Mick McCarthy is a firm believer in one style of football — winning football. The former Millwall, Ireland, Sunderland and Wolves boss was unveiled as Town’s new manager at a press conference late this afternoon.
Asked whether he ultimately aims to play they type of football associated with the likes of Sir Bobby Robson, McCarthy said: "Winning. I think there’s a bit of football snobbery goes on, about how we want to play football.
"If we go to Birmingham on Saturday, play brilliantly and get beaten will anybody be bothered [that we played brilliantly]?
"We need to find a formula to win games. I’m not saying we will be the next Barcelona because we’ll not. I’d like to think we will work as hard as them, that would be a really good start.
"All the best teams work hard. It’s not a dirty word, it’s essential. Let’s find a winning brand of football, whatever that might be. 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1 — you do the numbers — everyone waxes lyrical and it’s like a maths lesson when you listen to football analysts. I’m not really bothered. I just want to win games.”
He believes fans accept managers based on results above all else: "I have a philosophy that if you win more games than you lose you tend to get accepted. That’s backed up for me by Big Sam at West Ham, 'the academy of football’.
"They were berating Sam for a while and giving out to him, but he got them promoted, as I knew full well he would. Where are they now? [Ninth in the Premier League].
"He plays winning football and there’s no better version of it and how that is achieved that’s decided first and foremost by your players and I’m inheriting every single one of them. I’ll have to see if I can get a result by any means. Fair means.”
Although he sees the immediate task as dragging the Blues out of the relegation zone, eventually he says he can progress the club up the table and beyond: "I don’t see why not.
"I looked at the crowd for the Sheffield Wednesday match, 17,500, that’s a great crowd in defeat and as team went to the bottom of the table and given the run of results.
"They’ve got a great support and I think if we can get out of this first, it’s certainly a club that I could progress from there.”
Skipper Carlos Edwards said he felt that former boss Paul Jewell had been too nice during his latter days which surprises his successor: "I think this is a nice club, it’s a nice place.
"I don’t know whether Paul Jewell’s been too nice, I think Paul’s a proper manager. I think he has the ability to nail one or two.
"And his teams, whenever I’ve played my teams against him, I can’t say that he has had ‘nice’ teams. They’ve played nice football, but there’s a difference.”
As for Jewell’s predecessor, McCarthy’s Saipan 2002 sparring partner Roy Keane, inevitably he got a mention at the press conference: "I’ve just seen my name on a board out there and that’s the closest we’ve been in a long time, to be quite honest. We’re only two inches apart.
"I’m glad somebody mentioned it because I thought I was going to go a day in my life without hearing his name — you didn’t let me down!”