by Trevor Keane
Lex Baillie, a young player who was making a name for himself at Celtic when Big Mick joined the club, but who is now a sergeant in the Strathclyde police force, recalls his initial impressions of McCarthy: ‘I was a young lad and had not played for the first team before, so I saw Mick as a rival, especially as he was a big signing from down south. I was of the view that he was depriving me of a first-team opportunity. We were of a similar mould and in direct competition as defenders, although I now realise that Mick had more ability, and at that time he had more experience.
‘But he soon became a role model for me. I learned a lot from Mick. He was so driven and focused. He was a very strong character, with a sheer will to win, and there was a lot of intensity and competition in our training in those days. We had a lot of strong characters in the team, players such as Tommy Burns, and there were often training-ground bust-ups, although they were always left on the pitch.
‘As a defender he was great to play alongside. He played to a very high standard and would push those around him to play to those standards. I remember in one of his first games he was playing against Falkirk, and he was up against a player by the name of Crawford Baptie, who was about six feet three inches. Well, Mick punched him in the mouth early on in the game after they clashed, and he just walked off. It was a red card, of course, but he knew he was going to be sent off so he just walked. Afterwards Mick admitted he had no idea what we were on about when we were talking about Crawford Baptie before the game. He thought it was a Scottish word he had not heard before.
‘I think all the signs were there that Mick would become a coach. When I was coming through he was one of the senior players, and he had opinions and thoughts on the game, and he talked to a lot of people about football.
‘A dozen of us from that 1988 team, together with our wives, met up last year in Dubai for a few days. I had not seen Mick in a few years prior to that. One of the things I noticed was that he seemed more relaxed and comfortable in himself. He has achieved a lot of things in football, and that seems to have mellowed him a bit. He was great company during the few days out there, and even though we were rivals before we were teammates, I don’t have a bad word to say about him.’
After forty-eight appearances for Celtic, McCarthy was once again on the move, this time to France, where he joined Lyon in July 1989. The move to France did not work out as he had planned and the defender failed to settle in Lyon. Feeling that he might be damaging his international career, Mick made the decision to return to England, signing for Millwall on loan in March 1990. His arrival failed to inspire the Lions and they ended the season with relegation. However McCarthy had impressed enough to earn a permanent move. Injuries hampered his appearances over the following two seasons and his appointment as manager of Millwall in 1992 effectively brought an end to his playing career, with his final game coming in a Division One match against Southend.
IRELAND CAREER
As Mick’s father, Charles, was born in Ireland, Mick qualified to play for Ireland under the parent rule, making his international debut against Poland in 1984. He soon became a first-choice player although it was under the management of Big Jack that his international career really took off. Like Jack, Mick was a no-nonsense defender and under the stewardship of the Englishman he went on to become captain of his national team, leading to the moniker ‘Captain Fantastic’.
Mick played a major role in Ireland’s qualification for Euro ’88 and Italia ’90. He played in all three games in Holland in 1988 and featured in all five games in Italy, captaining the country to quarter-final defeat to hosts Italy. Despite effectively retiring from playing when he took the player-manager job with Millwall, McCarthy continued to play for Ireland for another year and won the last of his caps in a 2–0 win over Portugal in Boston in 1992. He retired from international football with fifty-seven caps, having scored two goals.
MANAGEMENT – A FIRST GLIMPSE
As Mick’s career as a player drew to a close, the leadership qualities that his playing evoked ensured that he would make the step into management. The change came at the club who had rescued him from his French nightmare and in March 1992 Mick was offered the change to become player-manager of Millwall, replacing Bruce Rioch. In his first full season at the club Mick led Millwall to a seventh place finish in the newly formed Division One (the formation of the Premiership in 1992 had led to a restructure of all the Leagues).
With injuries starting to take their toll, Mick made the decision to relinquish the player part of his job description and focus on the management part, and the decision seemed justified when he led Millwall to the 1994 play-off finals with a third place finish during the regular season. Sadly the club lost out to Derby County and instead of reaching the Premiership they now had another season in England’s Division One to look forward to.
The following season saw Millwall fail to reach the playoff heights of the 1994 season and Mick saw his side finish in thirteenth position. The 1995–1996 season saw Millwall fly off the block and from October to December Mick’s team led the division and seemed on track for promotion. Then in December 1995 Big Jack resigned from the Ireland job, a decision that would have a dramatic bearing on Millwall. Soon after Jack’s resignation, Mick was linked with the Ireland job, and the speculation seemed to have an detrimental effect on the Lions as they slipped from first to eleventh position in the space of five weeks. The uncertainty at Dens Park was lifted in February 1996 when Mick was finally confirmed as the new Irish manager. He left Millwall in ninth position, fourteen points clear of relegation, but a poor run of form saw them win only three games over the coming months, culminating in their relegation to Division Two.
Former Millwall player Mark Kennedy was once the most expensive teenager in Premiership history when he signed for Liverpool in 1995 at the age of eighteen. His development began under McCarthy at Millwall: ‘When I first started to travel over to Millwall as a fourteen-year-old, Bruce Rioch was the man in charge, but by the time I signed for them Mick had taken over as manager. I think I was one of his first signings. Mick was absolutely amazing for me. He really looked after me, like he did all his players, but I was just a young lad who’d moved away from home, so I think he put in that bit extra with me.
‘I often stayed over at his house in those days. It was very surreal. Mick was a hero, an Ireland captain, and to be managed by him was amazing. While Mick helped me settle in to life in England, he also helped my football development in a big way. When I first arrived at the club I was a centre-forward, but Mick must have seen something in me, as he moved me to the left wing. He felt that I wasn’t physical enough for a striker. That happens quite a bit in English football. A young player will arrive at a club having played in one position, and then the manager sees something that no one else has, and they try you in another position. A perfect example is Josh McGuinness. I visited Cardiff before moving there and watched the youth team play. Josh was in goal. By the time I signed for the club, Josh had moved to centre-forward.
‘The chance to move to the left wing came about in pre-season. I remember Greg Berry had been injured, and Mick moved me out there. I was small in build, and Mick felt that I would be kicked to pieces up front, whereas out on the wing that might not happen as much. It was wonderful foresight, really, as seven months later I was signed by Liverpool as a winger.
‘In those days all I wanted to do was play. However, my attitude to the game has changed over time. Although they affected me, I did not take defeats and wins the way I do now. I am thirty-three now, and I have a different mindset towards games and understand the importance of results.
‘It was a great honour to play for Mick and Millwall. They were my first club, and it was not only Mick who was great for me. There was John Byrne, who also played for Ireland. He was a massive influence on my early years in the game.
‘Before the move to Liverpool there were some rumours that Blackburn were interested in signing me, and I was worried that the club would no
t let me go. I was out for dinner one night, and I had a missed call from Mick. He just left a message to ring him. I knew something had come up, so I rang him, and he said to come over to his house. When I got there he told me that Liverpool had made an offer and I was to travel up the next day for a medical. I remember asking him, “What about Blackburn? Can I talk to them?” I had no agent then, and Mick said to me, “Get your arse up to Liverpool, will you.” He was happy for me, though, and I was very grateful to Mick for helping me develop my game. He was the one who spotted the left-winger in me.
‘Mick has great man-management skills, and I think you can see that by the way players speak about him. He has shown that he is a top manager. When I got into the Ireland squad towards the end of Jack’s reign it was fantastic, but I only played a couple of games under Jack before Mick came in. There was so much talent in the squad, players such as Denis Irwin and Andy Townsend, who I actually thought would have made a great manager. Mick had a tough job, but he made the role his own. He treated the players as adults, but any problems were dealt with in Mick’s way, and you wouldn’t argue with him. International football is different from club football. If you are not in the first team, you can knock on a club manager’s door and have a chat with him; however, with international football you are representing your country, so you can’t kick up a storm.’
Richard Sadlier first came across the Ireland boss when Mc-Carthy tried to sign him for Millwall: ‘I first met Mick when I was invited over to Millwall in the Easter of 1995. I was only sixteen at the time, and he invited me to train with the first team. It was an amazing experience. I was in awe of him. He was a legend, a member of a team that had been to the World Cup, but he was down to earth and a really decent fella. When he became the Ireland manager he still lived in Bromley near Millwall’s training ground, and as I also lived there we used to bump into one other quite often.’
THE IRELAND JOB
Despite being one of the loyal soldiers during Charlton’s era Mick was determined to be his own man when he took over and set about rebuilding the side. A new and exciting crop of talented youngsters was about to make the breakthrough at international level; the likes of Robbie Keane, Damian Duff, John O’Shea and Richard Dunne would all go on to become household names. The player scouting system that had come to symbolise the Charlton days was put to ever further use, with players such as Paul Butler, who qualified for Ireland through his marriage to an Irish woman, and Clinton Morrison benefiting from the scouting of players with Irish connections.
McCarthy’s first campaign was the 1998 World Cup qualifiers, in which Ireland were drawn with Romania, Lithuania, FYR Macedonia, Iceland and Liechtenstein, who had embarrassed Ireland in the final months of Jack’s reign. There were to be no mistakes this time around, however, as Mick opened his competitive account with a good 5–0 victory. A further win over Macedonia put Ireland in control in the group. Then came the first signs of the rocky journey ahead when Iceland came to Dublin and got a draw. This was followed by two defeats, one to strugglers Macedonia, a shock 3–2 result, and a 1–0 loss to Romania. Ireland were at this stage behind Romania, who had won all their games to date. Ireland finished out the group with no more defeats and with wins over Lithuania, Iceland and Liechtenstein, as well as draws with Romania and Lithuania.
Ireland finished ten points behind Romania in the standings, but it was enough to secure a play-off game against Belgium. The first leg ended 1–1 after Luc Nilis cancelled out Denis Irwin’s opener. However, heartbreak was to follow in Belgium when Nilis again scored in the sixty-ninth minute to cancel Ray Houghton’s leveller, so it was the Belgians who crossed the border to France ’98 and left Mick with the task of rebuilding his side further.
It was around this time that McCarthy had a chance to return to his English footballing roots. Barnsley were interested in appointing him and his assistant Ian Evans to the coaching staff at the club. However, Barnsley failed to meet the FAI’s compensation request. McCarthy was believed to have been interested in combining both roles, but nothing came of it, and he remained as Ireland manager.
Bernard O’Byrne was the chief executive of the FAI at the time that McCarthy was Ireland manager, and he recalls the backing and understanding that the Englishman received during the early days of his reign: ‘Mick came into the role in early 1996, and I joined the FAI the following October. I found Mick to be straight as a die in my dealings with him. He was very fair and cooperative, and there was no manoeuvring from him. He was happy not to get involved in the politics.
‘The first three years in the job were hard for Mick. It was a big task, and it was always going to be very hard succeeding Jack after what he’d achieved. I think Mick himself felt the pressure.
‘I remember after the first qualifying campaign for France ’98, when we lost to Belgium in the play-offs, there were some members of the FAI who wanted to replace Mick. However, Pat Quigley and I were allies of Mick and believed that he deserved a reasonable run in charge before he could be judged properly. We pushed to get a stay of execution for him, and before one board meeting we raised the subject and asked everyone in the room to stand up and support Mick. Our stance surprised a lot of people, and in the end they all opted to support him. From then on I think Mick went from strength to strength in the role.
‘In my opinion one of the reasons that Mick struggled at the start was that he inherited an ageing squad that had lost a few players to retirement. However, that was not the only factor. His relationship with Ian Evans [assistant manager to Mick and Ireland Under-21 manager] was pivotal to Ireland’s success. They had a big partnership. However, Ireland did not seem to be getting the full benefit of the partnership, as Ian was spending a lot of time with the Under-21s and not as much time with the senior side. We said to Mick that Ian needed to step back from his role with the Under-21 team and to get more involved with the senior side to help ease the workload on Mick. We decided that we needed someone to take over the management of the Under-21 side, someone who could work with Mick, and in the end we opted for Don Givens.
‘Mick was very loyal to the players, and he stood by them. He would back them in public and would discuss any issues in private. He was a hero to a lot of the players. He was hugely respected. He had earned his war scars, so to speak, and the players believed in him.’
That loyalty was starting to get results, as qualification for the 2000 European Championship saw Ireland get off to the best possible start when they defeated Croatia 2–0. The Croatians had impressed at the World Cup in France and were one of the favourites to qualify from the group. However, goals from the United pair of Denis Irwin and Roy Keane got Ireland off to a perfect start.
That victory was followed by another win over Malta before a 1–0 defeat away to Yugoslavia put the skids on Ireland’s bid. The return game in Dublin saw Mark Kennedy net the winner as Ireland won 2–1. Croatia got their revenge with a 1–0 win in Zagreb, before old foes Macedonia scored in the ninetieth minute of the next match to deny Ireland the group and pushed them once again into the play-offs, where Turkey scraped in thanks to a 1–1 draw in Dublin.
The 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign finally saw Mick and his team excise the ghosts of the failure to reach France in 1998 and Holland in 2000. The team had matured and reached the levels that the public had come to expect. The results were improving, and having slipped down the rankings from fifteenth in the world, the team were slowly on the up again.
Drawn in a qualification group with Portugal and Holland, the task seemed onerous from the offset. However, two draws with Portugal home and away, as well a famous victory over Holland in Dublin, saw Ireland finish unbeaten and level at the top of the group with Portugal, only missing out on automatic qualification on goal difference.
Mick was displaying tremendous dedication to the job, but it must have been a difficult decision when he decided to manage the team for a game against Andorra following the death of his father. A few days earlier Mick had left t
he squad ahead of a game with Cyprus to be with his father, who was seriously ill at the time. His assistant Ian Evans deputised and saw Ireland win 4–0, with two from Roy Keane.
As it was, Ireland faced the prospect of a play-off for the third time under Mick. This time Iran were the opponents, and a 2–0 home victory followed by a 1–0 defeat was enough to send the green army to Japan and Korea for the 2002 World Cup.
With qualification secured, Mick set about finalising and experimenting with his squad, and friendlies with Russia, Denmark and the USA were arranged. Players such as Richard Sadlier, Colin Healy and Clinton Morrison were given their chance to stake a claim. As Sadlier recalled, ‘I was called into the squad for a match against Russia in February 2002. Before that I remember thinking the call-up would never come, as it seemed that every time I had a stinker for Millwall someone would point out that Mick had been in the crowd. The full Ireland set-up was similar to the under-age set-up under Bruce Rioch. Everyone seemed close-knit, and there was a lot of respect for Mick within the group.
‘Colin Healy, Steven Reid and Clinton Morrison were also making their debuts against Russia. I was sharing a room with Colin Healy, who started in the middle with Roy Keane. I remember being on the bus to the game and sitting next to Niall Quinn. He was so good to me. He kept playing down the importance of the occasion and told me there was nothing that I hadn’t seen before. Then throughout the game, every time I came back from a stint warming up, Niall would elbow me towards Mick, as if trying to tell Mick to get me on. With twenty minutes to go Mick shouted over to me to get ready to go on. Afterwards Mick congratulated me and shook my hand.
