Blues boss Mick McCarthy isn’t surprised that some fans are calling for his head following Town’s recent run of poor form, but says the subject didn’t even come up when he spoke to owner Marcus Evans on Wednesday.

“That’s the first I’ve heard!” McCarthy said when quizzed about the minority calling for a change at the top. “It doesn’t surprise me at all because that’s what football fans do.

“It doesn’t disappoint me, it doesn’t surprise me and it doesn’t worry me because that’s just the way it is.

“I guess at some stage I will leave the club, who knows when. But if there’s somebody who can do it on what I’ve done it and do what I’ve done then good luck to them, those that want that.

“I think the majority of them wouldn’t. I’ve never heard that and I’ve never given it any concern that that would be the case.

“But it doesn’t surprise me, it happens everywhere. Look at the number of managers that get changed.

“It’s usually down to bonkers owners and chairmen rather than football fans that get you out. Fortunately I’ve got a very sensible one.

“I spoke to him yesterday, I had a good conversation with him, he’d watched the game. That subject never came up, that’s for sure, we were just talking about the game and Saturday’s game.”

He says fan frustration doesn’t impact upon his approach: “It doesn’t affect me in terms of how I do things. Of course it bothers me because I prefer my team to be playing well and winning games and fans to be happy.

“Fans only become grumpy when you’re losing games and not playing well. So, from that point of view that bothers me.

“But if you’re asking whether it bothers me in terms of upsetting me, no it doesn’t, because that’s just the way football is. They love you if you’re winning and they hate you if you’re losing.”

McCarthy is confident that the Blues will be able to arrest their current slump and says the way he deals with adversity has changed since he was a young manager at Millwall in the early 1990s.

“Absolutely, yes,” he added. “I’m certainly more understanding of the way football works. I’m 24 years older than I was. Do you act differently to when you were younger? We all do.

“I’ve gained a helluva lot of experience, knowledge and, you might not think it sometimes, but a little bit more calm and a bit more perspective in my life than I had when I was 32 or 33 getting the Millwall job.”

Despite having admitted that he’s currently in his toughest spell with the Blues, he says he doesn’t let it get to him.

“I’d have been in trouble throughout my career if every time that something went [wrong], even as a player when you’re having a tough time you get twitchy and you let it affect you,” he continued.

“Of course it affects us, it affects me like it affects everybody else and if somebody is going to sit here and say it doesn’t affect you then they’d be lying. It’s how it affects you.

“I work harder, am more diligent, if I could be, trying to find a reason and a solution to it. But I don’t go home and have sleepless nights and I don’t go home and kick the dog and treat people badly because we’re getting beat.

“It doesn’t affect my personality that way. I might be a little bit quieter in the car going home when we’ve lost.”

He says turning Town’s season around isn’t a case of finding one underlying cause to the downturn: “We analyse every game after we’ve played them and there have been a whole number of reasons, I guess, but far too long-winded to be getting into them here.

“And it would be a bit too simplistic to say we’ve been unlucky because we haven’t been unlucky in every game.

“There have been times when we’ve given goals away, there have been times when teams have had a stroke of luck, Bristol City, we’d just scored and they had a deflection which no one could have done anything about.

“What was disappointing was they we let one in almost immediately afterwards. There are a load of reasons but not individual ones, if I could do that then I would have stopped it a long time before now, wouldn’t I?”

He says there’s no easy remedy when clubs are in bad runs: “Quite clearly it’s not easy to come up with a fix. When Norwich were getting relegated two years ago, if they had said to the manager, to Chrissy Hughton then ‘By the way, there’s a fix here for us, are you going to find it?’

“When I was at Wolves and we were going down and I got the sack, if there was a fix I’d have got it, I’d have found it. There’s not an easy fix for any of us.

“And there are a lot of other teams in our league looking for a fix at the minute. I’ll tell you what it is, it’s a tough league, a very close league, a relentless league, games come thick and fast and I think it’s a stronger league than it was last year.”

Photo: Action Images

Razor added 11:08 - Oct 23 I think its more than a small minority with the regular away fans----they actually commit time and money to watch the dross served up.
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BlueMachines added 12:36 - Oct 23 The fact is that MM has done brilliantly on what he has had resources wise, no argument. But the simple reason that people are fed up and getting bored of him is he could be doing better. He started with this defence last year (bar Mings for Knudsen) and changed it after a few games. AT WHICH POINT WE HAD OUR BEST SPELL UNDER MM. But he changed it back and refuses to mix it up again. The issues are blindingly obvious but he is too stubborn, for whatever reason, to change it at the back. This stubbornness is beginning to become unforgivable, and the reason people are calling for his head.

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warktheline added 13:00 - Oct 23 Maybe he's been in the job too long, this happens....yes we all know how he turned the club around, but that's yesterday's chip paper. Let's concentrate on the present problems, and I have a question to ask all the 'leave Mick alone' gang, a question I've asked before but as yet haven't seen a considered post! Why does McCarthy play 3 centre backs in a back 4, and why does he play 2 anchor midfielders? Lastly, why can't he to date fathom who to play up front? 10 months of poor, at best, below average performances, and still he persists with his fragile defence! Wake up McCarthy, rip up the 'comfy club ' and start kicking arse..just like you did when the club employed you!

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bohslegend added 14:22 - Oct 23 Really happy to see so many supportive comments for the gaffer on this thread. I was starting to despair with the noisy minority who simply put have always had it in for MM. Would love to see more of these actual supporters challenge the negative drivel we see far too often on just about every report put up on TWTD.
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bohslegend added 15:00 - Oct 23 ^^ obviously mean by people posting comments on the reports, and not the reports themselves (Phil & Gav, still ya! )
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bohslegend added 15:01 - Oct 23 <love>
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warktheline added 16:23 - Oct 23 @bohslegend, please inspire me in regards to team selections of late, spread the word of truth, turn this tide of negativity....no I thought not!
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bohslegend added 16:28 - Oct 23 Warktheline, you said yourself you were an MM fan in the early days but not now. If you were wrong to support him back then, how come you are so sure you are right now???
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warktheline added 16:37 - Oct 23 @bohslegend, I wasn't wrong in my opinion to support him back then, you miss the BIG point, McCarthy's team selections over many months have been inexcusable, he's the one that has lost previous support due to total mismanagement of players! CAN you explain his judgement in regards to back4?.... If so , enlighten me!!!!
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Pip50 added 18:02 - Oct 23 The trouble is our form and general football ability has been pretty pear shaped since losing to Derby at home last January. We are not the only championship side working on meager rations we are though one of the few who charge disproportionally to watch the rubbish served up and never seem to invest much of the £ post selling our better players. We still don't persist in developing our younger players and insist on pedestrian journeymen and those playing out of position. If it were my money Marcus Mick would certainly be given the boot, I suspect not a minority opinion either!

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therein61 added 18:19 - Oct 23 Get the back 4 balanced and rubbish keeper out, get some forward thinking midfielders on the park instead of on the bench to feed the strikers who work their nuts off chasing hoof ball(don't they skipper??) then maybe we might win a few, as to how long you will be here Mick that's down to you get your head out of the sand and stop picking your favourites and go for a side that can win a bloody game.

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jas0999 added 18:36 - Oct 23 I'm not calling for his head. I do think he needs to lose the ego and pig headedness, otherwise I'm not sure where we go. Personally, I'm losing faith with Evans. Benefit of the doubt with the Cresswell money, but considering the Mings fee and vast amount of high earners leaving the club in the summer, I simply fail to see or accept where that money has been fully reinvested. His transfer strategy is now holding us back, as the likes of Coke and Toure won't win you promotion.

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essex57 added 19:30 - Oct 23 Carsey is the football any worse than under Keane and Jewell ? Don't think so and they 50 million more than MM.
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essex57 added 19:34 - Oct 23 If I recall Magillton spent 32 million
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cressi added 09:10 - Oct 24 To be honest ever since the Southampton replay we have being poor its not just this season.We have a keeper who cant deal with balls into box (Gerken) A right back who struggles a central midfield who dont create or score enough,Hence although we have 4 decent strikers they are staved of service,if this goes on people will spend money on things they deem better value Robson days no EVEN the Burley days seem a distant memory watching this dross even when we win its def not entertainment.

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Dissboyitfc added 11:34 - Oct 24 32 million, really on who?
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