Town boss Mick McCarthy says he’ll make a decision on his future in the summer with his Blues contract up at the end of the season. McCarthy signed a two-and-a-half-year deal in January 2016, which also included an option for the club to keep him for a further two campaigns.
Next Wednesday is the fifth anniversary of the 58-year-old taking over at Town. Asked whether he sees that as an achievement, he reflected: "I would say in this day and age it’s a good achievement to be anywhere more than 12 months, bearing in mind the managers that get the sack.
"I won’t be looking upon it [in any particular way], I’d like to be looking upon it that we’ve won a couple of games between now and my fifth year anniversary. Just another milestone.
"I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, some more than others, I might add, but nevertheless I still come in here full of enthusiasm and vim and vigour to do my job on a Monday morning, whatever it is, whether win, lose or draw.
"And I still come in here and do it exactly the same as I’ve done it for five years with you guys [the media] as well. How much longer it goes on, we’ll see.”
He says he’s not yet talked with owner Marcus Evans about his situation come the summer: "I’ve not sat down [with him], I don’t look beyond it. It’s not my intention to be looking beyond it or even worry about it, or to be here next year. I’ll finish my contract and I’ll see what happens.”
Asked to clarify what he meant, he added: "I’m not assuming there’ll be an offer and I hope anybody’s not assuming that if I’m offered anything then I’m actually going to accept it and stay because that’ll be dealt with, but I’m not assuming anything.
"It’s my decision, nobody can sit me down and make me sign something whether I wanted to or not. It’s my decision, my contract will be up in May and I’ll decide what I want to do.
"It’ll be my decision what I want to do, I’ll have been here just the guts of six years [by then], if I get to the end of May, of course. And I’ll decide what I want to do. Isn’t that a nice position to be in?”
McCarthy has enjoyed a good working relationship with Evans with the pair remaining similarly grounded regardless of Town’s position.
"He’s very consistent because I hear exactly the same and exactly the same amount if we’re top of the league or bottom of the league and he always has a very consistent demeanour, which is why we’ve had a really good working relationship over the last five years,” McCarthy said.
"I guess there are not many owners who have been fortunate enough to have a manager who has spent £3 million over five years [on fees] and taken £14 million, by my reckoning with Murphy, Mings and Cressy, although I didn’t sign him, but I still sold him, and still maintained promotion pushes and stayed in the league and not had to sack three, four, five managers in the meantime and had to pay them off.
"So maybe we’ve both been fortunate. Me to have a guy that’s trusted me and let me do it and for him to have somebody that when you do trust them he can do it.”