Who cares what a bunch of disinterested hacks have to say when you can get the skinny direct from those to whom it matters most? Well, good news – Football Burp’s very own Jonny Forumer, lurker extraordinaire, is here to collate choice message board analysis so you can get the lowdown from the people who really know what they’re on about. Take it away, Jonny…

Morning folks, Jonny Forumer signing in. Mick McCarthy has just been appointed as manager of Ipswich Town in place of the outgoing Paul Jewell, so I hotfooted it around various Millwall, Sunderland and Wolverhampton Wanderers online joints to hear what fans of the Yorkshireman’s old clubs had to say about him and his methods. It’s fair to say that response was mixed…

Millwall Online

Wall1690…

As my boy is the mascot at Ipswich next month I will finally get the chance to meet McCarthy.

Any questions I should ask him?

expat_lion…

Did he get a nice few quid for signing Lee McRobert, Richard Huxford, Michael Harle, Warren Patmore, Tony Kelly, Alistair Edwards, Paul Holsgrove, Jason Beckford, Mickey Bennett, Uwe Fuchs, Chris Malkin.

No one else knows they were signed. ?????????

millwalladam…

4.5 million on 54 players. With 53 of them being absolute shit. How the hell did that happen ? My nan could randomly pick 54 names and get a better ratio. What’s worse is most of them were given long contracts and replacing good players from our best ever squad ‘Big Mick’ inherited.

I’d ask him about tactics, formations & playing players out of position. Did he do this to deliberately irritate the fans ? I can think of no other reason. ‘Big Mick’ had a poor relationship with the fans.

It certainly irritated me & I had a breakdown after Michael Harle’s debut.

silverlion…

Ask him about Morris Doyle. He was a 100% effort, no skill player that Mick picked very frequently and he was total tosh . Every time we saw his name on the team sheet my mate and I knew we were in for a pasting. Why oh why did Mick keep picking him. Anybody else on here remember him?

Millwall Mad

claw84…

Mick was a good coach to us I thought not all Lions fans will agree but I thought he was a good motivator we did well when he was manager the only reason he left us was when he was poached for the Ireland job.

HASTINGSLION…

I have a completely different opinion. He brouht on 2 Russian players who were a complete disaster and nearly ruined this club. For the last few months that he was Manager he wasn’t focused on Millwall because it was a foregone conclusion that he was going to take over as Eire Manager.His record since then with Eire,Sunderland and Wolves also speaks for itself. A good choice if you want to go straight down to League 1.

Ready To Go (Sunderland)

Wylie Coyote…

Good manager at that level, pretty bad at the top level though

Peaknutt…

Kept Wolves up for a couple of seasons tbf.

Wylie Coyote…

Aye that’s true but they spent some decent money in the end and didnt kick on at all

I still like the bloke though, despite how it ended up with us, hope he does well there

Pooter…

Good appointment for them and good that he’s also taken Terry Connor with him.

The Colonel…

McCarthy came at a pivotal point in our clubs history and we were on a slippery slope. Although we had a shit team and ultimately went down, again, I never really blamed him as he was a victim of the clubs circumstance in my opinion.

I see no reason why he shouldnt do well at Ipswich as he is an excellent manager at that level.

The Great MES…

After the 19 point relegation, the club could have easily gone into freefall like Leeds and Sheff Wed. He performed a miracle to get us back up again, its just a shame he didn’t get same sort of budget that Keano got.

Tex…

I fucking hate these Mic Mac love in threads. Some people have some short memories around here. He presided over our demise with record lowest points, got us promoted from a dogs hit league then presided over us beating our record for low points.

As you said Chris, Jewell kept Wigan up with less money, and if it’s true that he was told he would have a low budget he could have walked. Instead he slummed it on a load of shite players instead of thinking quality over quantity, and as you say, left us worse than when he came, still determined to hang in and get fired and paid off rather than walk.

Only to join, and rejoin, the mangerial merry go round, making millions and millions of pounds paid by the fans (and sky, also supported by fan subscriptions) for being a failure wherever he goes.

He can fuck right off as far as I’m concerned. I’d rather see that money punted on an up and coming young chanced than a washed up repeat failure. But oh aye he’s a nice bloke. Give me a fraction of the cash he’s made out othe game and I’ll be the angel friggin Gabriel.

Vernon…

if that promotion never happened the balance sheet was 50 million quid less.

mart…

Says a lot about his management skills that he won more games at the SoL in the top flight as Wolves manager than he did as our manager. Had plenty of money to spend at Wolves and mainly signed championship shite, with the exception of Fletch like…

He’s a gutless wanker aswell. People slag Keane off but at least he had the balls to walk off when the time was right.

Wolves Forum

big mean bunny…

If you think about the side that him (and Connor) built for us that got us up and the sort of money they had to spend compared to some of our managers he followed, then you really have to consider what a great job he did. I hope he can turn things around at Ipswich, will certainly sort out some of their more problematic players.

Langers…

The Championship hasn’t changed enough in 3 years for McCarthy’s methods and style to be outdated. He’s had a decent break away from the game, he’ll be very keen to get back to what he’s good at – and he is good at getting teams out of this league. I think it’s probably the best appointment Ipswich could have made.

If there’s one thing Mick gave me, it was a massive feeling of pride. Sure, it went tits up at the end, but he’s EASILY the best manager we’ve had in the time I’ve supported Wolves.

sycophantia…

Any player who doesn’t give 100% will be on their way, he likes young, hungry players and I personally think he is the best Championship manager available, perfect for you guys. Oh and he’s always good for a giggle with his post match interviews

Del Woppio…

Mick will keep you up, but that’s not the important bit.

He’ll make the players play for themselves, play for each other, and play for the shirt. He’ll make the fans proud of the club again. The relationship between the supporting community and the club will be restored, improved, and will be as good as it’s been for years.

He’ll get you in the play offs within 3 seasons. He may even get you up. At that point, either give him lots of money, or move him on.

I love Mick. Great man, good manager. Ipswich is the right kind of club for him; good but disillusioned fans, under-achieving players, low-ish expectations. He’ll leave you in far better shape than he found you.

Molineux Mix

Essex Wolf…

He was lucky to keep his job after the season before before last, a result of which Wolves were relegated after too long of his turgid, negative and uninspiring football.

Now he is gone Stale is left with a squad riddled with rubbish. When McCarthy left the squad was a shambles as was the football

Tring Wolf…

I’ve never really understood this argument Essex. During the second half of that season, our form was good enough to have reached 12th place if replicated over the course of a full season. This period also included wins over the likes of United and Chelsea and excellent performances against the likes of Spurs, Sunderland and Albion. With the exception of that first half against Blackburn, we were competitive in nearly all our matches and there were real signs of progress.

The way we started last season (which obviously turned out to be a false dawn) meant that the earliest Morgan could have sacked Mick was, in my opinion, after the Swansea game. Even then, I can completely understand why Morgan gave him the benefit of the doubt and opted to show some loyalty based on the achievements of the last 5 years.

Don’t get me wrong, Mick’s position became untenable following the Albion debacle, where he made his worst tactical decision not to change the shape and formation following the battering we took in everything bar the scoreline during the first half.

Ultimately, he had to go but his spell in charge was the most enjoyable and successful of my near-30 years supporting Wolves. A great man and Manager for us and I wish him well at Ipswich.

Alex Rae The Substitute…

The football was deteriorating and it certainly seemed his time was up, but he also gave us 3 years of Premier League football and IMHO now given us the basis for more Premier League football in the very near future. Something manager after manager has failed to do at Wolves.

Wonder Boyo…

Mick is the only manager I warmed to post Turner and has given my some of my best days as a Wolves fan since the Bully era. When he moved on it was time to do so but the first 4 years of his reign at Wolves produced some great performances. He changed the culture of the club from signing overpaid has beens and brought in the young and hungry policy. A change most fans were desperate for at the time.

I don’t, like many others, understand the vitriol towards him on here. Then again, I don’t understand the vitriol on here to some of our ex players, current players, and fellow posters. A reason I don’t post very often any more. Maybe it’s a generational thing. I don’t know. Try and introduce a bit of gratitude now and again and it may change your life.

Good luck Mick, I think Ipswich is a good fit for him and I’m sure given time he’ll be successful and be well liked by the majority of fans.

TWTD.co.uk

sparks…

Does nothing to reinvogorate the club’s identity or to re engage fans who want to see someone new, young and with forward looking ideas.

However, he clearly knows what he is doing and is a solid pair of hands who is very adept at the sort of football needed to get out of this division- so it would be churlish for anyone to complain about it.

A succesful team may well help re-engage fans and kickstart their affinity for the club. For me- I doubt it but will be open mind and time will tell.

Diallo…

I don’t see much different between how McCarthy’s sides set up and how Burley’s team used to with Scowcroft.

We used to regularly see Mowbray or Venus play the ball up for Scowie to flick on for Johnno or to hold up. We did the same to an extent under Lyall with Whitton on the wing.

More importantly I don’t remember us having too many easy games against Sunderland or Wolves with Mick there. We may have won 3-0 against Wolves on one occassion but generally they were bloody hard to beat and always looked to have goal in them.

Coastalblue…

We’ll end up playing the percentages which will get us results against most of the sides in this division if we have the right players to do it with.

If and when we face more technical sides, or sides happy to play posession football we’ll find things more difficult though.

There is a sense of deja vue about it to some extent.

noitan…

We don’t really know how MM will set up team. The way a team plays depends on the personnel you have available.

We don’t have 2 fast wingers and a tall CF and MM’s sides often played with those.

The way he plays may be contrary to how he has played before, managers change styles. This has been illustrated by the way Holloways team plays now compared to how they previously set up. He admits that after leaving Leicester he had complete rethink and altered style of his team significantly.

Holloway had to bring in players at Blackpool that could play the way he wanted.

What do you think of Mick McCarthy’s appointment as Ipswich manager? Have your say in the comments section below…