope of all Hornets' fans that the 37-year-old Scot is now about to prove he's an expert at all three of those roles.

"It was like opening a door and having a look inside - a bit of a Pandora's box, if you like," he recalls, with something of a wry smile just passing across his lips.

"I experienced so many different things in that month that it left me with the feeling I was ready for this. I had to drop four players in my first week - not something I'd ever had to do before - and also deal with plenty of other matters outside my control within the club. Nothing made me think that I shouldn't take this if the chance came again."

Mackay had already started his coaching qualifications when he joined the Golden Boys as a player just before the 2005/06 promotion campaign.

"I was just a player, so to speak," explains the former Scotland international. "But I was already planning for a time after my playing days. I got that player-coach chance under Aidy and it gave me a foot in both camps, experience of the coaching side of things while still being part of that players' dressing-room atmosphere."

Not easy, that. A case of having to be all things to all men, in many ways. But Malky, who'd already exhibited the trait of being a leader of men, didn't suddenly have to shift his ways to suit his new role.

Working with Aidy, reserves coach Dick Bate and some of the other management staff, Malky was getting a dry run at the leadership game; learning from others, feeding off their experiences, putting plans in place in his own mind, ready for when the chance came.

"I was always one of the vocal ones in training and during games, so it wasn't like the players suddenly started seeing a different me. That's what helped me I think, the fact I felt it came fairly naturally to me anyway, leading players.

"It's how you manage yourself in both environments," he adds, quickly pointing out that player-coach and player-manager are hugely different. The latter, says Malky, is a role few people ever make a success of.

He contends: "I think those that go down that route soon step away from the playing side of things. They quickly realise the importance of having that distance, that breathing space almost.

"You need that difference, I feel, so players are comfortable around you and understand your role, rather than those lines being blurred.

"With some lads, as a manager you can stand and bawl at them and you'll see it go in one ear and out the other - you've lost them, effectively. Management's about being able to adapt, about holding strong relationships and knowing what will work for one won't for another."

Indeed, one of the clear strengths of this appointment by the new Watford board is that the former centre-half has already struck those relationships, he has that common ground established with the current squad of players.

"That, in my eyes, gave me an advantage over anyone else looking to get the job," he says. "It's about how you connect with individuals - and I like to think I know how our players tick. There are times to be direct and times when that's not so appropriate.

"But honesty is the biggest factor you can bring to the job. As a player, I liked my manager to be straight with me and that always worked for me. I see nothing in the game now to make me think that shouldn't still be a guiding principle of my work.

"I know strengths and weaknesses of people here at this Football Club. There's a work ethic here, an honesty about the group and I know who I need to allow to flourish and who needs to move on from us to something new."

Malky describes that caretaker spell as a "huge factor" behind his enthusiasm in applying for the job on a permanent basis - but, let's remind ourselves, we'd almost forgotten about him in heralding the new man at that time.

"There's nothing I'd have done differently in terms of what I had, in terms of the situation at the time. When you do that and you don't get the job, it's out of your control and you have to react to the new circumstances.

"I handled that in my own way. It wasn't rejection for me, it was just a challenge and nothing made me shy away from the chance when it came again."

So how is Malky Mackay's Watford different to recent managerial incumbents?

"What you'll see from the group is that they're strong, well-organised, willing to work hard and are free to express themselves at the right time.

"I've been in this division a long time," adds the former promotion-winner at both Norwich City and West Ham United. "I feel I've got a great idea of how the division ticks and what success looks like at this level.

"You can buy the best players available, of course you can, but there's ways and means of building a unit over a period of time that can challenge the best the division has to offer.

"When these lads come in, they train hard and train well. I want them to enjoy it - not feeling like it's a bit of a slog. I think 'balance' is the word; concentration yes, high work-rate yes, but feeling relaxed and enjoying that graft at the same time."

The 37-year-old knows the league all right. And he's prepared to adapt between a wet Tuesday night at Plymouth, a cold October at Vicarage Road or a hot afternoon on "the bowling green" (as he puts it) at West Brom.

All this experience, all this 'money in the bank' so to speak, has only been collected because Malky enjoyed a playing career where success - and how to achieve it - was no stranger.

"I'm drawing on all of my experiences going into this new role, including very much, of course, the promotion season with Aidy.
"Five or six players came in at the last minute that year and played all season, there was a youngster who went on to be a £9m player two years later and you had a brilliant team spirit, a work-rate and a never-say-die attitude.

"Everyone knows that it doesn't work like that all the time. But if you get a group together, get them working really hard with one another, have players who want to come in to work every day, you've got a great basis for success.

"At Norwich, we kept that group together but success didn't come instantly. We went close, then had a dip the following year, then got promoted afterwards - with hardly a change in the playing squad.

"More recently, I've seen the way younger players can be blended into the group, but that the transition for them needs to be managed," - a bit like Malky managing his transition from player to Hornets' manager.

His achievements as a player with Watford, not to mention that bright little caretaker spell, leaves the thought that there will be plenty of goodwill around Vicarage Road as the new campaign gets underway. It's been earned by the big Scot - and now he wants his players and his team, to earn that same respect from the terraces.

"We're a community now, all of us. We're a group of players and staff yes, but we're nothing without the support of the fans.

"I've been lucky enough to play in games where the ground's been rocking. There's nothing we can do about a three-sided ground so let's forget about that.

"What the fans can be sure of is that the players taking the field in that yellow shirt will be giving everything for their Club, trying their hardest.

"Everyone knows it doesn't work like clock-work, things don't always go well for players in games, but as long as the Watford fans see how hard everyone is working to bring success for them, to entertain them and leave them feeling they've got to come back again, then I'll be happy."

Like Malky, we're all back again today with those shared hopes, dreams and ambitions.

A new manager. A new approach. A new season. Bring it on, Malky.