Mick McCarthy Still Deserves Our Respect

I have no love of most managers. In fact, when they lose their jobs, as often as a barman pulls a pint, I have very little sympathy. They earn more in one year than most of us earn in our working lifetimes so why feel sorry?

That said, they are, at the end of the day, human beings and they suffer the very same frailties as the rest of us when we have a bad day at the office. It impacts on their lives in a way that can easily be forgotten when your team has failed miserably.

Mick McCarthy has many faults. He is stubborn as a Yorkshire mule and does not listen kindly to supporters perceptions on how things could be improved. Why should he? He gets paid for making those decisions not us and if he fails he falls by his own sword.

I find myself loving and loathing this man all at the same time. My ambivalence is born out of his seemingly arrogant persona, which does not match the man inside the shell.

Underneath all of this is a very kind man. He wants us as supporters to throw the bricks in his general direction and not at his players, which I believe to be an admirable gesture. He picks and gets the bricks and it is as simple as that.

There are many aspects of his role as a manager that I find wholly unsatisfactory. His policy of placing round pegs in square holes and his obsession with playing Skuse and Douglas in midfield holding roles which stifle our creativity annoys me massively.

Mechanical Ipswich Town, a club that lack leaders and who are afraid of the big bad wolf. That is what Mick Mills alluded to on Radio Suffolk this evening and perhaps he is right?

Mick McCarthy has a vision and that vision does not sit comfortably in our own minds eye – or perhaps too, in the players perceptions of how we get those good results?

The 2-2 draw at Portman Road against bottom club Rotherham United was of course hugely disappointing but if football was predictable then we would all quickly lose interest and that is why betting shops are so successful.

It is a bag full of surprises and this is especially so in arguably the most competitive league in domestic football.

So then, before we start calling for McCarthy’s head we should stand back for a moment and examine the latest results.

Brighton 5 Norwich 0!

Fulham 5 Huddersfield 0!

Town have not lost a game by more than three goals all season and that was last week against Newcastle so let us avoid going down the road of manic depression.

We are indeed struggling but if anyone knows how to get us out of it then it is probably Mick McCarthy.

Frank Weston – Editor of Vital Ipswich