The only problem is that he's been in charge there for so long. The team is a Mick McCarthy team. Is there any player left in the first team squad that wasn't signed by him? It's a team filled with Mick McCarthy hard grafter clones who only know how to play in the Mick McCarthy way. What manager can get them to improve before now and the end of the season? It's not possible to sign any players.

Ideally they should have got somebody else to take them to the next level at the end of last season, and given that manager time to reshape the squad.

jonmid wrote:
BTW where's the Mick McCarthy article written yesterday?
A very good question. It was there earlier, 'cos I read it this morning.

Fucking hell Jimmy, that gif is terrifying.

Redknapp for Wolves.

what was this mick mccarthy article?

i was at the match yesterday & it was plain to everybody including mick that he would be gone after the game. he shook hands with all the players coming off (including west brom) in an exaggerated show of dignity. he knew it would be a while before he saw most of them again.

wolves are a bad team, full of slow, technically poor players. fletcher is the only saving grace. roger johnson has all the physical presence of a flamingo and is constantly pointing the finger at team-mates after his fuck-ups lose possession. poor dave edwards reminds me of kyle broflovski after he has an operation to turn himself into an NBA player. they could have mark davies in midfield but manager mick sold him.

worse than their lack of ability is their obvious lack of hope. they quit on mick at 2-1, having just conceded one of the most ridiculous goals i've ever seen: an almost vertically dropping ball takes forever to land in the box and yet is not seriously contested by a single wolves player. apparently it was the first time west brom had scored five in a premier league match.

morgan should have got rid of mick before the new year, i think this team will probably go down.

I've always thought that McCarthy is a terrible manager and nothing has disabused me of that notion. This particular Wolves team are rubbish and yesterday's appalling performance was a train wreck waiting to happen.

Roger Johnson is a player that has illustrated this more than anything. He was a great player for Cardiff and was very effective for Birmingham, become statistically one of the best English defenders for a season. Indeed, some people, well I was saying that it wouldn't be a bad idea for Cappello to have a look at him in a friendly. At Wolves, however, he has looked not just a pale imitation of his former self but a pale imitation of Frank Spencer.

I have just had a look at the Wolves squad and it is pretty desire. The half-decent players that he has signed seemed to have all the life sucked out of them. THe only one that seemed to escape this was Hennessy who must be so dispirited after all that he did yesterday, one goal notwithstanding.

I normally wouldn't care about Wolves and whether they were relegated but they do appear to have quite a few Welsh players that I would like to see stay in the EPL

It was only yesterday that I realised that McCarthy looks like Ted Danson

Up until a few weeks ago I thought Wolves would stay up, primarily because Blackburn and Wigan are so poor, that it would be between them, Bolton and QPR for the last relegation spot. QPR were in free fall under Warnock, and Bolton were really struggling to adapt to life at the bottom. Whereas I always thought Wolves would fight for McCarthy. But since then Blackburn picked up 4 pts from their trips to OT and Anfield, QPR have made changes, whilst Wolves have stopped fighting. If as Garcia says they quit on Mick at 2-1, then the one thing he had going for him has gone, and the sacking became inevitable.

Out of interest, who is Mick's no 2? There aren't many black coaches in the game, and yet I've no idea who he is.

Terry Connor.

Terry Connor is - or was - that Wolves coach, wasn't he?

Blackburn have picked up recently. If you are looking for a team in a tailspin with multiple self inflicted problems heading for a relegation scrap, try Aston Villa.

I've always thought that McCarthy is a terrible manager and nothing has disabused me of that notion.

he is. but most players like him because he is relatively pleasant and undemanding, and he is nice to journalists, and many english people seem to think it's funny when he says things like "that was never a penalty as long as i have a hole in me bum" in his funny accent. so he has carved out a decent career for himself on the basis of his supposedly attractive personality. but he's essentially a bluffer, and a natural also-ran.

The half-decent players that he has signed seemed to have all the life sucked out of them.

This is the problem with Manager Mick, he is always playing down his own team's chances. Maybe it started off as a managerial ploy, but he did it so much that it became a permanent part of his personality. He is constantly saying things like, "we not may be technically the best, but we make up for it in passion and courage" and all this bullshit. After a while the players start to believe that they are shit.

Look what he did to Kevin Doyle, for example. One of the most exciting young strikers in the Premier League is a shell of his former self.

He told Denis Irwin to go out and prove himself. This was while Irwin was busy winning the treble with Man Utd. Denis Irwin the consummate professional.

We're getting close to a 10 year anniversary of "He's back", aren't we? (I mean, obviously we are, it was the 2002 World Cup). Are we going to commemorate it in some way?

By winning euro 2012. It might kill football as a televised product for a generation, but by god if greece can do it, why not us?

Oh God... I mean now McCarthy's out of a job, I mean, it's not unheard of for Italian managers to quit despite having qualified for tournaments, and maybe Trap will decide it's not worth the bother? He's quite old now and I hear Poland can be freezing.

You never know.

Trap has signed a new two year contract, he's the youngest 72 year old in the world. he earns over a million euro for essentially 30 days work a year, and it's going to 40 degrees in poland in the summer.

This letter that I'm writing to the FAI to strip the Irish captain of the armband will change all that though.

BTW Who is the Irish captain? Come on, OTF's really quiet these days and my job is well boring. Show some community spirit.

Mr Beast wrote:
Blackburn have picked up recently. If you are looking for a team in a tailspin with multiple self inflicted problems heading for a relegation scrap, try Aston Villa.

Yes, I believe Rovers (despite the ownership maelstrom and general mentalism around Ewood this season) will actually stay up.

They're the highest PL scorers outside the top 5 (having scored more goals than Newcastle and Liverpool) and in quite a few games they've been exceptionally unlucky- Newcastle a couple of weeks ago springs to mind.

In addition they're dab hands at relegation dogfights. I can see them safe as long as Yakubu stays injury free and they tighten up the leaking defence.

At this stage Wigan, Bolton and either Wolves or QPR to go down

*ahem* JOINT highest scorers outside the top 5. But yeah, Yakubu's been in great form this season. Hoilett, too, was fantastic against us in the 3-3.

Jimmy Bignutz wrote:
This letter that I'm writing to the FAI to strip the Irish captain of the armband will change all that though.

BTW Who is the Irish captain? Come on, OTF's really quiet these days and my job is well boring. Show some community spirit.

I looked it up and everything for you Jimmy. It looks like it's Robbie Keane. I'd have put money on it being Richard Dunne but there you go.

So what allegations are you planning to level at the journeyman striker?

Thanks, that's very helpful.

I may have to expose the shocking rumour that Keane wasn't always a supporter of all the clubs he claims to have followed. I know this will be news to many.

His name is also an anagram of the infamous Irish website bonkabeer.ie - he must have something to do with that.