Mick McCarthy believes England manager Roy Hodgson took the right approach by naming a young squad for the World Cup. Hodgson’s men bowed out at the group stage but McCarthy, who says he similarly brought youngsters through when he was in charge of the Republic of Ireland, feels that the players and ultimately the team’s prospects will have benefited.
Raheem Sterling, Adam Lallana, Ross Barkley, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Luke Shaw were all in Hodgson’s party which travelled to Brazil, where they were defeated by Italy and Uruguay and drew with Costa Rica.
But the Town boss says all shouldn’t be doom and gloom despite England’s worst World Cup performance since 1958 with those players likely to be better for the experience.
"I think there was a bit of success in there with some of the younger players who played well. Unless they get the chance to play they never get any experience.
"They just didn’t play well enough at the time, or the others played better. I think Roy got it right taking the young fellas anyway.
"At some stage you have to change it and I did it with Ireland, having been there at international level.
"I played Robbie Keane and Damian Duff and Kevin Kilbane and Ian Harte and it took us two campaigns to qualify but then we got through to the last 16 in Japan and South Korea and that was because we had a team of kids — and they were kids when they got in — and they gradually blossomed and got experience at international level.
"And then when we did qualify we did ourselves justice. We perhaps should have qualified before when we drew in Macedonia two years before for the European Championships.
"I think Roy’s got the right idea and unless he gets youngsters through and gives them some experience, they’ll never get any better.”
Overall, he says the competition is hotting up having moved into the last 16: "I was disappointed when England went out, not that I’m a rabid England fan because I played for Ireland. But the interest certainly went when they were coming home.
"I prefer the knock-out stages, the group stages are OK but they’re generally playing just to get through and make sure they do that.
"It’s more exciting when it’s knock-out and some of the games I’ve seen since have been better. But I have to say, I’ve been on holiday with my granddaughter so I didn’t watch them all.”
Meanwhile, former Town boss Roy Keane has been confirmed as assistant manager of Aston Villa under Paul Lambert and will also continue as Martin O’Neill’s Republic of Ireland assistant.