Many questions left unanswered as Mick McCarthy is given six month contract.

Cardiff City reacted with a speed I wasn’t expecting when they named former Republic of Ireland boss Mick McCarthy yesterday as manager (Terry Connor, who was his assistant at Wolves and Ipswich, has also been appointed in the same role) to replace Neil Harris who had left the club the day before.

When you also consider that there are unsubstantiated reports that both Eddie Howe and Paul Cook turned down the chance to manage City before they turned to McCarthy, there is a suspicion at least that it wasn’t a spur of the moment decision to dispense with Harris and, looking at them now, our former manager’s comments about new signings Perry Ng and Max Watters being signings which reflected a new approach at the club could be taken as meaning he played little part in their arrival.

That’s pure speculation on my part though, but, given that Mick McCarthy and Terry Connor have only been given six month contracts, it’s only natural that this sort of thing is going to happen because we still have no real clue as to what the club’s long term plans are.

Therefore, I’m going to offer a few personal opinions which, generally speaking, leave me pretty uncomfortable about this appointment. Not as uncomfortable though as I was feeling about twenty four hours ago when I indulged in something of a messageboard rant, which was aimed a lot more at the club than it was at Mick McCarthy although its basis was formed in my opinion that he was yet another long ball merchant.

I did qualify my vitriol somewhat by saying that it was referring to the award of a long term contract towards McCarthy rather than the shorter deal we got, but over the last day I have been wondering if, maybe, I was wrong to judge him so harshly – is he really just another long ball merchant?

Before I go on to give a view on that, I should say that, as has been noted by many who have gone on to be critical of the appointment, I’ve always liked Mick McCarthy – he’s grounded, realistic, funny, very honest in his opinions and one of the better television analysts out there in my view. It’s great in lots of ways to have someone like that as City manager, but there is that fear that we’ll be playing Warnockball again in no time and nothing will change in terms of our playing style.

Now, I accept I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to how the game should be played and there’ll be plenty of City fans who couldn’t care less what sort of football we play as long as we win. Honestly, I’m much the same because, above all else, City are my team, but I think it’s fair to say that there are now plenty of us who feel that for too long now (close to a decade I’d say) we’ve played a brand of football whereby you had to be winning to avoid criticism from sections of your own support because there is very little to enjoy about it if you don’t end up with three points.

So, I would argue that there are not too many clubs around whose fans have had to exist on such a large diet of percentage based, physical, biff bang, set piece orientated watery broth as Cardiff City’s in recent years. People want a change from what we saw from Mackay, to a degree, Slade, Warnock and, despite his efforts to change things, Harris and watching Mick McCarthy’s Ipswich and Ireland teams of recent years, I fear we’re in for more of the same.

However, are too many of my preconceptions about the new man formed by what Mick McCarthy’s done most recently? I’m grateful to the messageboard poster for making me aware of this video (anyone of a sensitive disposition should be aware that there is a fair bit of “industrial language” in it from our new manager!) which set me thinking. McCarthy describes himself as a “pragmatist” when it comes to management, but there’s also a conversation in it which reminded me of an article I’d read close to thirty years ago when he was setting off in management with Millwall which said that those expecting to see his team play in the manner he did will be pleasantly surprised.

This set me thinking about Mick McCarthy’s Wolves side which won the Championship in 2008/09 – they could play a bit and his Wikipedia entry suggests another one of my preconceptions might be wrong because I’ve been saying he’s had no reputation to speak off for youth development and yet we’re told that when he began at a cash strapped Wolves in 06/07 he “managed to collect together a team from the club’s youth ranks, and some lower league signings, and free transfers” which reached the Play Offs that season.

Therefore, was it the pragmatist McCarthy making the best of the hand he had been dealt at Ipswich and with the Republic of Ireland second time around? You only have to look at what’s happened to both of those teams since he left to think him leaving had a bit of a be careful what you wish for element to it. Certainly, although I sympathise with Ipswich fans for what always looked pretty bland and defensive stuff when I saw them play, it’s true to say he was given very little money to spend at that club, yet they were never in serious relegation trouble and made it to the Play Offs in one of his five seasons with the club.

As mentioned earlier, the lack of any worthwhile response from the club as to what’s likely to happen at the end of the six month period invites speculation, so here’s some more. I’m thinking that, even if he only does moderately well, Mick McCarthy will be offered a longer deal by the club in the summer. If as I suspect it will, the pragmatist in him decides that with a week or so left of the transfer window and the limitations of the squad he’s inherited, which saw Neil Harris largely abandon his efforts to play a bit more football a couple of months ago, a complete change in how we play would not be practical at this stage.

If that is correct and he is in a position this summer to indulge in some longer term planning would those footballing instincts which had his earlier sides playing in a different manner to that which his last two teams (not including his very short lived stint at Apoel in Nicosia) did kick in to allow us to take the first steps in what would always be a fairly long journey or would he decide the easier job would be to use the foundations already in place to build more of the same stuff we have become all too used to? It’s the suspicion that the answer would be the latter which makes me fear that, at a club which is in need of profound change in so many people’s opinion, we’ll just end with business as usual and we’ll be in the same or similar position as we find ourselves now in a few years time.