‘I’ve done my job’ — McCarthy to leave Ipswich

Mick McCarthy has revealed his wife pleaded with him to call it quits at Ipswich when the unhappy Portman Road natives were at their most vicious.

The Tractor Boys yesterday announced that McCarthy’s near six-year reign will conclude at the end of the season.

The former Ireland boss met Ipswich owner Marcus Evans on Wednesday, the pair deciding a change was “in the best interest for all parties”.

Speaking at his news conference before tomorrow’s match at Birmingham, McCarthy told reporters: “I’m alright. I’m kind of a bit relieved that it’s done and now everybody knows and sort of excited now for the future because no doubt I will go on and manage another club.

“I knew it was coming to a head, I forced the issue, I asked to go and see him. It’s been going on long enough, it needed to be sorted for me, my family, for the club, for Marcus, and I guess for my family and my missus who are long and weary. We needed to know. So that’s why I asked to go and see him.

“Fiona, my wife, at times has said to me, ‘Mick, why don’t you just pack it in. Why are you taking that kind of abuse?’ But no chance, I was never going to pack it in and she knew so we wouldn’t fall out over it. She has an opinion and I have an opinion. But it does take its toll, of course it does.

“My contract is coming to an end. That’s where it’s at and it’s kind of a natural end. And I think everything has its cycle and it’s just run its time.”

McCarthy was asked if he felt he got the respect he deserved for his achievements at Portman Road.

“I don’t know,” he replied, “you’ll have to ask the numbskulls who have been giving me the abuse. I think that’s what they are, to be quite honest. It’s not everybody and that comment is for the people who have been doing it and, I think, ruining games at Portman Road and making it a hard place to play.

“You will have to ask them and they probably don’t give too many people respect, let alone the manager.”

However, McCarthy conceded Ipswich, 10 points outside the play-off spots with eight games to play, have not progressed as he — and the fans — would have wished.

“We’re not progressing, we’re pretty much standing still and I don’t want to do that and I’d like an opportunity to move forward, wherever that might be.

“I’ve done my job and people are getting pretty bored of me anyway. I’ve said that before. So let them have somebody else and see if they get bored with them.”