Mick McCarthy – a job well done or a dull dinosaur?

Mick McCarthy is a name that triggers debate across the footballing world in a rather odd manner.

He generally goes into a job and spends a decent amount of time at the helm, the players – maybe Roy Keane aside – seem to love him but supporters cannot decide despite the fact he’s never really failed anywhere he’s been.

The generic McCarthy brief

He’s barely been back in charge of the mighty Irish for five minutes and already his reign is a microcosm of his entire management career. Essentially, McCarthy gets tasked with taking a squad lacking in true quality and is expected to make them challenge above their means.

Look at the Euro qualifying campaign, a group containing Switzerland and Denmark was always going to be tough when your strikers only have a small handful of Premier League goals between them and the rest of your side is cobbled together with mid table Premiership and lower league talent. What you do get with McCarthy though are qualities that epitomise the Irish – graft, determination and a never say die attitude – and that often gives a sum greater than its parts.

The trouble is, whilst many fans respect and admire that, there is a noisy minority who call it ‘boring’ and expect Ireland to pass teams like Denmark off the pitch and beat them 3-0. It doesn’t work like that though and you have to win whatever way possible – even if it means edging past Gibraltar.

The play-offs

Although you could argue that McCarthy has already over achieved simply by putting his side in the play-offs there is no getting away from the fact that the next game (and potentially the one after) is the Republic’s equivalent of a NFL Super Bowl – it’s a once in a lifetime match that simply has to yield victory. 

First up is a tie against Slovakia. They’re ranked just ahead of Ireland after narrowly missing out on automatic qualification behind World Cup runners up Croatia and Ryan Giggs’ Welsh side in group E. With players like Marek Hamsik and Milan’s Skriniar in their ranks, they’ll pose a real threat to Irish chances. 

The job at hand is easy – win – but actually doing it is much harder. That said, McCarthy’s tactical approach will give Ireland a chance against most because rarely are his teams out of a game.

If McCarthy’s men do progress  then the next phase could see a mouth watering tie with Northern Ireland – although Bosnia are also potential opponents. Either way, if Ireland make it all the way to the 2020 finals then, regardless of what happens there, McCarthy will leave with his place as an Irish legend guaranteed after representing the nation 58 times as a player and leading them to the World Cup in 2002.

What next?

It’s common knowledge that McCarthy is vacating his current position for under 21 coach Stephen Kenny but what about McCarthy’s next move? Even if a European Championships appearance  fails to materialise his stock won’t have fallen and there will still be clubs sounding him out, albeit Championship rather than Premier League sides.

The big question is whether or not the man himself fancies going back to the day to day of club management. If a sleeping giant came calling – a Middlesbrough for example –then you could see him being tempted by one last crack at the Premier League after winning promotion but, in all honesty, his entry back will likely be a struggling club in need of rebuilding, which is a big stress on a man who is now 60 years old. 

With that in mind, don’t be surprised to see McCarthy call it a day and, if he does, he can go with his head held high.