It was a sunny afternoon last June when I got a call that set alarm bells ringing.
It came from a trusted contact and the following 10 words, coming in the middle of the close season when hopes were high of signing players, shocked and surprised me.
"I think this is going to be Mick’s last season," said the voice.
The caller went on to express concern that the board weren’t backing McCarthy with the transfer funds he wanted.
At the time, Wolves hadn’t signed any players, although negotiations to bring in Roger Johnson — still vastly over-priced by Birmingham at that moment — were going on in the background after McCarthy identified him as his number one target in May.
The particular transfer the caller mentioned was Craig Gardner, who was said to be keen to come to Wolves and that the club had matched Sunderland’s £4.5m (€5.3m) bid. Birmingham had told the two clubs to sort it out between themselves, but any chance Wolves had of landing the midfielder were scuppered by personal terms.
In the end, McCarthy got one of his wishes when they signed Johnson after Gardner slipped through their grasp. Around the same time, contact was made to Wolves from an agent representing Demba Ba and Yohan Cabaye.
But he was told their wage demands were too high and they ended up at Newcastle. More recently, Wolves were offered the chance to sign three players at Manchester City — Nedum Onuoha, Wayne Bridge and Abdul Razak. But for whatever reason, they didn’t come. It wasn’t the first time there have been tensions between chairman Steve Morgan and McCarthy.
McCarthy admitted himself that the previous occasion that he feared he was in danger of the sack was after the infamous ‘Old Traffordgate’ in December 2009 when he made 10 changes to his team and lost 3-0 to Manchester United.
It was said that Morgan was so incensed he didn’t speak to McCarthy for days.
Since then, there has been more understanding and patience from Morgan, with chief executive Jez Moxey a conduit between the pair. Two successful fights against relegation helped improve the relationship between chairman and manager. But Moxey’s role in McCarthy’s longevity in the role shouldn’t be underestimated.
But the nagging doubts didn’t go away and surfaced in the January 2012 transfer window. I had heard Mick was going to be given as much as £4.5m (€5.3m) to spend. And yet, when it came to it, chief target Onuoha went to QPR and other players he wanted, such as Wigan midfielder Mohamed Diame, weren’t available. Eventually, they signed Sebastien Bassong and Emmanuel Frimpong on loan after snapping up Eggert Jonsson.
Djibril Cisse, who went to QPR, was one of the names put forward but McCarthy was told he was too expensive.
There is a saying that players, not results, get managers the sack. But in trying to move to the next level and signing big-money players, Johnson and Jamie O’Hara, they introduced a new type of signing that had to be bedded in to a solid dressing room. No-one is saying the arrival of Johnson has brought about the current situation.
But his ascension to the role of captain appears to have had a destabilising effect on both player and manager. It didn’t allow Johnson the time to bed in and develop his form. And the appointment of him as skipper upset the ‘old guard’ from a dressing room that considered Karl Henry to be their leader. Whichever way you look at it, the intervention of chairman Morgan in a rant at the players seriously undermined McCarthy’s position.
In McCarthy’s eyes, Morgan had crossed a line by walking in on his territory and the pair had words afterwards.
There is never one single factor that brings down a manager. But if the appointment of Johnson as skipper is one, then the defender’s below-par form over the first half of the season is another. McCarthy, however, leaves with his head held high. He restored pride in the club. He restored a fierce work ethic in a group of players perhaps not seen since the halcyon days of Stan Cullis that had only shown signs of wavering along with the shambolic events of yesterday. He gathered a group of little-known players and fashioned them into a tight unit that gave every drop of effort. Many acts of charity went unseen and his desire to always try to do the right thing still affected me personally as well. I only missed one game during the Championship-winning season, the 3-2 win at Sheffield United in November 2008.
There was a good reason for it — my wife suffered a miscarriage and I took a few days off work for us to be together. Just 45 minutes before Wolves were due to kick-off at Bramall Lane, my mobile phone rang. It was McCarthy, asking about my other half’s health, wishing me all the best and saying he was looking forward to seeing me back ‘sparring’ on the circuit again soon. He didn’t need to do that but it was a measure of the man, how he is always looking to do the right thing by people. He will be missed and he leaves a big gap to fill.
Wolves can only hope their next appointment is as successful.
* Tim Nash is Wolves correspondent for The Express & Star newspaper. This article first appeared yesterday.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Tuesday, February 14, 2012
