‘It doesn’t matter how you play, it’s about winning matches...’
ON Wednesday morning, Mick McCarthy did what he does most weekday mornings – he walked his grand-daughter, Fionnuala, to school. Later, he walked her home. It was his 65th birthday, and there was nothing he was looking forward to more on the day.
‘It’s what I am, 65. I was playing golf the other day and there was a guy in a buggy at 84 and he apologised for holding me up. I said to him, “You crack on mate, at your own time”.
‘I hope I’m 84 and I’m in a buggy playing golf. I‘ll be delighted.’
While golf is McCarthy’s outlet for relaxation, football management remains his calling.
After more than one thousand games, he’s adamant his touchline whistle isn’t silenced.
‘If I thought there was somebody I could help, and they could help
If I thought that there was a team I could help, I’d consider it, yes
me, and I think that it’s right, I’d consider it, yes. Absolutely,’ he said, downplaying any talk of heading out to grass.
Last weekend, McCarthy and his wife, Fiona, were back in Dublin for Charlie O’Leary’s 100th birthday gathering – the ace referee turned Irish kitman was, and is, a good friend.
‘I loved it. It was a fabulous night. I wanted to be there for Charlie. He was always there for us,’ said McCarthy.
He enjoyed seeing so many familiar faces from his time as manager, Charlie, Mick Byrne, Ciaran Murray and Tony Hickey, among them, along with Steve Staunton, who he played with and managed.
‘Stan (Staunton) was one of the best players we ever add. The first to a hundred caps, captain, a leader. He gave the team everything,’ said McCarthy, who had sympathy for Staunton, the manager.
‘When you get the Irish job and you don’t get results, then all of that doesn’t matter. It can get forgotten among a myriad of other things but Stan did alright (with Ireland).’
Staunton only had 17 games as manager, winning six (35 per cent) before he got the sack. As a comparison, Stephen Kenny won 11 out of 40 (28 per cent).
Chats with McCarthy come with a health warning – he’s reluctant to talk in specifics about his fellow Irish managers.
Prod him directly about Brian Kerr, Giovanni Tapattoni, Martin O’Neill, Kenny, and he won’t react but he is acutely aware of the demands that come with the job.
‘You’ve got to win football matches to get the people, get the fans, at it again. Get the good feeling, like we had under Jack (Charlton). I went to a World Cup, we’d a good World Cup too. We come back and we lose two games. Alright, all else is going on but nevertheless it’s the results that do it.
‘It’s the result that get the fans at it and it’s the results that make you depart the club, or the nation,’ he said.
‘We need someone to come in and get the good feeling going by winning games. It doesn’t matter how you play or what you do, once you win football matches.
‘I’ve never been sacked for winning football matches. And when you’re winning, you get the buzz behind you and it’s fabulous.’
McCarthy allowed himself a chuckle on Tuesday when Neil Warnock, a fellow Yorkshireman and former Barnsley teammate, was appointed as manager of Aberdeen.
‘You could see it coming with Warny,’ said McCarthy. ‘He said in October, “I’ll wait till after Christmas. Man United might call me”. He was teeing himself up for it. And he’s back at 75. Good luck to him.’
Warnock is wearing a fire fighter’s uniform as The Dons scramble to avoid the flames of relegation – they ejected Jim
Goodwin at this time last year in a similar position.
McCarthy has been around long enough to know he’s on the end of a 999 call himself these days. His last two gigs, at Cardiff City and Blackpool, came with the sound of alarm bells.
‘I usually get a call when there’s a s**t-show going on. I’ve done well with some s**t-shows and less well with others,’ he said drily. At Cardiff, he began in top gear but stalled, while Blackpool a year ago never got going on his watch. Over the two spells, he won 16 games out of 52, for a win percentage of 31 per cent. It wasn’t enough to prevent the bacon slicer.
Would McCarthy take a call for help lower down, if it came? ‘I’d have thought before of the Championship. Not sure about it now,’ he said candidly. He acknowledged that football has changed from his first steps into management at Millwall in March 1992 while the Manchester City of today are utterly unrecognisable from the team he played for between December 1983 and May 1987.
‘I love to watch them. They’re fantastic. ‘They’ve all got a passing range, confidence on the ball, they trust each other. And there is always another pass on. Brentford the other night couldn’t get the ball off them.
‘Some of the angles and passes (Kevin) De Bruyne picked out were outrageous. He sees different things to when I played.
‘Of the Irish team I played in, Liam Brady could have picked out a pass like that.
‘Tiki-taka that’s what they call it now. Short passes and lots of movement. If you have the players that Man City have then you can do it.
‘Some of the football they played was incredible and Brentford are often a thorn in the side of the top teams.
Could McCarthy coach a team to play like that?
‘I’m not so sure although my teams played good football all in the past.
‘The game’s changed. The way it’s played, coached, managed. Teams pass it out from the back, some are brilliant at it, some not so good.
‘You see teams pressing high up the pitch as if it’s new. We did that with Jack. Put ‘em under pressure. A great song, that.’
‘There are head coaches now and sporting directors. I‘m not so sure you’re managing as you used to do.’
It’s a far cry from his time at City where Billy McNeill said money was so tight that he’d sell the goalposts if he could to make a few bob.
‘I loved my time at City,’ said McCarthy.
‘We’d a bit of success. Got promoted, spent a year in the old First Division. Great club. Hard to even think that I played for the club that it is now.
‘Compared to Man United then it was apples and pears. Now, Man United are looking at City with envy,’ said McCarthy who has more than the light blue shirt in common with De Bruyne and Erling Haaland. All three are Player of the Year winners for City.
Heading into his 66th year, McCarthy has his family, grandkids and his golf.
He also has punditry gigs with Virgin Media coming up in March and April – he enjoys working alongside Kerr and Richard Dunne, another connection to City and Ireland.
Along the way, he will follow the Republic of Ireland with the same passion he had as a player through 57 caps, 22 of as captain, and 78 games at the helm over two spells, of which he won 34.
And if there’s a club in the middle of a s**t-storm, McCarthy will take a call too.
I’ve done well with some s**t-shows and less well with others