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

Posted on January 23, 2021 by The other Bob Wilson

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.

Posted in Down in the dugout, Up in the Boardroom | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Another Cardiff City FA Cup quiz.

Posted on January 22, 2021 by The other Bob Wilson

It’s Fourth Round FA Cup weekend and, certainly in recent years, that usually means either a game off or a rearranged league fixture for City – with us having now lost all of our games over more than a month, it’s the first of these options for us this weekend!

Therefore, in the absence of a seven decades quiz, I decided to do a second FA Cup quiz in the same format as the first – that is twenty questions taken from the club’s FA Cup history since they became a Football League club in 1920/21 with the answers to be posted in Sunday.

  1. This member of a sporting dynasty’s career was on the way up when he tasted defeat in a tie against us in the noughties that saw us travelling a mile less than we would have needed to under different circumstances. Within a couple of years he’d moved on to London insects and a career which brought international caps with his adopted country and plenty of games at centreback at the top end of the Championship was well under way. The latter years of his career were blighted by match fixing allegations and, unlike three of his brothers, he avoided a jail sentence when he was found not guilty of money laundering charges – name the player and the team he played against us for.
  2. . The programme for this away cup tie City played in the sixties seriously suggested that the home team were contemplating a change to a green kit. One of their scorers in what was a comfortable win was described as having a “cannonball” shot, with this reputation having been formed at his first club who were considered quite aristocratic in the area where they were based, but would be playing Third Division football fairly soon. The team he played against us for had no such pretensions, but would frequently surprise any of the top sides that might take them for granted. He left his second club having played nearly two hundred and fifty league matches for them and, ironically, ended his career playing for a team which has green in its kit – he’s currently President of Abbotts Bromley Stags, but who is he and who was he playing for in that tie from over fifty years ago?
  3. What is the City FA Cup link between Reg Pugh and Bryn Allen?
  4. He won a cap for England, shared his surname with a team that were no strangers to FA Cup success, just missed out on an FA Cup Final appearance for us and played in a City side that won in the competition at Liverpool, who is he?
  5. Who played fourteen FA Cup matches for City over a period of ten years beginning at a team whose current entity is nicknamed the Satsumas and ending with an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Romans. His one goal in these games came in another match which left City with red faces after an encounter with the Terras, can you name him?
  6. Since leaving City, this player, who featured once for us in a losing cause in the cup, has spent a week in jail for driving at 205 kph while over the limit – who is it?
  7. Name the City FA Cup link between Brook, Charles and Forrest.
  8. What links Des O’Connor to City’s very short lived FA Cup campaign in 1973/74?
  9. Who is the last player to score an FA Cup hat trick against us?
  10. It was the game in which Mark Delaney scored his, brilliant, only goal for City and, also, a Cardiff born teenager made his only FA Cup appearance for us – who were we playing and who was the youngster who was allowed to leave the club around a year later having made fifteen first team appearances, most of which were as a substitute?
  11. Between them these two players scored eleven goals for City in their combined total of eight hundred and one appearances in all competitions for the club, but they both scored in the same FA Cup match, name the players and the game.
  12. There was a chance for Cardiff City players to do this four times between 88/89 and 94/95 – Jason Perry, Mark Aizelwood, Gary Thompson, Phil Stant and Cohen Griffith managed it three times, but no one could make it to four – what am I referring to?
  13. Signed from Treharris Athletic, this alliterative inside forward was City’s top scorer in the first of his four seasons with the club despite him having a spell on loan at Torquay United during the first half of that campaign – four of his goals came in the five games he played for us in the FA Cup that year, who am I describing?
  14. The man who scored City’s first goal in the FA Cup following their elevation to the Football League for the 1920/21 season first played for the club just after the First World War started – his somewhat Ursidaen surname may have had City supporters looking skywards at night after he had played well, but can you name him?
  15. Name the player from Pentrebane who has scored an FA Cup goal for City within the last decade.
  16. This man played over five hundred and fifty times in his career and was in the side when his first club beat City in an FA Cup game during the eighties – he is also an experienced manager and is currently Director of Football at a League Two club. Since retiring from playing he has spoken often of his battle with depression which he believes cost him his job at one club and he recorded a video three months ago for World Mental Health Day on the subject where he offered advice to anyone in the game who was suffering similar problems to the ones he’s been through, can you name him?
  17. Described as “one of Britain’s most fiery, skilful and industrious footballers of the post-war years” in an obituary in 1997, he once scored a decisive goal against City in an FA Cup Third Round tie at Ninian Park – it was one of ninety one he scored for his first club, yet he was not a forward. Twelve years after that goal, he returned to Ninian Park at the age of thirty four to play for his second club and he was back again a year later – both matches ended in draws. His managerial career was not as illustrious as his playing career, but it lasted thirteen years, do you know who he is?
  18. Who were the three members of the starting team for the 2008 Final who did not play in our next game in the competition?
  19. Who was the Welshman who played a minor part in Ipswich’s FA Cup win in 1978 when he played for them in a Third Round tie at Ninian Park?
  20. Name the two members of the Forest side which faced City a fortnight ago who have been sent off while playing against us at Cardiff City Stadium.

Answers

1. Sam Sodje was in the Margate team beaten 3-0 at Dover Athletic’s Crabble Ground in a Second Round tie in 2002/03 (Dover is 227 miles from Cardiff, Margate is228miles away). Sodje moved to Brentford in 2002 and had spells with Reading, West Brom, Leeds and Charlton among others, while also winning 4 caps for Nigeria. In 2013, just before he retired from the game, Sodje was sent off while playing for Portsmouth at Oldham and later admitted to receiving £70,000 from a betting ring for his dismissal. Six years later, he was cleared of money laundry charges in a trial which saw two of his footballing brothers, Efe and Steve, and another sibling who played rugby union and rugby league, Bright, jailed.

2. Harry Burrows scored twice for Stoke against us in a Third Round tie at the Victoria Ground in January 1968 which they won 4-1 – Burrows began his career at Aston Villa and ended it with Plymouth.

3. Pugh scored City’s last goal before the start of the Second World War when he netted in a 4-1 defeat at Newcastle in a Fourth Round replay in January 1959 and Allen got our first one after the war ended in a 1-1 draw Third Round draw at Ninian Park in January 1946.

4. George Blackburn came very close to being included in the 1927 Cup Final winning team and was in the City team that beat Liverpool 2-1 at Anfield in a Third Round tie in January 1930.

5. Roger Gibbins played fourteen FA Cup matches for City in his two spells with the club. His debut in the competition came in a 1-1 draw with Wokingham Town (now called Wo,kingham and Emmbrook FC) in a First Round tie in November 1982 and a month later he put us 1-0 up in a home game in the next round against Weymouth which we lost 3-2 after being 2-0 up at half time. Gibbins’ final game for us in the competition was in November 1992 in a First Round tie at Ninian Park against Bath City which we also lost 3-2.

6. Romanian international defender Gabriel Tamas only played the one game, a 1-0 home defeat by Shrewsbury in a Third Round tie in January 2016, before leaving the club – he was jailed for a week for drink drive and speeding offences in 2019.

7. Harold Brook, John Charles and Bobby Forrest were the scorers for Leeds United in the incredible sequence of fixtures between 1955/56 and 1957/58 which saw them drawn against City in the Third Round of the cup at Elland Road in three successive seasons with City winning each match 2-1.

8. City crashed out of the cup beaten 5-2 at Birmingham in the Third Round in 1973/74. In goal that day for the home side was Welsh goalkeeper Gary Sprake, who once threw the ball into his own net while playing for Leeds at Liverpool, an incident which prompted the DJ at Anfield to play Des O’Connor’s hit at the time careless Hands over the tannoy at half time – unfortunately for the somewhat error prone Sprake, the nickname Careless Hands stuck for the rest of his career.

9. Simon Cox for West Brom in their 4-2 win over us in a Third Round tie in January 2012.

10. Mark Delaney scored in the 6-0 First Round FA Cup win over Chester City in November 1998, a game in which Nathan Cadette came on as a sub for Jason Fowler.

11.  Don Murray and Dave Carver both scored in City’s 3-1 win at Sheffield United in a Third Round tie in January 1972.

12. City played Enfield in the FA Cup in 88/89, 93/94 (that tie went to a replay) and 94/95. No player who featured in the eighties match played in any of the games in the nineties, but the five players listed in the question featured in all three of the games played in that decade.

13. Elfed Evans, who was City’s top scorer in 49/50.

14. George Beare signed for City in August 1914 and was still at the club for City’s first season in the Football League club, on 8 January 1921 Beare scored the only goal in a First Round tie at Roker Park, Sunderland.

15. Nat Jarvis got our goal in a 2-1 Third Round loss at Macclesfield in January 2013.

16. Martin Ling was in the Exeter side which beat City 2-1 in a First Round match in November 1985. He has managed Leyton Orient, Cambridge United, Torquay and Swindon and is now Director of Football at Orient.

17. Billy Bremner came up with the only goal of the game when Leeds won a Third Round tie at Ninian Park in January 1964. He returned to the ground as a Hull player in 1976 and 1977 never left Yorkshire in a managerial career which saw him manage Doncaster either side of a three spell as Leeds boss.

18. Glenn Loovens, Tony Capaldi and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.

19. Les Tibbott.

20. Harry Arter (for Fulham last season) and Gaetan Bong (for Brighton in 16/17)

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