Mick should do decent thing

LOOK we’re not going to claim we saw it coming – who could have done? – hell we’ll even admit to thinking it was a good idea at the time, but there’s always a danger with trying to be too clever by half that it will backfire on you and boy did it in this instance.

The FAI’s two for the price of one arrangement with Mick McCarthy and Stephen Kenny always had a certain amount of tension built into it. What if Mick did really well? Would pressure build for him to be retained at Stephen’s expense? And if Mick faltered, as he did to a certain extent, would people start clambering for Kenny’s early ascension?

The COVID-19 crisis has added another wrinkle to this slightly strange state of affairs. With the postponement of both

Euro 2020 and the play-offs for it, the tension was stretched the breaking point. Something had to give and in the end the thing that gave was McCarthy.

To his credit, the Barnsley man didn’t make it any harder for the FAI than it needed to be. He didn’t go kicking and screaming, saying that he had a moral right (as he surely did) to lead the team into the play-offs. Instead he did the honourable thing and cleared the decks for Stephen Kenny. Granted McCarthy did so after getting a very healthy settlement package from the FAI for the remaining months of his tenure.

The figures themselves are quite eye-watering, especially when you consider the financial straits the FAI are in now and when John Delaney as CEO agreed to them. McCarthy has been supremely well remunerated for his service this past eighteen months, during which he was in charge for just ten games. That’s fair enough in a way, a contract is a contract, but we do think McCarthy should the decent thing and disavow the €1m bonus he stands to take should Kenny get Ireland through to the Euros.

Given the dire financial position of the FAI it would be a welcome gesture, especially when you consider that Mick’s actually done nothing to qualify us for the games. Ireland’s play-off place is as a result of the Nations League campaign which was led by Martin O’Neill and not the third place finish in the group.