Mick Mc Carthy ... Legend .

[zinedineontour]

Just like to say what a treat it was meeting mick mc last monday in sunderland . Went over for the west brom game on the sat but went down on the monday to see the lads training .. Some complex and great setup but i suppose you should expect that when you spend 25m on it .

Anyways after training got my photo with elliott and mick mc . Asked elliott whether he thought he would play in cyprus and he said he hopes to play and still thinks we can qualify ... anyway after photos was walking back to car chatting when mick walked past and heard the accents ..

Asked us where we were from .. told him coolock and he goes ah yeah near cadburys .. had good chat with him then .. very open and honest so he was . dissapointed with sunderlands start but he said sat was our worst performance of the season and sure we nearly won ... asked him did he miss managing ireland and he said some parts of it . As he said himself a lot of the ****e that went on after saipan was out of his hands .. he says the fans were great to him while he was there and still gets a lovely reception from most irish people he meets ..

Very down to earth man who was very open and honest .. Gotta to say wish he was still our national manager but at least he now my clubs manager .. Legend ....

[Green Army Girl]

Always had a soft spot for that bloke. Think i fancy him a little bit (another one of those Kevin Kilbane moments) What happened in Sapian took two peoples doing and its over and done with now and Mick dealt wit it as best he could while he was over there alot of people would have just walked away and fair play he didnt. Good luck to him and Sunderland

[elroy]

Have to agree with you, always will have great respect for the man, in fairness despite everyones view on the whole saipan thing, he did a decent job for us, always got us at least to a playoff, arguably shouldve being more, but look at us now, we'd gladly take a playoff place in this campaign now.

[NeilMcD]

Nice bloke but I am glad that he is not our manager anymore. He was there for over 6 years which is not a bad run at it. Think he is out of his depth at Premiership level but a good Championship manager. Seems like a decent bloke but the Irish job changed him towards the end and I think he was better off out of there for his own sake and sanity.

[zinedineontour]

Nice bloke but I am glad that he is not our manager anymore. He was there for over 6 years which is not a bad run at it. Think he is out of his depth at Premiership level but a good Championship manager. Seems like a decent bloke but the Irish job changed him towards the end and I think he was better off out of there for his own sake and sanity.

After Saipan it wasnt in his own hands and he was really left out to dry . He won the championship with a team built from nothing and has done brilliant at sunderland .. Look at teams like notts forest and leeds who are struggling to get back up . He has had to work on a shoestring in the premier so how you can already say he is out of his depth is beyond me ...

[NeilMcD]

Well you put the thread up there, and If you do you should then be able to take criticism of Mc Carthy. To be honest its a bit pointless as he is not our manager anymore and dont see Eoin Hand or Jack Charlton posts going up that much.
I did congratulate him on winning the Championship but he has got 1 point from nearly 20 Premiership matches, not matter how little money one has that is a terrible record. Swindon, Bradford Barnsley all had better records than that. West Hame finished behind Sunderland last year and I know they have more money but Pardew has shown he has what it takes for the top league. I think Mc Carthy has shown he is out of his depth. He bought lots of average players rather than buying a few quality players.

Also I did say for his own sake and sanity that he was beter off out of the Ireland job. His time had come to the end as will happen with Brian Kerr if we fail to get a play off place.

If you want this thread just to be a love in for Mick Mc Carthy, you have come to the wrong place. But I would not post up a thread saying I met Johnny Giles the other day isnt he a legend. Or I met Roy Keane the other day isnt he a legend or Paul Mc Grath or Andy Townsend or whoever it is.

[finlma]

A nice bloke is Mick - a cousin is a friend of his and speaks very highly of him.

Saying that I don't rate him as a manager at all. Good motivator but poor man and team management.

[NeilMcD]

My Dad is a sound bloke but I dont think he would be a good manager.

[zinedineontour]

Well you put the thread up there, and If you do you should then be able to take criticism of Mc Carthy. To be honest its a bit pointless as he is not our manager anymore and dont see Eoin Hand or Jack Charlton posts going up that much.
I did congratulate him on winning the Championship but he has got 1 point from nearly 20 Premiership matches, not matter how little money one has that is a terrible record. Swindon, Bradford Barnsley all had better records than that. West Hame finished behind Sunderland last year and I know they have more money but Pardew has shown he has what it takes for the top league. I think Mc Carthy has shown he is out of his depth. He bought lots of average players rather than buying a few quality players.

Also I did say for his own sake and sanity that he was beter off out of the Ireland job. His time had come to the end as will happen with Brian Kerr if we fail to get a play off place.

If you want this thread just to be a love in for Mick Mc Carthy, you have come to the wrong place. But I would not post up a thread saying I met Johnny Giles the other day isnt he a legend. Or I met Roy Keane the other day isnt he a legend or Paul Mc Grath or Andy Townsend or whoever it is.

Firstly the 20 premiership defeats 15 of those were with a team from howard wilkinson .. This is micks team now and though we have not started well we are not playing badly .. I put up the thread because I thought some people would be interested to hear what mick had to say . Just thought he got such a hard time that it was nice to see he still so supportive of us .. Sorry you dont appreciate the man as much as I do but winning a championship with a average side is no mean feat . And he did guide us to the world cup .. It remains to be seen whether our current manager can ..

[NeilMcD]

Mc Carthy did it at the 3rd time of asking in a qualifying round. This is Kerrs 2nd or some one argue 1st if you go with the Wilkinson theory. As I said he seems like a nice guy but not a top level manager in my view. In many ways it was a pity that he got the Ireland job so early in his career. It would been better if he had of got it with a few more years of experience of managing rather than learning on the job. I would say that you wont be able to have a bet on Sunderland going down at Christmas this year and I reckon it will be the earliest ever for a team to get relegated in the top flight. They are the worst team to play in the Premiership since it was formed in my view. You may disagree but I think the points tally at the end of the season will back me up on this.

[Cosmo]

Gotta to say wish he was still our national manager but at least he now my clubs manager .. Legend ....

Legend me f**king hole :rolleyes:

[Dublin12]

Look at teams like notts forest and leeds who are struggling to get back up .

Leeds are not struggling to get back,we have brought in alot of new players in this our 2nd season in the championship and got rid of some dead wood,we are 6th with a game in hand,and are looking good for a play off spot this season.Don't even compare us to Notts Forest who are in a league below us.

[Dublin12]

OOPS,make that 7th,the game in hand threw me :D ,must be those cuople of pints I had for me lunch :D

[zinedineontour]

Leeds are not struggling to get back,we have brought in alot of new players in this our 2nd season in the championship and got rid of some dead wood,we are 6th with a game in hand,and are looking good for a play off spot this season.Don't even compare us to Notts Forest who are in a league below us.

you are struggling though ... the fact that you have bought 6 forwards and cant find one decent partnership shows this ..... you will struggle again this season me thinks due to the fact blackwell has made so many changes but maybe next season you will have more of a settled side..

[zinedineontour]

Mc Carthy did it at the 3rd time of asking in a qualifying round. This is Kerrs 2nd or some one argue 1st if you go with the Wilkinson theory. As I said he seems like a nice guy but not a top level manager in my view. In many ways it was a pity that he got the Ireland job so early in his career. It would been better if he had of got it with a few more years of experience of managing rather than learning on the job. I would say that you wont be able to have a bet on Sunderland going down at Christmas this year and I reckon it will be the earliest ever for a team to get relegated in the top flight. They are the worst team to play in the Premiership since it was formed in my view. You may disagree but I think the points tally at the end of the season will back me up on this.

worst side in prem history ? Dont think so . Obviously you have not watched any of our games. We have played a lot of good football this season and will improve with every game . Id be surprised to see us go down honestly and we will show in the weeks to come we are a better side than wigan, west brom , west ham for starters .. Dont be writing us of yet ffs there is 6 games gone ....

[zinedineontour]

Legend me f**king hole :rolleyes:

I meant he is a legend of a lad .. Didnt say he was a legend in terms of what hes done as a manager. But he did a very good job for Ireland and was let down by his captain, turned around sunderland when we looked like we were going nowhere.. The man has picked people up from league 2 sides and helped bring them up to prem standard ... very good manager imo ... legend of a man ..

[finlma]

worst side in prem history ? Dont think so . Obviously you have not watched any of our games. We have played a lot of good football this season and will improve with every game . Id be surprised to see us go down honestly and we will show in the weeks to come we are a better side than wigan, west brom , west ham for starters .. Dont be writing us of yet ffs there is 6 games gone ....

I can't wait to dig this thread out in May after Sunderland are relegated.

[Cosmo]

very good manager imo ..

Yeah, very good manager, very observant during matches when his team is playing :rolleyes:

[NeilMcD]

worst side in prem history ? Dont think so . Obviously you have not watched any of our games. We have played a lot of good football this season and will improve with every game . Id be surprised to see us go down honestly and we will show in the weeks to come we are a better side than wigan, west brom , west ham for starters .. Dont be writing us of yet ffs there is 6 games gone ....


I have seen highlights of all the games and Sunderlands defending his shocking. They could not even beat ten man Charlton. The table does not lie and they 1 point from 6 games and I think they wll struggle to break 20 points this season. They dont have one Premieship quality player in my view. Maybe Arca could be but not sure if he is a good enough defender as I think he iis playing left back.

[zinedineontour]

I have seen highlights of all the games and Sunderlands defending his shocking. They could not even beat ten man Charlton. The table does not lie and they 1 point from 6 games and I think they wll struggle to break 20 points this season. They dont have one Premieship quality player in my view. Maybe Arca could be but not sure if he is a good enough defender as I think he iis playing left back.

arca is now playing left midfield with juston hoyte on loan from arsenal left back. Dean Whitehead is showing he can make the step up to prem level and with alan stubbs is prem quality along with elliott. Its also ****e not having your top two full backs injured as well ..

[zinedineontour]

I can't wait to dig this thread out in May after Sunderland are relegated.

dig away .. dont think we be relegated we are far from the worst team in the league and if mick was not in charge a lot of people would see this as well. Time will show this as well and we will climb up slowly up the table.

[finlma]

Stephen Elliot is not looking like Premiership quality to me - far from it in fact. McCarthy made some poor signings in the summer and I can see Sunderland ending up with the worst record ever in the Premiership.

[Dublin12]

you are struggling though ... the fact that you have bought 6 forwards and cant find one decent partnership shows this ..... you will struggle again this season me thinks due to the fact blackwell has made so many changes but maybe next season you will have more of a settled side..

Are you sure you're not thinking of Sheffield Wednesday ;) as for forwards,well Healy and Hulse will do fine,both scoring regularly as is Cresswell who got a brace the other night,Blakey had a bit of a falling out with Blackwell but his time will come with injuries,and he will knock them in aswell.
Anyway getting back on topic I reckon Neil is spot on and I'd say Chelsea have bagged more points already than Sunderland will manage in the whole of this season.Mind you you'll have a good championship side next season just a pity we won't be playing each other ;)

[Armando]

I ran into Mick McCarthy at Euro 2004 driving into the ground for the Denmark - Sweden game(He was in the passenger seat). I was working as the only Irish volunteer out of 4,500 volunteers at the tournament and I was at the main gate a couple of hours before kick off. Whatever about the wrongs and rights of Saipan(for the record I am of the Keano camp) Mick McCarthy is a Irish Soccer legend and on seeing Mick my face lit up and I gave him a wave, introduced myself showing him my accreditation which had my name and country on it and asked him how he was. He totally blanked me. I couldn't believe it. The car had to wait a good couple of minutes before it could enter the ground and he wouldn't even give me the time of day. Incidentally I met many more of Irelands soccer heroes in the 2 months I was out in Portugal, including Tony Cascarino, Andy Townsend and Ray Houghton and they were genuinely delighted to talk with me, living up to the high esteem I hold them in. Sadly Mick did not. :(

[TheJamaicanP.M.]

I ran into Mick McCarthy at Euro 2004 driving into the ground for the Denmark - Sweden game(He was in the passenger seat). I was working as the only Irish volunteer out of 4,500 volunteers at the tournament and I was at the main gate a couple of hours before kick off. Whatever about the wrongs and rights of Saipan(for the record I am of the Keano camp) Mick McCarthy is a Irish Soccer legend and on seeing Mick my face lit up and I gave him a wave, introduced myself showing him my accreditation which had my name and country on it and asked him how he was. He totally blanked me. I couldn't believe it. The car had to wait a good couple of minutes before it could enter the ground and he wouldn't even give me the time of day. Incidentally I met many more of Irelands soccer heroes in the 2 months I was out in Portugal, including Tony Cascarino, Andy Townsend and Ray Houghton and they were genuinely delighted to talk with me, living up to the high esteem I hold them in. Sadly Mick did not. :(

Mick obviously realised you were a Shamrock Rovers fan. :D

[zinedineontour]

Are you sure you're not thinking of Sheffield Wednesday ;) as for forwards,well Healy and Hulse will do fine,both scoring regularly as is Cresswell who got a brace the other night,Blakey had a bit of a falling out with Blackwell but his time will come with injuries,and he will knock them in aswell.
Anyway getting back on topic I reckon Neil is spot on and I'd say Chelsea have bagged more points already than Sunderland will manage in the whole of this season.Mind you you'll have a good championship side next season just a pity we won't be playing each other ;)

fair enough we might come back down to the championship dont think so myself but unless you get a settled side could see your lads struggling.. playoff place is prob best to hope for ...

[zinedineontour]

Stephen Elliot is not looking like Premiership quality to me - far from it in fact. McCarthy made some poor signings in the summer and I can see Sunderland ending up with the worst record ever in the Premiership.

do you base that on the one game that elliott has played centre forward for the club ??

[finlma]

do you base that on the one game that elliott has played centre forward for the club ??

I'm basing it on the same facts as you - you claimed he is prem quality. I follow how all the Irish lads get on and I don't think Stephen Elliot is prem quality yet - he hopefully will prove to be but at the moment he's not.

[zinedineontour]

I'm basing it on the same facts as you - you claimed he is prem quality. I follow how all the Irish lads get on and I don't think Stephen Elliot is prem quality yet - he hopefully will prove to be but at the moment he's not.

I do think he is prem quality mate and once he gets a couple of games at centre forward with a regular partner he will show this ..

[OwlsFan]

I ran into Mick McCarthy at Euro 2004 driving into the ground for the Denmark - Sweden game(He was in the passenger seat). I was working as the only Irish volunteer out of 4,500 volunteers at the tournament and I was at the main gate a couple of hours before kick off. Whatever about the wrongs and rights of Saipan(for the record I am of the Keano camp) (

He obviously was able to sniff Roy Keane off you. Perhaps the Man U jersey you were wearing and your shout of "Bring back Keano!" didn't help either :eek:

Two play off defeats and one World Cup qualification - 2nd best record of any manager of an Irish soccer team. The team he took over from Jack was in decline and he had to introduce new players, despite terrible character assassinations in the media from Giles and Dunphy for dropping Aldridge (then in Tranmere reserves) and others past their sell by date and he did a good job. Sure he made mistakes (more than he should) but he was passionate about the job and any manager who gets us World Cup qualification deserves to be called a legend, warts and all.

[zinedineontour]

He obviously was able to sniff Roy Keane off you. Perhaps the Man U jersey you were wearing and your shout of "Bring back Keano!" didn't help either :eek:

Two play off defeats and one World Cup qualification - 2nd best record of any manager of an Irish soccer team. The team he took over from Jack was in decline and he had to introduce new players, despite terrible character assassinations in the media from Giles and Dunphy for dropping Aldridge (then in Tranmere reserves) and others past their sell by date and he did a good job. Sure he made mistakes (more than he should) but he was passionate about the job and any manager who gets us World Cup qualification deserves to be called a legend, warts and all.

glad to see someone agrees .. and dont forget what he did for us as a player as well ..

[Colie]

What a lot of people forget is the Captain Fantastic thing too. He was there in 1990. He's done it all for us & he loves Ireland & that's all you can ask.

I genuinely love the man. Reading Zine's opener really got me. He's an Ireland legend & a nice guy to boot. Anyone that treated him bad was a pr1k.

All Time Hero

[youngirish]

Mick McCarthy. The man who used to play Kevin Kilbane on the left at the expense of Damien Duff. The man who would stick with David Connolly through thick and thin no matter how s***e he played. The man who freely admitted he didn't realise that Spain were only playing with 10 men for the last 30 minutes of our World Cup second round defeat.

Ah the memories.

[Green Tribe]

I don't care what anyone says, Mick's great in my books. I too met him at glasgow airport and we had a great chat, he was so nice and friendly and i got his autograph(was 2001) Green Army Girl, i think we have the same taste in men! :eek: :D I thought he was fit that day! :o in real life he looks better.

I really appreciate what he has done for us. Good man Mick.

better go to sleep have to be up in 3 hours to go home! :eek:

[tetsujin1979]

The man who freely admitted he didn't realise that Spain were only playing with 10 men for the last 30 minutes of our World Cup second round defeat.
Who amongst us would have realised Spain were only playing with 10 men if the commentators hadn't said it? I certainly wouldn't have.
There's so much made of this, but I don't blame Mick for not knowing this. How would he have known it? How many in the stadium knew? Who did we nominate to not take a penalty? I don't know, the commentators didn't say it.
The fact of the matter is he didn't notice Spain were down a man. If he wasn't standing next to the player who came off (I can't recall who it was - who can without searching the net first??) he was never going to notice.

For Chr!st sake, he made a mistake more than 3 years ago. Let it go.

[zinedineontour]

Who amongst us would have realised Spain were only playing with 10 men if the commentators hadn't said it? I certainly wouldn't have.
There's so much made of this, but I don't blame Mick for not knowing this. How would he have known it? How many in the stadium knew? Who did we nominate to not take a penalty? I don't know, the commentators didn't say it.
The fact of the matter is he didn't notice Spain were down a man. If he wasn't standing next to the player who came off (I can't recall who it was - who can without searching the net first??) he was never going to notice.

For Chr!st sake, he made a mistake more than 3 years ago. Let it go.

well said .. he imo is the best manager Ireland have ever had . If things had of been different in Saipan the fella could be a saint ... Jack Charlton was lucky that he had an extremely talented squad whereas mick ended up with a new young squad which he had to develop and he did very well.. And its not only mick who keeps playing kilbane kerr is playing him as well . And doesnt kerr often move duffer up front with robbie ??? And to the connolly question are a lot of people on here not calling for the fella back in the squad ?? Connolly was played back then cause he was actually a decent player ...

[Cowboy]

How many in the stadium knew?

everyone around me knew but as you say whats done is done

[Cosmo]

How would he have known it? How many in the stadium knew? .

How many in the stadium was paid to know :rolleyes: ?

[gustavo]

zinedine only started the thread to saw how sound mick was when he met him and ye are all ripping his managerial career apart :(

[brine3]

Mick is very good at getting players who are failing and lacking in confidence together and getting more out of them. He's so successful at this tactic however that he feels that he has to get confident and succesful players down to low levels of confidence so that he can build them up again. He gave a 19 year old David Connolly a bollocking at half time after he had scored a first half hat trick, told Denis Irwin to go prove himself and we all know about the Saipain thing.

Mick is great at managing his own troops but is a stubborn ******* when it comes to getting along with people he doesn't like or press that dares to question him. This is fine at club level where you can bring in your own players but at international level you have to get along with the players you have. Look at how Kerr patched things up with Harte, for example.

That said, I have mostly good memories of Mick's reign, but with a large disappointment at the end.

[zinedineontour]

zinedine only started the thread to saw how sound mick was when he met him and ye are all ripping his managerial career apart :(

true .. didnt realise it was gonna get into a mad debate on micks ability. Just wanted to say how sound the man was ...

[gustavo]

is this thread titled "the deconstruction of mick mccarthys managerial career" !

[NeilMcD]

Well I would think we are better chatting about someones managerial credentials etc rather than their personality both good and bad. To me someones personality is irrelevant as its their abilty that counts. If Adolf Hitler was Irish and could score goals I would have him up front for us at the moment. Rather than criticise people for examining Mc Carthys credentials, (I would have thought that this is the sort of thing the forum is set up for i.e. debate on players and managers ability both past and present, rather than how sound somone is, or what a ******** another person is.

[youngirish]

If we are only going to talk about personality he always came across to me as being a bit of a w**ker anyway. He thought he could do what he wanted when managing Ireland and didn't have to answer to anyone if things went wrong. Yeah I wish I could get a high paid job like that where I didn't have to explain my actions to anyone including the people who paid me (us the fans). I don't blame him for the Saipan incident though.

Maybe you just caught him on a good day ZinedineonTour. He was always a moody f**ker.

[Stuttgart88]

I'm not sitting on the fence but there were substantial entries in both the credit & debit columns for Mick. I think we can all agree on that, no?

I think many people forget the fact that he left his father on his deathbed to take Ireland to Cyprus in March 2001. I think that says a lot about his character & commitment & maybe Roy Keane and others should have been reminded of that a year later.

As an aside, I actually enjoyed Mick's first couple of years in charge, despite our fall in status. The introduction of new faces in friendlies (many of whom were rubbish!) & the blooding of players like Dunne in the US Cup etc. A lot of Mick's friendly selections in the early years resembled "Development Squads", something I'd like to see more of under Kerr. It was ironic that subsequent conservatism, almost cronyism, contributed his downfall.

When we beat Finland 3-0 away in August 2002 I really thought we were on the verge of big things. I still wonder what would have happened if we'd gone 1-0 up in Russia instead of hitting the bar, or if Duff hadn't got injured early in that game.

[zinedineontour]

Well I would think we are better chatting about someones managerial credentials etc rather than their personality both good and bad. To me someones personality is irrelevant as its their abilty that counts. If Adolf Hitler was Irish and could score goals I would have him up front for us at the moment. Rather than criticise people for examining Mc Carthys credentials, (I would have thought that this is the sort of thing the forum is set up for i.e. debate on players and managers ability both past and present, rather than how sound somone is, or what a ******** another person is.

only came on to see what a sound bloke the fella was and got slaughtered with how he is such a poor manager even though he did take us to the second round of the world cup after inheriting an aging squad and turning things around .. Also good to see us comfortably getting our first win of the season yday ... elliott and breen were very good yday as well ..

[gustavo]

yeah Neil but in the context of how the thread was intended this critisism is unneccesary

[paul_oshea]

2 - 0 is a comprehensive win, who are sunderlands next opponents? if they could get another win, things could change for them...

[zinedineontour]

2 - 0 is a comprehensive win, who are sunderlands next opponents? if they could get another win, things could change for them...

west ham on sat night pay per view ... hopefully if we get another win will move us up the table ... good to get the monkey off our back with the long run of no wins ...

[paul_oshea]

ya true, mccarthy looked delighted as well, im happy for him and sunderland and you too zinedine! west ham doing well themselves though, a draw would be a good result for sunderland.