Brian Kerr

McCarthy a man of principle and far more than just a great survivor

ON Tuesday evening, Pep Guardiola, surveying his slowly crumbling Champions League dream from on high, issued the instruction to draft Sergio Aguero from the bench.

For Pep, this was his last roll of the dice.

But the game was already up, the possibility of yet another miraculous midweek comeback ended by yet another of Mo Salah’s goals.

Across the country, 10 minutes earlier, Mick McCarthy had also summoned a substitution, removing the tired-looking teenage defender from Clare, Barry Cotter – who first impressed me for Limerick against St Pat’s only last October – as his team stubbornly held on to a 1-0 advantage against Barnsley.

For Mick, this was the last straw. As the home crowd howled abuse, he knew deep down that his time was definitely up now. Within minutes of the full-time whistle, he fast-tracked his decision to leave the club.

Little would seem to unite Guardiola and Mick. One, an urbane midfield artist turned superstar coach, oozing Latin charm. The other, a perceived gruff northerner, a no-frills centreback who established himself as a Championship manager, not a Champions League one.

They may inhabit vastly different footballing galaxies but they have – and will continue to – remain steadfastly loyal to the principles that have served them well in the past.

And, though it may be somewhat insulting to suggest that McCarthy might never have been able to manage at the exalted level of a Pep or a Jurgen Klopp, we will never know because he never got the chance to do so.

“I’ve not yet been named where there’s been a Qatari billionaire and somebody says, ‘Mick McCarthy would be great for that job’,” he told us with more than a little tongue in cheek a while back.

On the flip side, it would be an interesting experiment to see how Pep might get on were he to be handed a transfer budget of half a million in the Championship.

They may share the same profession but they do different jobs.

Pep has built his reputation on being a fire-starter with the super rich clubs; Mick has forged his on being a firefighter with those who have fallen on harder times.

Each can claim to have thrived at their own level.

ALERTED

Already, it appears, West Brom have been alerted to the prospect of McCarthy’s availability – and ability – to provide them with the immediate chance of regaining their Premiership status at the first attempt once their impending relegation is confirmed.

We’ll watch that space. Some have spoken of an Ireland return but Mick will feel his race in English management is not yet run.

When McCarthy followed Jack Charlton into the Irish job in 1996, many felt that another nononsense centre-half would also shape the team in his own image but it was anything but.

He wanted football to be played with some sense of style, sensibly through the middle with a focus on using wide players. He was always willing to give young players a go and encouraged them to get on the ball.

When I became youths’ manager shortly after his arrival, I tried to replicate that philosophy with the under-age teams also. It fitted easily for me.

Our working relationship was quite positive. Unlike now, when the senior manager has four assistants and a wide variety of other staff, Ian Evans was the sole assistant and also doubled up as U-21 manager until Don Givens took the role in 2000.

They would attend many of our games where possible, and Ian was at the 1997 U-20 World Cup in Malaysia on Mick’s behalf. He didn’t interfere and would have noticed the performance of a young Damien Duff who would soon make his debut for the seniors.

The main communication was with Ian and we would exchange information on scouting players and games.

As Technical Director, I travelled to the senior games and I was conscious that the success we had achieved might have made the situation somewhat awkward.

Even if it was mostly engineered by media talk or some people close to him, he may have felt a sense of insecurity.

But there was never any intention on my behalf to covet Mick’s job or anyone’s job. My role was devoted to producing players who might be able to play for Ireland in the future and that was where my loyalty lay.

I admired the way he operated, his interest in the domestic scene here and the way he worked so hard.

Training sessions always had a purpose. There was an interesting mix in terms of keeping the morale high amongst players but there was also always a structure and intent in sessions relative to the next game.

There was a clarity in each player’s roles and he was meticulous in terms of finding players who could be suited to the higher level.

A bit like the personality which only the public gets to see, his teams have always been far more nuanced than what meets the eye.

Of course, there was a sadness about what happened at the World Cup which need not be rehashed again here. It is difficult to imagine what it might be like to be in the middle of such a storm.

With two strong characters like Mick and Roy Keane, it was a pity that there wasn’t someone closer to him – and indeed closer to Roy – who could have talked them away from the cliff-edge.

But Mick emerged from it well because the team performed for him after that and they were very unlucky to be eliminated by Spain.

After succeeding him as Ireland manager, our contacts when he was at Sunderland were always professional and there was never a sense that his enthusiasm for the well-being of the Irish team waned.

SHOESTRING

Since returning to club management in 2003, he has had three jobs in 15 years but the frustration for him must be that he has never really received the backing and support other peers have enjoyed.

Whether it was Sunderland, Wolves or Ipswich, it always seemed as if he arrived just after the money had been spent or else just before the cash tap had been turned on.

At Sunderland, he was much pilloried for being relegated twice, on the latter occasion with a record low points total, but less appreciated for stabilising the club and winning one promotion on a shoestring budget.

When he left – ironically replaced by Keane – the club drowned in a sea of Celtic Tiger money.

Like the Celtic Tiger, Sunderland’s brief surge didn’t last and they now find themselves