Town boss Mick McCarthy says Brentford’s less successful campaign having jettisoned manager Mark Warburton and undergone major upheaval last summer might be a case of ‘Be careful what you wish for’. Some Blues supporters have called for a change at Portman Road after recent results and performances. The 14th-placed Bees visit Suffolk on Saturday afternoon.
While Town are eighth, seven points plus goal difference off the play-offs with six games to play having finished sixth a year ago, Brentford, fifth and like Town losing play-off semi-finalists in 2014/15, have been less successful this time around, having announced in mid-February last year that Warburton and his staff would be moving on at the end of that campaign.
A new management team led by Dutchman Marinus Dijkhuizen came in during the close season, but after a disappointing start to 2015/16 he moved on in September last year with current boss Dean Smith taking over from caretaker boss Lee Carsley in December.
Warburton’s exit came as a shock even to someone who has been in the game as long as McCarthy.
"I shouldn’t be surprised by anything in football, but it does continue to surprise me,” McCarthy admitted.
"It surprised me that with 20 games to go Mark was leaving, and even more so now he’s gone and won the league with Rangers. It was a bit of a surprise considering how well they did last year.
"It’s happened at bigger and better clubs. Manchester United did it with Alex Ferguson and that went particularly wrong.
"Then he said, ‘No, I’m not going’, and they won the league. Manchester City have done it and it’s gone particularly well for them.
"Brentford were amazing, I think Mark Warburton kept his counsel and his dignity, and the players and the way they did it last year was amazing.
"But then to lose him, I think that upset the apple cart completely, and some big players also left, so it was always going to be difficult.
"But they’ve had a bit of a pick-me-up just recently, they won 3-1 [at Nottingham Forest] and 3-0 [at home to Bolton] in the last two games, so it won’t be easy.”
Last week’s opponents Wolves, who were seventh behind the Blues on goal difference, are also some way from the top-six fight this year.
"I don’t tend to look at anybody else’s downfall just to try and make me feel any better about it,” McCarthy added.
"We’ve continued to do well, we’ve had some bad results recently but over the piece I’ll look back on it and reflect on it and think it’s been good.
"Wolves, as I said on Saturday, they lost players, Benik Afobe, Nouha Dicko, Bakary Sako, Jordan Graham.
"Anybody who loses those players in a season is going to be affected, as anybody who loses Daryl Murphy, David McGoldrick, Ryan Fraser and Teddy Bishop is equally going to be affected.
"Brentford were different altogether, they ended up in the top six and changed it all, I guess expecting to be better. Maybe it’s a case of ‘Be careful what you wish for’.”
McCarthy says his will to win is as strong now as it was when he was a youngster coming into the professional game, something his wife pointed out to him earlier this week.
"I sometimes wonder if that sense of wanting to win is still as acute as when I was 18 and then on days like Tuesday night and Wednesday remind me that it is,” he said.
"On Wednesday afternoon when I finally spoke to Fiona, she reminded me that maybe that is the case.
"She said I’d been grumpy. I didn’t think I had. I hadn’t spoken to her, so I wouldn’t know!”
He says that desire to win continues to be what drives him on: "Absolutely it is. It’s not anything else.
"I want to win games. I don’t like being ordinary, I don’t like being 10th, ninth, eighth. Sixth, I don’t like that, but it’s a lot better than eighth, ninth and 10th and seventh.
"And, of course, in relation to a lot of other clubs it’s not ordinary what we’ve done this season, but it’s disappointing because we finished sixth last season and we’re not doing as well. Winning really drives me on.”
The level of entertainment and enjoyment provided by games at Portman Road this season has been the subject of much criticism from fans in recent weeks but McCarthy says they’re something which is important to him.
"It’s been in my mind always,” he continued. "I didn’t come away from the last three games thinking I enjoyed any of those. Wolves was good, I thought we played well there.
"Unfortunately, the opposition that come don’t have any bearing on whether they want to entertain our fans, like I don’t when I go away anywhere else.
"And I thought Charlton played particularly well. If we’d nicked a goal it would have changed it, obviously, the game might have opened up.
"I’m still interested in winning, though. I went away fuming on Tuesday night, and Wednesday. It doesn’t make me feel any better.”
Meanwhile, McCarthy continues to be linked with the vacant manager's job at Aston Villa and is now second-favourite behind Nigel Pearson with most bookies, some quoting his price as low as 5/2.