Ryan Tunnicliffe is hoping the speculation linking Town boss Mick McCarthy with a return to his former role as Republic of Ireland manager will come to nothing.

The Manchester United loanee has made it clear that McCarthy was one of the main reasons behind his decision to agree a temporary stint at Portman Road until January and the season’s midway point.

Tunnicliffe said: “We don’t really speak about it much here but it’s no wonder there is interest in him because he’s a great manager. It’s not for us to discuss and obviously we don’t want him to leave here, but stuff like that happens.

“I don’t know if it would affect my decision on whether or not to extend my loan here. But the main reason I came here was the gaffer because I wanted to work with him. He’s a top-class manager and we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”

Meanwhile, Tunnicliffe delivered a progress report on Town attacker Paul Taylor, with whom he has been keeping closely in touch during his own loan spell with former club Peterborough.

He added: “I speak to Paul quite a bit. I’m always on the phone to him and it’s all about fitness for him. He was out for such a long time with his injury and the fitter he gets the sharper he will be.

“He’s a great player and if he gets his match fitness during his time at Peterborough I’m sure he will come back here and be a great player for us. He’s a game changer — that’s the type of player he is.

“Paul gets a lot of goals because he shoots on sight — that’s his policy. He says to me all the time that he is definitely going to score because of the number of shots he has in a game.

"He’s not short of confidence, he is always looking to beat people and he can be a real game changer for us when we get him back next month.

“I text him virtually every day as well as being on the phone to him to see how he’s getting on and he’s clearly enjoying the fact that he’s getting back towards full fitness. Ipswich will feel the benefit when he returns here.”

Photo: Action Images

PavlovsCat added 07:52 - Oct 18 Dave Allard on McCarthy/Ireland job. ITunes: http://tinyurl.com/a6qknhd (6.00 mins in)
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Keaneish added 08:19 - Oct 18 Have to agree with everything Allard says. MM has always reiterated his enjoyment of the job here and he's been a man of his word up to now so why would this change? Re-assuring when a journo close to him puts his life on it though!
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Matteo_Sereni added 08:55 - Oct 18 Dave Allard is a legend!
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pennblue added 13:50 - Oct 18 The only way we can influence Mick's decision is: a) Evans phones him up, backs him, gives him some dosh to spend b) Fans sing his name all game tomorrow non stop c) Players pull out top drawer performances boosting us into top six, which will make him question whether he should leave a good thing.
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