MICK’S MISSION
I’m confident he’s right man for Cardiff – Tan
MICK McCARTHY has been promised a long-term contract by Cardiff City in the summer should the Bluebirds take flight under his watch.
The former Republic of Ireland manager has made a snap return to football’s front-line after a short-lived stint with APOEL Nicosia in Cyprus.
McCarthy, who will be joined by Terry Connor as his No.2, has agreed a deal until the end of the season. His brief is to ensure the club halts the Championship slide which cost Neil Harris his job on Thursday after six straight losses.
Currently 15th and out of the FA Cup, Cardiff have turned to McCarthy to save their season – as relegation is unthinkable for a club twice promoted to the Premier League since 2013.
‘I’ve enjoyed the brief talk I’ve had with Mick and I’m confident he’s the right man to take on the responsibility of improving our performances and fortunes,’ said Cardiff owner Vincent Tan.
McCarthy’s first two games in charge are against Barnsley, his hometown club, and Millwall, where he began in management almost 30 years ago.
ON their drive to Wales yesterday afternoon Mick McCarthy and Terry Connor had time to reflect on just how fickle football can be.
They didn’t get to see out the Euro 2020 endgame with the Republic of Ireland, got short shrift in Cyprus, yet have bounced back in tandem at Cardiff City wearing firefighters’ outfits.
That a club with designs on being part of the Premier League, who play in blue at an upgraded stadium with a capacity in excess of 30,000, has come knocking at his door must remind McCarthy of when Ipswich Town came calling in November 2012.
Then, it was Marcus Evans who trusted McCarthy to turn things around; this time it’s Vincent Tan, a Malaysian billionaire with pockets even deeper than Evans.
But McCarthy’s proven record in the Championship — promotions with Sunderland and Wolves, the play-offs with Ipswich — caught Cardiff’s eye after Neil Harris, who led the club to the play-offs last season, paid the price for six straight defeats.
Contact was made on Thursday. McCarthy was forced to pull out of an interview last night with Virgin Media and focus instead on a return to the Saturday-Tuesday grind he knows and loves.
With Eddie Howe, Craig Bellamy and Paul Cook all in the frame, McCarthy’s appointment wasn’t exactly cheered up and down the valleys of South Wales.
But Cardiff can’t afford to indulge in a long game overhaul. It’s about getting results, stabilising in the division, before the lie of the land is assessed by all parties in the summer.
If McCarthy can lift Cardiff into the top 10, or better, he can expect a long-term contract and the go-ahead to strengthen the squad for a promotion push in 2021-22.
By then, he will have completed 1,000 games in management, joining other active veterans on that list such as Roy Hodgson, Sam Allardyce, Carlo Ancelotti and Neil Warnock.
He’s on 985 games, as the League Managers Association includes all FIFA-sanctioned internationals.
Should the English fixture list remain in place, McCarthy’s 1,000th game will be on April 2 against Nottingham Forest, managed by his friend and former Irish team-mate Chris Hughton — a Good Friday that may become a great one.
Just as Hughton has steadied things at Forest, so McCarthy must bring order to the Cardiff chaos, starting next Wednesday at Barnsley, where it began for him as a player, before his first home game, against Millwall, where it began as a manager in 1992.
Games against Bristol City, Rotherham, Coventry and Luton follow — the average position of McCarthy’s first six opponents is 15th, which is where Cardiff are now. It’s not the worst run .
Approaching his 62nd birthday next month, Cardiff may represent a last long-term gig for McCarthy, should results improve on his watch.
While Vincent Tan desires a return to the Premier League after two fleeting appearances in 2013-14 and 2018-19, he’s not as trigger-happy as other bosses.
Since 2011, Malky Mackay (125 games), Russell Slade (51), Neil Warnock (144) and Harris (62), have each got a fair crack at the Cardiff whip, if not Ole Gunnar Solksjaer, sacked after 30 games, and Paul Trollope, dismissed after 12.
Even so, McCarthy was bruised by his experience at APOEL Nicosia where he won two games out of eight before being ushered out the door.
APOEL were hit hard by Covid-19 over Christmas with 19 players and staff infected, their games were called off, and McCarthy was unable to build on a decent start.
When things got going, the arrival of Jack Byrne from Shamrock Rovers came too late to save him.
Eight games may seem scarcely enough time to pass judgement, as Stephen Kenny would probably concur, but APOEL don’t give their managers the time of day.
For McCarthy, this swift return permits him to leave Cyprus in the shadows and get his hands dirty again. He was last in the Championship trenches at Ipswich, where he walked out in April 2018, a few weeks before he was due to go anyway.
It wasn’t the most satisfactory of exits, the same of which could be said for his Irish departure in April of last year, when the FAI hierarchy pressed for Kenny to step up early as his replacement after the Euro finals were put back 12 months.
McCarthy was desperate for a crack at the play-offs but didn’t play hard-ball, aware his departure carried a €1m compensation sweetener under the terms of his FAI contract.
At Cardiff, McCarthy is inheriting a squad that has gone from winning games to losing them in a short space of time.
It’s a help that defender Greg Cunningham, called up by McCarthy for Ireland’s training camp in Portugal in the summer of 2019, is available to mark McCarthy’s card, if required.
Almost 30 years since he was appointed boss at Millwall, McCarthy’s return to the coal-face reflects his survival instincts as much as his desire for success.
“He must bring order to chaos at the club”