Time has come for McCarthy to resign

IT is time for Mick McCarthy to make the ultimate sacrifice for the team he loves and resign from his position as team manager of Ireland.

The crazy events of the past five days have confirmed for me that the legacy of Saipan and the negative effects of a media campaign designed to unsettle him have reached the point where the only sensible course for him is to move on.

This conclusion does not engender any sense he should be forced out of the job he has filled with considerable success over the past six years.

That, of course, is a statement that will be dismissed as nonsense by McCarthy’s detractors, those who erroneously hold him responsible for Roy Keane’s absence from the World Cup and charge him with failure because Ireland did not reach the final.

Just imagine ! There are people out there who will argue vehemently that it was because of McCarthy’s perceived weaknesses as coach that Ireland did not beat Spain and go on to overcome South Korea and Germany to face Brazil in the final !

It is significant, of course, that these are the same people who predicted that Ireland would not be able to compete because Keane was not there to face Cameroon, Germany and Saudi Arabia in the first phase. How quickly and conveniently they forget.

Those who are in the habit of reading the coverage of Ireland’s international football in these columns will not have formed this opinion from our reportage of the events of the World Cup.

But this is the less important issue in the current climate, even if it is the underlying cause of much of the pressure that is being exerted on McCarthy.

The harsh truth is that a cabal of sportswriters in this country have embarked upon a campaign to unseat him. Their reasons are not important, what is pertinent is the fact that they exert a considerable influence on public opinion.

It is a fact that McCarthy provided them with plenty of ammunition this week. He did so by his apparent vacillation when asked in Dublin whether the vacancy at Sunderland interested him.

McCarthy said his only concern was to guide Ireland to victory over Switzerland in the European Championship next week but he was less than decisive when pressed on the Sunderland position. It appeared as if he was trying to keep his options open.

Whatever his private thoughts on his professional future, while manager of Ireland he should have refused to have been drawn into speculation on the Sunderland job and countered all queries by stressing his contract with the FAI.

Instead the spotlight that should have firmly been focused on the match against Switzerland has been deflected onto McCarthy’s own position.

The result is that McCarthy is now immersed in speculation on his future more deeply than ever. And it is just as obvious that this is a pattern that will be repeated whenever Ireland gather and whenever a managerial vacancy occurs in England.

What his private thoughts are on the subject, it must be abundantly clear to him that the willingness of those close to him to confess publicly that he would have taken the Sunderland job had it been offered and that he was prepared to listen to offers have introduced an element of insecurity that will not go away.

Football team managers are like perishable goods in that they have a limited shelf-life. McCarthy is the longest serving international team manager in Europe after six years in the job and it has been increasingly clear over the past week that it is time for him to take objective stock of where he and his Irish team are going.

The emotional ties are considerable for the players gave him unequivocal support throughout a demanding World Cup campaign. Their record of losing only one match in 16 was comparable to all but the very best.

The match they lost was in Teheran when they fell to an injury time goal that did not matter because they had already won the qualifying match. While they went out to Spain in the round of 16, the loss was in a penalty shoot-out and was technically a draw.

The idea of staying for the European Championship is a seductive one for there is a steady stream now of talented youngsters queuing for inclusion in the team - John O’Shea, Colin Healy, Gary Doherty, Clinton Morrison, Stephen McPhail, Graham Barrett.

Two years down the line and Ireland should have a top-class young team, particularly if they qualify for the finals in Portugal.

Nothing must be allowed interfere with their efforts to do so, certainly it will not help if their preparations are repeatedly overshadowed by endless speculation on the manager’s position.