Whether it was the correct decision remains to be seen...
When Mick came bouncing into the club a few weeks before the beginning of the 2006/7 season we were in a terrible mess.The previous manager,ex England boss Glen Hoddle,had resigned from the job after a couple of seasons of sterile dull football that left Wolves in a state of flux.Indeed were in such a bad state that for our first game under Big Mick we only just managed to fill the starting line up and subs bench.We were favourites for relegation and apathy ruled...
But the big man breathed new life into the seemingly moribund club and with some judicious signings from the lower leagues not only managed to keep us in the division but guided us to an improbable play off spot.
The crowds began to come back to the club and we had a vigour that had been lost under Hoddle
With expectations raised the next season was always going to be harder and so it proved as we finished below the expected play off place.Wolves fans have a bit of a reputation of being notoriously hard to please and this was when i first started to hear rumblings of a small, but vocal--especially on various websites---band of Anti Mick brigade who wanted him out of the club.It seemed they would never back him no matter what good he did.
The next season we won the Championship by eight points...Still some were'nt happy with the big fella being in charge.
We had reached the promised land of the Premiership barely three years after looking like a club in terminal decline.
The Premiership is tough and unforgiving and so to finish 15th in our first season back with relative ease was a great effort.The next season was just as tough and finally went down to the final day,Indeed we only secured our top flight status with three minutes of the season left.
Which brings us to this season,our third successive term in the Premiership.The bar had been raised on the fans expectations and we started well with seven points off the first three games and even topped the table for the first time in many a year...But things started to spiral downwards alarmingly.Culminating in the humiliating 1-5 defeat to local rivals West Brom and dropping into the bottom three...The club had to be seen to act and sacking the boss is always the easy option.
God knows Mick is'nt perfect.Mistakes have been made under his reign.He bought the club some seriously bad PR when fielding a virtual reserve team at Old Trafford after a storming win at Spurs.He has played players out of their natural position either by design or because of injuries and he even had a go at the Wolves fans earlier in the season after receiving some horrendous personal abuse.
However everyone saw the measure of the man yesterday just moments after being sacked.There was'nt one ounce of bitterness.He said he loved the club,has had a fantastic time here and hoped we stayed up.A class act...
I met him once at a London Wolves dinner when he and his wife were guests of the then manager Mark McGhee,he came across as a genuine fella with time for everyone who spoke to him.The game has a lot of scumbags within it but Mick is one of the good guys...
Whenever Mick returns to Wolves with a new club--possibly Leeds--i hope he gets a rapturous welcome from the home fans who have been denied the chance to say goodbye properly.
When the history of Wolves is updated Mick McCarthy will rightly be seen as a hero who saved the club...
Thanks Big man for all you did for my club.I respect and admire you.Hope you have much success in the future...
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