Former Wolves and Sunderland manager Mick McCarthy has confirmed that he would be interested in filling the vacancy at Aston Villa after Steve Bruce was sacked on Wednesday.
Villa are 13th in the Championship and have won just one of their last 10 games across all competitions, so it was no real surprise when the West Midlands club announced on Wednesday that Bruce’s contract had been terminated.
McCarthy has been without a job since leaving Ipswich last season and the experienced 59-year-old has claimed that a return to management at Villa Park would interest him.
“Absolutely I would [be interested],” said McCarthy, as shown by Virgin Media Sport’s official Twitter account.
“It’s a fabulous club, of course I would, but he’s only just gone today and I’ve been sat doing this so I haven’t had my CV put in anyway.
“But I would do it, it’s a great club.”
Mick McCarthy confirms he WOULD be interested in the Aston Villa job.
And says he should be ahead of Thierry Henry in the bookies. ?#VMSport #AVFC pic.twitter.com/MDUv0gqudH
— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) October 3, 2018
OPINION
One of the reasons that Aston Villa fans wanted Bruce out was because of his mind-numbing tactics, so don’t expect any better if McCarthy rocks up on the doorstep at Villa Park because that is the reason why Ipswich fans wanted him gone last season. McCarthy is a good manager and would do well at most Championship clubs. He has won the second-tier twice with both Wolves and Sunderland, has great knowledge of the league and is quite a character. But Villa fans will not want him and it is unlikely that Nassef Sawiris would want him either. Villa are more than likely going to go with a left-field hire. Thierry Henry has been mentioned and given Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard’s good starts to management, it wouldn’t be a shock to see the Arsenal legend approached by the West Midlands strugglers. John Terry is another name that has been batted about but top of the list should surely be Brentford’s Dean Smith.