Joe I am not surprised, it's not a great gig is it?

Supporters are asking for free flowing passing football and he has no dosh.

The owner who is responsible for lack of funds keeps out the limelight so the manager gets the grief from the supporters. I would want out too if I was in his situation.

It's a lose lose situation.

Surely there wouldn't be a clamour for his signature until the season has finished, if Aston Villa were interested they would wait until they have a clear idea of who is available, who would want the job, who they want. The republic job won't be available until after Euros, so again no offer for MM, is he waiting until after this hoping to get the call

When you consider some of the other managers available right now, such as Martinez and Flores, it's not really a surprise that other clubs are more likely to be looking elsewhere than Mick. I highly doubt Mick is making many managerial shortlists up and down the land given the other available options at present.

Would there be a queue of better managers willing to sign on at Portman Road if he left?

Not surprised you're a joke. Now fu£k off!!

I see that Portsmouth who many put up as an ambitious free flowing entertaining team are destined for another season in the lower divisions I wonder how many points there little cup run cost them and how long their progressive ambitious manager lasts.

essex57, I don't think any ambitious manager could be attracted easily to Portman Road if constrained by the current tight transfer budget that has been imposed on Mick. I know our wages are far from being the lowest in the league, but I can't help but wonder what might of been had Mr Evans opened up the cheque book in January and strengthened the squad with quality rather than squad fillers. I'm not a big fan of McCarthy. I know he's been forced to box clever with a very limited transfer budget and had Paul Jewell been asked to do the same we'd almost certainly be in League 1 now! So I'll certainly credit Mick with that, he did a great job to keep us up, no doubt about it. But things just seem to have gone stale for a while now. It looks like we're stuck with him for another season so may as well give him the benefit of the doubt and get behind the team. If we're sitting fairly pretty by Xmas then fair play, but if we aren't it might be time to look elsewhere I'd dare say. That said, if he can get us to beat Norwich he can do whatever he likes as far as I'm concerned, I'd be more than happy to give him the keys to the town! I wouldn't care how we beat them, whether we hoofed it, played like Brazil or played like St Helens RFC, as long as we beat them! :-)
Ideally I'd love to see us get somebody like Martinez or Flores and give them some money to get a nice team playing proper football, but that's just not going to happen, so I guess we should try our best to wipe the slate clean and see if Mick can come up trumps next season. If however he comes up well short then I really do hope we at least consider other options, albeit there is always the risk of getting even worse given the past fiascos of Keane & Jewell!
They say if it isn't broken why fix it, but to be frank there does seem to be some obvious cracks. Perhaps Mick can glue things back together again. I'll reserve judgement till next Xmas. However, if come next Winter we're hoofing it around like Sale Sharks with a motley crew of side-passing midfield clones, then I'm probably going to need to have some slow-release morphine prescribed!
Hopefully it won't be as bad as this, but then again it might. And if Norwich are doing the business and we're aren't, it going to be one heck of a painful season. None of us can be certain how things will play out mainly because the Champions**t is so unpredictable at the best of times, so I'm not going to be as bold as to make any predictions. I am however hoping Mick can produce some more positive displays with more attacking intent instead of setting up with a view to keep things tight and not to concede. When a team plays like that for the best part of 90 minutes it can seem like an eternity, especially when you invite teams on and spend large chunks under the cosh. I hate it when we set out like that, it's just not good for my blood pressure! We need more goals, more attacking intent. Let's hope for more positivity in our all round play as if we set out to win games rather than just keeping things tight, then better times may not be as far away as some of us are fearing. But then again they might!
Well time to climb down off the fence, in Mick I half-heartedly trust, but I'm hoping he can restore the faith as it's taken quite a beating of late.

Not sure about Martinez (at all!) or Flores but then again not sure who I would trust...I would have liked Mark Warburton or the madness that is Nigel Pearson but they are out of our reach...the longer the club stales the harder it will be to attract managers of pedigree ....but would agree with your sentiments re MM midastouch

Cheers stormypetrel. Nigel Pearson (aka the Strangler) might of been a nice fit, even if he does have that mad edge to him. But I think he's probably aiming higher. Flores did a great job for Watford, can't believe they are getting rid of him! I don't think he'll be out of work for too long unless he has unrealistic expectations. Martinez got Swansea playing some lovely football in the Championship. Some of Everton's football was breathtaking early season but they kept squandering winning positions. I remember them losing 3-4 to Stoke at home in a brilliant match. If a club had got a good defensive coach working alongside Martinez then I think it could be a match made in heaven (provided they got on well). And as the old saying goes, attack is the best means of defence. But I know his brand isn't for everybody as the defence is leaky. I think it was unfair to sack him as they were only a minute away from extra time against Utd in the cup semi. A lot of teams would kill to be an inch away from an FA Cup final. But something may have been going on behind the scenes in the dressing rooms and a good portion of the Everton fans seemed to have had enough of him too so his time was up. He may need to take a step down to resurrect his career. I wouldn't write him off, I could see him doing well elsewhere despite his Everton setback. I like his brand of football, he sets a team up to attack and secure 3 points. Some might think it is over reckless but I find it exciting. When Wigan beat Man City in the FA Cup final it was a great achievement, although on the flip side they did get relegated. But personally, I'd take major a piece of major silverware over just surviving in the top league every season as a major cup win can be cherished for eternity.

Talking of squandering winning positions, who does that make you think of? I don't know the stats but surely we have to be right up there for conceding injury-time goals over the last decade or so!

It would be interesting to see what happenned if Mick was given some real money in the summer to spend on 3 or 4 quality players because thats all I think we need with (hopefully) the injured players returning.

I believe we did make a big bid bid for Luke Freeman in January, a player I like a lot so his judgement aint that bad!!

In any event I will never actually like Mick until he takes cuo competitions seriously.

I couldn't agree about cup competitions Razor. 1 more day at Wembley (and preferably in an Fa Cup final rather than a Play Off final) between now and the grave, please let it be! I know it's a tall order but far smaller teams have had a real shot at the prize so we should at least make a determined effort as you just never know! :-)

Sorry Razor, I meant to say "I couldn't agree more". :-)