Boss Mick McCarthy can empathise with his recently appointed Rotherham counterpart Neil Redfearn having taken over at Town in similar circumstances three years ago last Sunday.

The Blues were bottom of the Championship table on seven points from 13 games, while the Millers currently occupy the same spot with nine from 15, Redfearn having taken over as manager on October 9th after Steve Evans’s departure.

“He has got his work cut out, it’s not an easy situation to be thrown into,” McCarthy reflected. “I guess if I’d got one thing going for which Neil hasn’t it was experience, a good deal more experience. Whether that works out all the time, I’m not sure.

“You’ve got to get in, have a look at your players, find out what they’re best at, find a blend, find a system, find a shape and then they’ve got to work like buggery to make sure they stay in the league.

“All those things that probably aren’t seen as qualities - hard work, being dogged, tackling, scrapping, winning the ball back, pressing the opposition, the professional, horrible, what’s seen as the dirty side of the game they've got to be the best side of your game when you’re in that kind of position.

“And if you can scrap results out, which we did and stayed in the league, then you’ve got something to build on.

“If you want to go in and start thinking you’re going to play your way out with all the best football, it’s hardly likely because there are teams who are better than you.”

As was the case when McCarthy took over at Portman Road, Redfearn has a squad featuring a number of loan players and the Blues boss says it was important to get the best from them while they're at the club.

“I didn’t treat them any differently whether they were loan players or otherwise,” he recalled.

“If the loan players were better than the players I’d got signed I’d play the loan players, big Guirane N’Daw was on loan, for example.

"There were about seven of them here, it was like the good, bad and indifferent, to be honest with you.

“You’ve really got to capture their hearts and minds and get them playing for the club because if they’ve got a contract elsewhere you’ve got to make them feel wanted, feel needed, that they’ve an important role to play in the club.

“If you don’t they just know that they’re going back to their parent club and it’s not going to make a blind bit of difference because they’ll get their wages and then go back and probably go out on loan elsewhere.

“That’s important, making them want to play for you, and without telling them you're going to sign them and give them contracts and that everything’s going to be OK.

"That’s a tough job that, it’s not easy getting them all onside and getting them playing.”

The Rotherham squad includes Paul Green and Frazer Richardson, who played for McCarthy on loan with the Blues during the second half of 2013/14.

“Greeny was excellent against us there last year and, of course, Conor Sammon scored, who had also been here,” he added.

“And Frazer Richardson, they’re just top, top pros those two and fantastic lads, who I would imagine anybody would want in their squad and to be able to select them.

“I think Neil Redfearn has gone back to those lads. You go into a club and you have a look at them and say ‘Who can I hang my hat on and who can’t I hang my hat on?’.

“You find out very quickly, the tittle-tattle in the dressing room, the staff who are already there, you watch them in training.

“You find out about people very quickly and if you’re in that position you want ones you can trust, ones you can hang your hat on and Greeny and Frazer are two top guys, as they proved when they came here.”

McCarthy was disappointed to see fellow bosses Chris Ramsey and Chris Powell sacked by QPR and Huddersfield respectively on Wednesday.

“Chris Ramsey I know him but he’s not somebody I know that well, but Chris Powell I know really well and I sent him a text yesterday just saying that I was sorry to see the news and if that’s what you get for a two-all draw at Reading, thank God I got beaten 5-1!

“Tongue-in-cheek to a friend, a comrade, an ally in the game, by the way, I didn’t enjoy getting beaten 5-1.

“That was shock, I have to say, because I thought they were very good when they came here. And to get a two-all draw at Reading and get sacked on the back of it, I don’t what their expectations are.

“I guess at QPR with Chris Ramsey they think they ought to be going straight back up and they’ve had a few bad results. It’s just sad to see any of them go. It just shows you the pressure that’s on all of us to do well.”

Photo: Action Images

hoppy added 06:15 - Nov 6 I wonder who he's referring to as the bad and indifferent ones when he came in? He cut short the season long loan of Luongo in November just after coming in (and he's just been on the initial shortlist for the Ballon d'Or)... Does that make him one of the good ones, the bad ones or indifferent ones?
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cats_whiskers added 10:08 - Nov 6 Thursday night must be McCarthy's (Lemonade) time as a few of those and the tongue loosens and we get the standard Friday reported drivel. Quote “You've got to get in, have a look at your players, find out what they're best at! (Ho Hum) "find a blend, find a system, find a shape” (At times his ideas just look “Pear Shaped” - to us fans) It is; Typical McCarthy saying one thing and then doing another. Paul Green was deserving of a contract, does a decent job in midfield and he also nicked an important goal in that spell. McCarthy was singing his praises when he was here. (But that's usual) Then appears to do nowt in the summer and he joins Rotherham! Matt Derbyshire (Rotherham) is a decent player and one for the defence to be wary of.

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