| Super Mick Written by COYB11 on Friday, 22nd Jan 2016 16:13 Just a bit of background information to start by highlighting my Ipswich watching career. I got my first season ticket at Portman Road at the tender age of 11 (2005/06 season). During that period we have been managed by: Joe Royle (the season AFTER Darren Bent and Shefki Kuqi left, finishing 15th I think), Jim Magilton, Roy Keane, Paul Jewell and then Mick. So last season was the first in which I experienced the joy of reaching the play-offs and then the horrible pain of losing in them. This blog will highlight why I believe that Mick McCarthy is 100% the perfect man for the job and by far the best manger I have witnessed at Ipswich. Divided into subcategories by what I think are McCarthy’s greatest qualities. By the end of this if you’re not a McCarthyite then I have failed you, Mick :'( Team>Individuals One of the main factors that makes a football team successful comes from strong team spirit and a desire to work for one another. There is no doubting this, Leicester clearly have a strong togetherness within their team this season, and this is why they are at the top of the Premier League. They have a couple of outstanding players (Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy), the team and the manager have recognised this and they all work cohesively to feed their main men. All of the players recognise this is their role in the team and that if they can provide for these two players they have a significant chance of winning. Back to Ipswich, this is something that was missing through the years of Keane and Jewell in particular and it was always as clear as anything. In stark contrast, the moment Mick walked through the door, there is absolutely no denying that we have been successful, and a major reason for this is the team spirit that he has created throughout his tenure. Mick tends to sacrifice flair and flamboyance for the benefit of the team as a whole and I think this is a sound idea given the circumstances. Players such as Jay Emmanuel-Thomas (JET) spring to mind. When he first signed for £1.5 million I really believed that we were going straight into the Premier League. I had heard and watched videos of him on YouTube (dubious source for all-round play) and thought we had signed the player who could be our Mharez. The difference between the Leicester team now and the Ipswich team then was that the entire Leicester team provide for Mahrez, who himself is just as hard-working as he is talented. Ipswich in 2011 didn’t work as a team, and JET wasn’t hard working, so it didn’t function and he ended up leaving a year and a half later. This isn’t to say however, that Ipswich don’t now have plenty of players with flair; Freddie Sears is as direct a runner as I have seen, Teddy Bishop although injured can dribble past any Championship and probably most Premier League defenders, whilst Ryan Fraser on loan from Bournemouth is obscenely fast. The key is now that all of these players work hard, they put a shift in for the team, and we have players such as Cole Skuse who are combative, and tenacious, who can provide simple passes to our more creative sparks. Back to team spirit, what I believe to be a good example of how this has been created by Mick is the much talked about decision to stick with Luke Chambers at right-back and Tommy Smith and Christophe Berra at centre-back, as opposed to Berra and Chambers at centre-back and Jonny Parr at right-back (a debate that was very prevalent during the second half of the 2014/15 season). Mick is loyal to Smith, who is currently Ipswich’s longest serving player and has had to ride out some really tough storms (Peterborough 7-1 comes to mind) and has always come back fighting. I have so much admiration for a player who obviously cares about the club as much as all of us fans do and so does Mick. If it ain’t broke then don’t fix it, and I really believe that by sticking with Smith at centre-back, Mick gains trust from his players, thus getting more out of them, and I think this is invaluable, and you can’t put a price on team spirit. A Clear Strategy What has really impressed me with McCarthy’s management style over his three years in charge has also been the fact that he has always had a clear plan and structure from day one. His first target: survival. Paul Jewell, although a really nice bloke left Ipswich in an absolutely dreadful position. Twelve games without a win, bottom of the Championship, and with a squad full of players who I quite frankly think should never have been professionals in the first place due to their shocking attitude (not mentioning names, Michael Chopra). He achieved this and we managed a rather impressive 14th placed finish, given the start. McCarthy brought in players with experience, grit, determination and in DJ Campbell, goals. He kept things simple, lining up with a narrow 4-4-2 and selected players who were only interested in playing for him and playing for Ipswich. McCarthy’s first team selection in his first game as Ipswich manager. Birmingham 0 Ipswich 1. Nov ’12. 13 Henderson The following season, JET (McCarthy famously said he would only call him ‘JET’ when he had “a rocket up his backside†but it’s far quicker to type than the long version) was swapped for Paul Anderson. This signing optimised the strategy for season number two. Progression, but stay true to our roots and work hard. If you don’t know Paul Anderson as a player then you’re missing out. I was very sorry to see him go at the end of last season but he wasn’t guaranteed first team football every week. He is a winger who works extremely hard, always helps out his full-back, has half a yard of pace and can deliver a decent cross/dead ball. Significantly though, this off-season was the beginning of the construction of the spine of a very good Championship team. Cole Skuse, Christophe Berra, Daryl Murphy and David McGoldrick all came in on free transfers. Amazing business. What’s so impressive is that these players (barring injury problems to McGoldrick) still form the back bone of our team today, and that shows how forward thinking McCarthy is. He knew that if he could get a strong core, you have a real chance of kicking on in the Championship. Unfortunately, the season didn’t end how we had all hoped, a sprinkling of the fabulous skill and charisma of Jonny Williams on loan couldn’t quite see us into the top six. We narrowly missed out and finished ninth. A solid effort. The spine of the team was now built, the relationship between the players and the fans was simmering nicely and Luke Chambers began to fist pump at will (he does this every time we win and it’s brilliant). The 2014/15 campaign was the greatest football season of my Ipswich supporting career to date and it actually proved to be an emotional roller-coaster that non-football fans won’t understand. This was the season where we would finally break into the top six (JUST) after 10 long years of Keane, Jewell, Chopra (I could go on) etc. This was the season when Mick added some genuine quality to the side. Teddy Bishop came from up from the academy (his qualities were mentioned above), Freddie Sears signed in January and Kevin Bru came in from literally nowhere (well, Levski Sofia). Bru, much like Bishop is an agile, skillful, baller. His very continental qualities mixed with his ability to ‘get stuck in’ proves that McCarthy does indeed rate flair players so long as they contribute to the teams defensive duties as well. We ended up facing our bitter rivals Norwich in the play-offs and lost. Although the day we lost was honestly one of the proudest moments of my life as this was a team that cared as much as the fans and it was clear for everyone to see by the players warming thanks to the fans a the end of a very emotionally draining day. So, Mick survived (2012/13 14th), Mick built the core (2013/14 9th), and Mick had added the flair (2014/15 sixth). If that isn’t progress then I don’t know what is. We spent very little on transfers during those 2 1/2 years by the way (Freddie Sears – now arguably our best player - came in for £200,000 and £10,000 was spent on Tyrone Mings who we sold to Bournemouth for £8 million). The man’s a real life wheeler dealer with a hint of wit. You could argue this reflects in his Ipswich team also, full of hard workers (wheeler dealers) with a pinch of quality (wit). Not to mention a ton of character. [b]Mick Rates Characters[/b] For this section, I’m going to quote Luke Chambers on an interview he did with the East Anglian Daily Times back in August 2015. It says all you need to know about the characters at the club, who are all led heroically by Chambo. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Mick McCarthy rates a footballer by the ‘man’ before he even thinks about them as a player. I would imagine that before he signs a player, questions such as these will go through his head: Will he fit in with ‘the lads’ socially? Does he care about the club? Will he understand if I honestly tell him he’s not in the team this week because I feel that his performances aren’t up to his high standards? All of these are key questions, and one of the key strengths of the team over the past few years has been the fact that everyone understands their role, everyone roots for the first XI from the bench, and nobody sulks when they get dropped. “Last season I started a little group on Whatsapp," said Chambers. "If anyone has got any problems, or doesn’t know what time we’re in or even if someone’s just got a bit of banter, that's where it all goes on. "That’s every single player, as soon as they sign, they’re added. Some don’t have as much to say as others, but it’s there for everyone to use and it just makes them feel part of something." What I would give to be on that Whatsapp group to find out what they discuss as ‘banter’ on a day to day basis is my social goal in life. I love quotes like this, it makes the players seem so real and relatable and that's a really strong trait to have as strong characters build exciting relationships between the players and the fans. Within eight months of joining Ipswich Mick shipped out the dead wood, JET, Chopra and Lee Martin were all gone. These were players who didn’t have a care in the world for Ipswich Town, they were only self motivated. “If someone is not doing something right here, they get shut down by the rest of us pretty sharpish. They don’t last very long." Back in the days when Jewell and Keane butchered the team spirit by being too lenient or too harsh, I can honestly say, although it hurts me to confess, had very little pride in supporting Ipswich. It is so refreshing to see players who genuinely cared about the club and about each other that they would oust any negative vibes they were getting from individuals. This proactive action takes strong characters and strong leadership, and this is something that Mick has very consciously brought in and cleverly cultivated himself. I’m not sure why, it may link back to how relatable the current squad have become, but it genuinely makes me so happy that the team are all good mates. “I’m going out everyday – genuinely – playing football with my mates for a livingâ€. Luke Chambers has just revealed every young boys dream here, he’s reached it, that is surely the pinnacle of life!? I’m going to stop here on Chambers because I’m going to write another blog on him anyway, but I will leave you with this for now, but he sums up exactly how important characters are in a team, thus proving McCarthy’s strategy right. The reason I have written this blog post is because I have become very angry with some comments on the TWTD forum, and it pains me to see that some people aren’t fully behind Mick McCarthy. I personally, can’t quite understand it, hence why I have written just short of 2,500 words on why I think he is a brilliant manager. You have to respect others’ opinions, so us McCarthy lovers are just going to have to shout louder, and I have no problem with that! Come on you Blues! Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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