Where did it all go wrong for Mick McCarthy?
Once considered among the finest managers in the Championship, McCarthy’s failed stint at Blackpool leaves him without a future in the second tier.
Whether it’s for his memorable press conference quotes or awkward glances to camera in viral online videos, Mick McCarthy is one of the most entertaining managers to grace an EFL dugout.
The Yorkshireman’s achievements shouldn’t be sniffed at either; league titles with Sunderland and Wolves as well as an appearance in the World Cup knockout stages with the Republic of Ireland form the bulk of a CV which compares favourably with that of most of his contemporaries. In other roles, McCarthy has made a name for himself by whipping struggling teams into shape and implementing a direct playing style to get them punching above their weight. However, a disastrous three months at Blackpool have damaged his standing in the game.
Fans of all his clubs have experienced a transactional relationship with McCarthy; the functional football is initially tolerated because it is seen as the best way to achieve results, but when those results are not forthcoming, opinion quickly takes a negative turn. At Wolves, this cycle took five years. Wanderers were promoted to the Premier League at the third attempt after two near misses and narrowly escaped relegation before a dire 5-1 defeat to local rivals West Brom in February 2012 spelled the end for McCarthy.
When he joined Ipswich Town later that year, he inherited a fragmented squad rooted to the foot of the Championship. McCarthy made an instant impact, leading the Tractor Boys to safety before reaching the playoffs in 2015 ahead of clubs with far greater resources. This proved to be the high point and two disappointing campaigns led to his dramatic departure in April 2018, not before he and the supporters had shared multiple frosty exchanges, most notably in that season’s East Anglian Derby at Carrow Road.
A feature of McCarthy’s more successful spells has been his ability to unearth hidden gems in the transfer market. Michael Kightly and Matt Jarvis, who arrived from Grays Athletic and Gillingham respectively, were standout performers for Wolves in the Premier League while Tyrone Mings was plucked from part-timers Chippenham Town for 10k and sold on for £8m following just one season in the first team at Ipswich.
However, the long-term consequences of building a team in McCarthy’s image are less rosy. Faced with a squad that has been coached to play direct football and a fanbase sick of watching it, his successors are left with an uncomfortable dilemma. The options are either to embark on a risky overhaul or ask the squad to play in a way which does not suit them. Ipswich went down the first route, whereas Wolves plumped for the second. In both cases, the result was the same; relegation to League One.
This meant that joining the ‘firefighter’ circuit looked like the ideal fit for McCarthy. He could come into a club midseason, revive their fortunes and move on before the inevitable toxicity with his reputation intact. For clubs this was an attractive option too because it would not leave their next manager with the unenviable task of placing stylistic square pegs in round holes.
At Cardiff City, he began brilliantly. The remarkable eight-match winning run that followed his January arrival catapulted the Bluebirds up from lower midtable and though they ultimately missed out on the top six, McCarthy and his assistant Terry Connor signed contracts to stay in the Welsh capital for 2021-22.
They would only last until October, as a dour run of defeats, negative football and supporter discontent culminated in Vincent Tan wielding the axe less than an hour after a televised home loss to Middlesbrough. Seeing the goodwill from fans turn to anger so quickly was both unusual and a huge concern. The McCarthy cycle, which took half a decade to play out in his previous two EFL jobs, had been condensed into nine months.
Regardless, Blackpool’s decision to offer him a contract until the end of the season in January 2023 still made sense. All the Tangerines needed was a boost until May to preserve their Championship status, yet even this proved to be unattainable.
Tactically, McCarthy flailed around, switching between a back four and a five man defence, without ultimately settling on either. This indecision contradicted the back-to-basics approach which had previously served him well when taking charge of underperforming teams halfway through the season.
An injury to target man Gary Madine in early March was a blow. McCarthy’s best teams have always included a physical striker and Connor has a track record of taking misfiring forwards and turning them into prolific frontmen. Surprisingly for such an experienced duo, they never adapted to this setback and failed to pick up another point in his absence.
The under-utilisation of flair players was a concern too. With his other clubs, McCarthy built a well-drilled defensive structure and used his big centre-forward to give a more technically gifted attacker the freedom to express themselves, roam around and pick up second balls to win low margin games with a moment of magic. David McGoldrick and later Tom Lawrence filled this role at Ipswich and at Cardiff, it was free-kick specialist Harry Wilson. In Josh Bowler, McCarthy had a similarly talented individual at his disposal, but he was often deployed in central midfield, restricting his license to take risks further forward.
Positive results were rare, and when they did come, were sometimes tinged with fortune. The consensus among the Bloomfield Road faithful was that they had been second best throughout much of February’s 1-0 win over Stoke City. Thumping Queens Park Rangers 6-1 was undoubtedly the season highlight, and the Tangerines deserved the emphatic victory, although the five-goal margin was more down to the catalogue of errors made by the Hoops than anything else.
Another ingredient on McCarthy’s recipe for success at his former clubs, buy-in from the squad, was strangely absent at Bloomfield Road too. Whispers that the Yorkshireman’s methods were unpopular with his players were a common theme of his tenure and their lifeless on-pitch displays did little to dispel the murmurings.
In the wake of Good Friday’s 3-1 defeat to fellow strugglers Cardiff City, the board pulled the plug on the McCarthy experiment a month early. Whatever the shortcomings of the Blackpool squad, nine points from 14 games was not good enough.
This leaves his career at a crossroads. Results at Blackpool and Cardiff make it hard to imagine a Championship club taking a punt on McCarthy. Retirement is an option; he is 64 years old, with finances that are undoubtedly healthy enough to ensure that future employment is not a necessity. But he is a proud man and his lacklustre stay by the Seaside is not a fitting conclusion to a mostly stellar three decades in management.
Wherever he goes next, fans will be hoping for the McCarthy of the 2000s and 2010s rather than the 2023 edition.