Today marks the fourth anniversary of Mick McCarthy’s appointment as Town manager. McCarthy, 57, took over as boss on November 1st 2012, Paul Jewell having left by mutual consent just over a week beforehand.
Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Rotherham was McCarthy's 201st match as Blues boss - including the 4-0 home victory over Middlesbrough in February 2013 which he missed as he was unwell when his assistant Terry Connor took charge - with his overall record standing at won 79, drawn 59 and lost 63, a win percentage of 39.3 per cent.
Having taken over when the Blues were bottom of the Championship, five points from safety having taken only seven points from 13 matches. He led them to 14th in that first campaign, then ninth, sixth and the play-offs in 2014/15 and then seventh last season. Town are currently 16th.
Speaking at the end of last week McCarthy said he was proud to be reaching the four-year milestone and believes he has done a good job over that time, even if he admitted after Saturday’s match that he is "disappointed in my own performance at the moment that we’re not getting the results that I think we should with the team I’ve got”.
"I take huge pride in it because quite clearly I’ve done a good job over the four years, no doubting that. I don’t want you to say it, I’m telling you I have,” he said.
"I’m thrilled I’ve had four years, there’d be a lot of others who would like to think they’d, not ‘get’ four years but ‘earn’ four years through their job, through how they do it and what they’ve done.
"[Owner] Marcus [Evans] hasn’t just kept me, Ipswich Town haven’t just kept me because they like me, it’s because I’ve done a good job. That’s why I’m still here.”
McCarthy, who has said he is very happy at Portman Road and has no plans to move on with his contract running to the summer of 2018 with an option for a further two years, is the longest-serving boss in the Championship, which illustrates the precariousness of the job at this level.
"I think 12 months is the average tenure,” McCarthy reflected. "I was looking and there’s me and Simon Grayson, who is just behind me on almost four years.
"And the next one to me is Gary Rowett, who is two years. And then you start looking down then and I think it’s Chris Hughton, who is one year and 10 months.
"You don’t get long and you look at some clubs since I’ve been here and they’ve had six, seven or eight managers. And they’re still not doing any better than they were when I came here.”
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