Maybe stop taking the Mick
THE day Mick McCarthy was appointed, Cardiff were 15th in the Championship and 13 points behind Bournemouth, who were challenging for promotion. He knew the job details. ‘To not fall out of the bottom of the league,’ said McCarthy. On Wednesday, Cardiff won at Bournemouth and took their berth in the play-off places, on the back of eight games undefeated and six straight wins. One hopes those Cardiff followers who denigrated McCarthy as a dinosaur and booed him into the job on social media feel just a little embarrassed. They knew nothing of the man, or his methods. The same goes at Ipswich, where fans besotted by the club they were, hounded McCarthy for prioritising Championship survival. His successors, working with a similarly parsimonious budget, plunged into League One and have set up camp mid-table. Football is nothing without fans? Well, it depends. Could McCarthy have turned Cardiff around with a full house of dissent? Probably not. Would West Ham be fourth given that they lost their opening game of the season at home to Newcastle, and were then beaten away at Arsenal? Again, unlikely. The toxic atmosphere at the London Stadium may well have done for them. The turning point home game against Wolves on September 27, won 4-0,
would have kicked off in an air of unrelenting negativity. Still, credit to Newcastle, because even without fans inside St james’ Park a mood of restless pessimism and disapproval, particularly when results weren’t bad, has helped to suck the confidence from Steve Bruce’s team. Now they are in the relegation battle so eagerly anticipated. So, yes, it is hoped football has learned the importance of fans during the lockdown. equally, some fans may have learned the value of not having a foot on the throat of the manager and his team all the time. it’s hard to breathe that way.