Ultimately, McCarthy’s proved to be the steady hand that was required. En route to steering his new club to a relatively heady 14th place, the 54 year-old saw his team gain 53 points from a possible 99 across the 33 matches for which he was responsible.
It is that statistic, and the fact that Ipswich lost only 8 further games subsequent to the loss at Leicester on November 17th, – a record to please a boss whose prime demand of his charges is ‘don’t’ get beat’ – that lies at the heart of the perceptible escalating confidence levels at Portman Road.
What’s more, McCarthy has form. He has fulfilled the exact criteria being asked of him in his present job, with both Sunderland and Wolverhampton Wanderers. In addition, the ex-Republic of Ireland boss had experienced near misses with each of those clubs before their eventual Championship winning exploits.
McCarthy had evidenced an aptitude for working in the second-tier as early as his second full term in the profession when he took Millwall to a third placed finish before losing out to Derby County in a 1994 play-off semi-final.
The asterisk which is persistently affixed to McCarthy’s managerial credentials concerns his work in the Premier League. Sunderland were long doomed to return to whence they came when he was removed from his position in the North-East in March 2006.
A steady first season among the elite with Wolves was not replicated 12 months on, when the Molineux outfit survived the drop by a single point. When McCarthy was sacked in February 2012, his side had just been dismantled 5-1 on their own territory by arch-enemies, West Bromwich Albion. That hammering pushed Wolves into the relegation zone, and left them standing with a mere 21 points from 25 games played.
McCarthy’s dismissal is often held up as the primary reason for Midlands’ club’s’ ensuing double relegation. The truth is that when the Wolves’ power-brokers made that call, the team was heading in only one direction. It is their atrocious and apparently clueless endeavours to fill the vacancy left by McCarthy which have led Wolverhampton Wanderers to their present nadir.
Nevertheless, if their manager’s Premier League C.V. becomes a matter for conjecture, the fans of Ipswich Town will be delighted. McCarthy is bullish in his ambitions for the nine months ahead.
‘Can we challenge? I’d like to think so. That’s what we’re aiming for. Let’s start with that. If we’re in the top six it will be a good place to be for us’.
The boss’ eight summer playing acquisitions provide a blend of off-the-peg quality, knowhow, and youth.
Ryan Tunnicliffe’s temporary arrival from Manchester United will inject quality into a midfield in which he will be joined by the gifted and versatile Cole Skuse – brought in from Bristol City.
Dean Gerken, also taken from Ashton Gate, will provide reliable back-up for regular ‘keeper Scott Loach who must be ready to make good on his standout potential. Jay Tabb slotted comfortably into the team during a loan period towards the end of the last campaign, and is now a full-time member of McCarthy’s group.
Entertainment value, and no little match-winning capability, will be provided by Paul Anderson and David McGoldrick – the latter having offered the Portman Road crowd a glimpse of his direct style during a four-month stay last term. Both, as yet unfulfilled, bona fide attacking talents, recruited from Bristol City and Nottingham Forest, respectively, have the craft to swing any tight contest in their side’s favour.
Fans reared on the skill and flair of Frans Thijssen, Arnold Muhren, and Kieron Dyer, and who have luxuriated in the goal-scoring of Paul Mariner, Alan Brazil, and Darren Bent, are crying out for men of a similar ilk to come in these idols’ stead.
The current names charged with taking this hungry club – F.A. Cup winners in 1978 and, even more remarkably, UEFA Cup winners three years later – might not have the same cache as those established legends. Indeed, none can yet boast the status of folk-heroes such as Magilton, Martijn Reuser, Fabian Wilnis, Matt Holland, and James Scowcroft -all vital cogs in Burley’s class of 2000.
It has been an inauspicious start to this latest promotion tilt. The league season started with a 2-1 defeat at Reading, – one of countless clubs who will believe themselves capable of achieving Premier League status in nine months’ time – while a 2-0 beating at League One Stevenage ended, at the first fence, any prospect of a League Cup run.
It is not in the knock-out competitions where McCarthy will be judged this year. Town’s Kiwi defender, Tommy Smith, remained buoyant despite Saturday’s setback in Berkshire, saying;
‘There’s no reason why we can’t achieve the play-offs. You look at Saturday’s game – Reading would be one of the promotion favourites and we’ve matched them, if not played better than them.
‘It’s all positive for us and if we can keep that level of performance up there’s no reason why we can’t be winning matches’.
It won’t get any easier. Before August is out, McCarthy takes the Tractor Boys to QPR and Birmingham, and will host Millwall and Leeds United.
The Championship is brimful with clubs set on re-discovering grander days of yore, and plenty of smaller fish who can deliver a weekly spanner in the works of their more aspirational foes.
It is a course which Mick McCarthy and Ipswich Town have experience of running prosperously. If manager and club can reach the finish line together with a correspondingly joyous outcome, both will be welcomed with popular acclaim by the Premier League set.
Get stuck in the pack however, and it is hard to envisage where this venerable club can turn next.
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