This in-fighting is painful to see, read and hear. The Mick McCarthy was crap/great/boring/salvationesque claims are all true, and at the same time not. It is not binary.

We were in a mess as a club when McCarthy joined. Paul Jewell had screwed the youth set-up. Did anyone, Marcus Evans, bother to look at the youths Jewell ever brought through? Total amount? One: Leighton Baines. Not a bad player but not an encouraging number.

A huge percentage of players were loaned, a massive amount was being spent/wasted on loanee wages from Connor Wickham's sale. Jimmy Bullard and Danny Collins for example - and later a spent Bullard on contract to the point where he wasn't allowed to play any more.

The football on offer was awful with the concept of organisation being utterly missed and Jewell had no iota of clue what to do about it, hiding in the dugout with no plan A, let alone other alphabetti spaghetti.

McCarthy was a white knight, A dream boat. Salvation. Through a matter of pragmatic hoof, win-the-second-ball football we survived relegation, and two seasons later got in the play-offs.

The last two and a half seasons have been awful to watch. Ryan Fraser, Tom Lawrence and the first two months of this season aside (giving false hope), I questioned many times what the point was. Many did. McCarthy, as dull as his football was, still did positive things though.

We are in a massively better place with the youth set-up in flow, the squad (in the main) is ours, and there is hope. Not a distant village near Framlingham, it is tangible.

The youths are coming through, anyone at Selhurst Park earlier in the season will have left with enormous hope, we just need to be patient.

Anyone expecting us to spend our way to the Premier League are both foolish and also totally out of touch with the history of the club.

The youth set-up is the only realistic way forward (barring an oil sheik taking over) for the club to both be a sustained Premier LEague club (if we make it) but also to attract you quality players. Think a Southampton that doesn't lose its way.

I respect what Mick McCarthy did but desperately wanted him to leave- I hated his style of football for every minute from after the play-off season (winning was a mask that blinded many of us), but it is churlish to ignore the positive influence on the club. He stayed at least two seasons too long but the club are factually in a better position than when he joined.

Thanks Mick. You were an arse to the fans sometimes (and this was often reciprocated) but you were good value and served an enormous purpose to the club.

I badly hope, come the Aston Villa game, we all (all of us, not just the Sir Bobby Robson Stand, let's all be involved) support Klug and the team for the whole match. Imagine how that will feel? I felt sparks of that against Millwall again. I'd love to feel it again. Don't we all?

terryf added 09:36 - Apr 12 Well said. Couldn't agree more. At the end of the day football is an entertainment...or should be!! Getting in the right man is crucial to the future of our Club.
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rickw added 09:50 - Apr 12 Well done - a balanced blog :-)
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not_a_witty_name added 10:08 - Apr 12 He wasn't an arse to all fans, just some of them. But entertainment wasn't good enough and it hasn't been since Joe (if you score four we'll score five' Royle. It wasn't anywhere close to being as dull as John Duncan. Mick has done a great job though and it's a pity that he hasn't become a Director of Football for us.
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naa added 10:11 - Apr 12 A good blog. Agree with this completely. I'm happy that Mick has gone but the vitriol against him on here (and at the games) has been completely unjustified. He has done a great job of stabilising the club and has built a decent squad (an amazing squad considering how much he's spent - something like -£8m over the 5.5 years I think), has brought through youth fairly well - he hasn't always trusted them when I think he should but he hasn't been scared to play them either. When you compare to the damage that Keane and Jewell did (let's not forget that Keane essentially tried to kill the youth team off by sacking Klug) he's done an amazing job. For those who can't see past the rather dull style of football I ask that you try and see the bigger picture and appreciate all he's done for us.

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Southamptonblue added 14:02 - Apr 12 I'll probably get downvoted for this, but "better than Keane and Jewell" isn't a ringing endorsement.
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RevAdrian added 15:26 - Apr 12 I haven't posted anything for a long time. The blog acknowledges a spectrum of views with very strong opinions at either end. Moving on, as in any similar situation involves accepting what has happened, recognising differences, and agreeing to move on together. Let's do that.
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carsey added 10:31 - Apr 13 McCarthys problem was he wanted to fight the fans opinions branding them publicly as numbleskulls and openly swearing at them at Carrot Road. I'm not suggesting I would/could have done any different but on his money I would have kept my mouth shut in the open. He did a decent job with no transfer funds to speak of BUT that was no excuse for uninspiring drab take a point football when there are plenty of examples of managers elsewhere on tight budgets doing a whole lot better. Anyway he's gone and a new era is about to start so everyone needs to unite behind whoever ME gives the job to and hope we get back to supporting the players on the pitch.

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PortmanTerrorist added 09:50 - Apr 16 Whilst I would never boo an ITFC player, team, manager or even owner, and regardless of how very relevant or appropriate this call to arms is of course relevant, i do think it lacks perspective too. If it were not for the divisions and the vocal objections of some of our crowd who have been derided by our former manager......he may still be here and then, most likely, on an extended contract. Were it not for that vocal minority we might have lost another generation of supporters. Were they so wrong to vocalise their displeasure and dismay? I will be there as usual for Villa and the Bobby Robson Stand will rise to support OUR team now we have a chance to have it back. The Blog is sound but misses the point that as a fan base we don't need telling what is right and we definitely know when we see something that is all wrong. Moving on is easy.

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MooseJuice added 14:40 - Apr 16 Nice blog, well said. I do agree with Portmanterrorist though that, regardless of your view on how good or bad a job MM was doing in the circumstances, the future of the club (and by that I mean the fanbase) was heading down a very worrying road. As a youth worker for many years now I have seen noticeable fewer and fewer kids in ITFC shirts in recent years, and now do not a SINGLE one who visits Portman Road even occassionaly, letalone a season ticket holder! The life blood of our club was being slowly drained away (almost without remark due to the non-football/no budget argument), so for that reason alone I am glad he has gone, and I hope the damage done will not be felt in the coming years. But as this blog rightly says... time for us all to move on, United.

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