A well travelled manager who based his style on Matt Busby

AS a manager, Jackie Carey oversaw 800 games, 45 of them with the Republic of Ireland from 1955 to 1967, when things were that bit different as he was dealt the hand of the five selectors who picked the team.

At club level, his record stands up to scrutiny; promotion to the First Division with Blackburn Rovers and little Leyton Orient, and a near League and FA Cup double with Nottingham Forest in 1967.

There was also his infamous sacking in the back of a London cab in April 1961, when Everton were lying sixth in the First Division.

The cruel axing of Carey by Everton owner John Moores led to the jibe ‘taxi for…’ for any football manager facing the axe.

On leaving Manchester United, Matt Busby warned Carey it would take five years to get a team playing the way he wanted to, and he was right.

Carey’s first port of call at club level was Blackburn Rovers, a distance of 35 miles from Manchester but in 1953 football terms, light years apart.

Carey had learnt a lot from Busby and gave youth its fling, in tandem with a fluent, passing, game.

Just as there were the ‘Busby Babes’ so ‘Carey’s Chicks’ took flight.

Players such as Ronnie Clayton and Bryan Douglas, later capped for England, were thrust forward and in successive seasons, Rovers finished fourth, sixth, fourth and fourth in the second division before the breakthrough in 1957-58 when promoted with a 4-3 win at Charlton on the final day of the season.

The same year, Blackburn reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup where Bolton’s 2-1 win denied Carey a romantic reunion against United at Wembley.

Soon Everton came calling and Carey was offered a salary of £3,000 and a house in Birkdale, on which he paid £1 rent per week.

Drawing from Busby’s creed, Carey demanded, and was given, freedom to appoint staff and players, and manage team affairs.

Former Irish manager Mick Meagan, still going strong at 84, was at Goodison at the time.

‘I got on well with Carey. He was a good manager, and he had a nice way of playing football,’ said Meagan. ‘He treated you as a footballer and encouraged you to go out and play, to express yourself.

‘Anyone I spoke to who played under him said they always appreciated what he was trying to do. He was sacked the season before we won the League (1963) with most of the team he had put together.’

After his Everton sacking, which led to legal proceedings by Carey as he had two years left on his contract, a London switch to Leyton Orient didn’t seem ideal for a family man.

Also, Carey’s quiet demeanour contrasted with the showbiz style of the club. Yet, Carey loved the ‘surplus of heart and humanity’ at Brisbane Road where he did the unthinkable in 1961-62 and secured promotion to the top division for the only time.

It hurt Carey that he couldn’t keep Orient up, especially after a bright start which saw them beat both Everton and Manchester United, among others.

In demand, Carey accepted the Nottingham Forest job in the summer of 1963 where he ignited the fire before Brian Clough ever did.

Again, it took time, which he was given, and in his fourth season, 1966-67, Forest had a campaign like no other, pushing United all the way to finish second, beaten by just four points. In the FA Cup, they dominated the semi-final against Spurs but lost 2-1.

Carey’s management career ended in 1971 after a second spell with Blackburn, after which he took a job in the treasurer’s office with Trafford Borough Council. He was only 52 but was finished with football.

With Ireland, Carey knew he had inherited an unsatisfactory arrangement but rather than rock the boat, he made the best of what he was given, including the meagre £20 match fee.

He steered a makeshift Ireland to the quarter-finals of the 1964 European Championships and a play-off for the 1966 World Cup, winning 17 of his 45 games in charge.

What might he have achieved if allowed to pick the squad himself?

Whether Carey would survive in today’s self-obsessed managerial world is debatable.

‘I doubt it,’ said Eamon Dunphy. ‘He wouldn’t want to be part of it. There are good people out there, who can conduct themselves, like [Pep] Guardiola and [Mauricio] Pochettino. They are not all like [Jose] Mourinho.’