www.gavinjoyce.com/McCarthyMustGo Quotes

gavinjoyce · 18-10-2002 4:36pm #1

Hi,

Well in two days we have sent over 1,200 messages to the FAI.

If you haven't already, send your thoughts to the FAI at http://www.gavinjoyce.com/McCarthyMustGo/. Don't forget to send this link to your friends too.

Thanks,
Gavin Joyce

"Without Keane we would not have qualified for the World Cup. Without Keane we will not qualify for the European championships.

We have some excellent players coming though. Why waste the opportunity this represents through persisting with a 3rd rate manager, a manager who was so concerned for the team and the fans' welfare that he admitted to being 'ecstatic' when Keane, his best player, refused to return to the world cup.

Bottom line is that, however much the FAI and McCarthy might prefer it to be otherwise, Keane's criticisms are largely justified. Better to address these criticisms through beginning to make the necessary improvements then to shoot Keane, the messenger. Let McCarthy go, get Keane back and maybe then we can start making progress again."

oreganl@***.com

"He said he'd go whenever the fans wanted him to.....that time has arrived!

I'll never set foot in Landsdowne road again while he stays on...and there are others like me."

wayne_marlowe@***.com

"For making Forest Gump an Irish International"

john.hendrick@***.com

"Mick(ey) Mouse would have more impact at the moment

He has lost the respect of the nation and the players and now its a case of damage limitation.

P45 time"

anonymous

"Enough is enough. The time is right for Mick to go. Why ?

1) He constantly picks the wrong team. Every dog on the street can see that Kilbane is not the best option we have on the left side. Duff is one of the best wingers in europe but Mick refuses him to play there. He is picking Kilbane purely out of loyalty, rather than ability, skill or form, which im sure you'll agree are more important. Similarly, he continues to pick Gary Breen, who has been a joke for West Ham this season while John OShea warms the bench. The same John OShea who has proved himself in Premiership and Champions League action and whom Alex Ferguson rates so highly that he has played him in two different positions for United with huge success in both. Again Breen is chosen as he played well for 2 weeks during the World cup and McCarthy is blinkered once again. Switzerland scored twice last night and on another night could easily have been 4. Against Russia we conceded 4 and it could easily have been 6. As for bringing on Phil Babb in the closing minutes... who knows?!?!

2) McCarthy should have ruled himself out of the Sunderland job immediately and committed himself to Ireland. Instead he postured around boasting about his record with Ireland... this was an insulting position to take as Irish manager. It was also very unsettling for the Irish team ahead of the Swiss match. If the "gloss" is gone off the Irish job for him, then the FAI should be asking serious questions....

3) The way McCarthy conducted himself in Saipan was disgraceful. He is not alone to blame in this but his own behaviour left a lot to be desired.

I wont go on...."

Alan Stephens

"He's bloody annoying to listen to"

jforrist@***.com

"Who have we beaten since Keane left?"

eoin.daly@***.ie

"Your list of screw ups are many, you make the GAA look competent
1. No first class for the players
2. Eircom Park Debacle
3. Saipan
4. Sky Sports
5. Adding your own fee on to the already expensive World Cup ticket (what are you ticketmaster???)

Also a personal note to Brendan Menton, i was one of the many Irish Supporters who went to Moscow, as we were caged in like Animals waiting to leave the stadium, your good self came across the pitch with your russian counterparts, you did not once acknowledge our presence and in fact seemed embarrassed by us. You seem to forget its us supporers that keep you in the job by spending our cash going to support the team."

keith_egan@***.com

"He claimed the media made the fans turn on him last night. 90% of fans in that stadium were a lot more knowledgeable and talked a hell of a lot more sense than McCarthy ever did. I think he has continuously patronised us and this comment was the most demeaning yet... 40,000 avid football enthusiasts stood up to that petty man last night for the first time and told him, all at once, what they thought of him... His time has come and gone. And I think the fans deserve an apology too. How much longer can the FAI ignore the voice of the people responsible for it's existence."

jimmcfadden@***.com

"I was in Japan and sang my heart out for the Irish team and I am very proud of all the players for their effort and commitment they put in during the world cup but our world cup was NOT a success. We missed a glorious chance to make a massive mark on world football. Our qualification for Portugal 2004 is now in serious danger. We need Roy Keane back, plain and simple. Mick McCarthy practically admitted that he would jump at the chance to manage Sunderland, loyal Mick indeed. Every time we hear the FAI say they want to keep Mick just distances yourselves from the fans even more. Please, for the sake of Irish football, will you remove Mick McCarthy as Irish manager and bring in an experienced manager.

Thank you for listening."

alanj@*.ie

"Please get your act together, the FAI have succeeded in pissing off 95% of the irish supporters with their greed for Sky money! Your short-term monetary gain will be irish soccers long term loss!"

flyeter@***.com

"Im from Australia mate and I must say McCarthy is a flamin mongrel"

sbelshaw@***.com

"He looks like Ernie from Sesame Street"

pcarroll@***.com

"You sell us out to Rupert Murdock.We have to listen to that idiot commentator on Sky laughing at us last night. You come out in support of McCarthy even though the whole population is disgusted with his and and the FAI's performances of late.

Do the honourable thing give Mick the sack and then step down yourself's, so Ireland can have it's football back, because it is ours not yours to sell."

gougheddie@***.com

"The most infuriating thing about Ireland's last two defeats is that we do in fact have a team packed with potential. I am an avid supporter of not just the Irish International Soccer team but also the Irish and English Soccer leagues at all levels. An obvious flaw in our International team is our defense yet Mick McCarthy defiantly leaves John O' Shea on the bench, for what I can only see as Under 10's tactics (the comparison there being that if the players turn up for training then they should be put on the team, or if they played last week they'll play this week, it's only fair!!). However International football is highly competitive, the best players make the team, Soccer like most professional sports is cut throat, you should always be fighting for your position and if there's someone better then you then unlucky, work harder for your place and it will make you a better player, this is how all top level competitive sports work. This is, unfortunately, a harsh reality of being an elite athlete.
I won't nit pick and go through all the players which i think should not have been playing or who put in a poor performance, that would be unfair, after all these are men who proudly don the Irish jersey and I believe truly play their hearts out for their country, be they first or second generation Irish.
Mick McCarthy needs to go, I'm not jumping on the band wagon, I never rated him as a manager from day one and now I'm just happy that all those people who sat arguing with me can now see him for who he really is. He's showing his true colours and adding another side to, not only the Roy Keane incident in Japan, but also to aspects of his stubborn and child-like personality which will only throw the Republic of Irelands International team into a state of regression and back to the days when we battled for respect as a footballing nation!
Thank you for your time and I hope that you get to read my comments"

Kershni Moodley

"He is a hypocrite, saying he will only pick players who are getting first team football. Yet Gary Breen is in the starting line up (whose performances when he's come off the bench have been shocking) and John O'Shea a Manchester Utd regular on the bench. Could mention many more, Kevin Kilbane & Lee Carsley. He should resign and let a decent manager pick the best team Ireland have available, (Roy Keane, John O'Shea, Duff on the left.) He has as much managerial skills as my mother. Get him out now and we may still have some chance of qualification for Portugal 2004."

sheehydarragh@***.com

gavinjoyce · 18-10-2002 4:38pm

Dear Football Association of Ireland,

Last Wednesday night was a disaster, one of the lowest points in my time while supporting the Irish soccer team; not as bad as drawing with Liechtenstein, but not far off. We're number No.1 seeds in our group yet we've no points from the first 2 games and lost to 2 average (at best) sides. I'm not going to say it's all Mick McCarthy's fault, it's also others, but McCarthy does say to judge him on his results. So, let's do so..

We should have qualified for World Cup 1998, but McCarthy was inexperienced and unproven (he just came from a few years experience managing a mid-table 1st division side, who were going nowhere) and we lost to an average Belgium side by the odd goal in the playoffs. But he did make blunders and they were costly, like playing Ian Harte and Roy Keane as centre backs! Does anyone remember our embarrassing draw at home to Iceland with Keane at centre back? I can't even fully remember now all the others, but trust me there were more. Oh yes, he said to the most dependable and proven full back ever to play in the premiership and for Ireland, Denis Irwin, to go out 'prove himself'. Come on, what a joke. We could have used Denis, as he continued to play for Man United. Denis was still a class player and yet he had to retire from Ireland as a result of Mick's assertions. What a sad ending to a legendary international career. And what about our greatest centre back ever, Paul McGrath? At the start of Mick's managerial reign he decided to bring the lads out on a booze up a few nights before the match. At the time McGrath was off the drink and told Mick that he would prefer to stay in and not go out. Mick made him go out against his will and you know the rest. He didn't come back 'till the next afternoon completely out of it. Mick dropped him, made him a scapegoat and said he let him down, when in fact it was the other way around.

Another blunder on McCarthy's part (and on the FAI's) in the early days was letting Ian Evans be our national No.2. Who the hell is Ian Evans? He had no credentials coming in, but who cares! He also persisted with out of form players, one of whom was his pal at Millwall, Mark Kennedy, who he then let off when in trouble in Ireland but not Phil Babb. There are standards and there are Mick McCarthy standards.

So we said we'll give him another chance. We then lost to Turkey (on away goals) in the playoffs for Euro 2000. We would have qualified automatically if McCarthy didn't have such a catalogue of mistakes. Here are a few: bringing on Keith O' Neill against Macedonia away when there was no need at a corner in the last minute and then conceding, starting Cascarino (as an aging lone striker) against Turkey away, playing Quinn as a lone striker with Robbie Keane on the bench against Croatia away and playing so defensively that we conceded in injury time, to a side that we had earlier beat). Admittedly he did get us to World Cup 2002 (unbeaten in the toughest European qualifying group), but this was at the expense of not qualifying for the previous 2 tournaments. It was also in no small part to the then best player in Europe (and not far off now) Roy Keane and our fair share of luck, and Mick also seemed 'delighted' after we had given away a golden 2-0 lead against a sluggish Dutch side. He has, in every qualifying campaign, made many tactical, positional and team selection mistakes. These seem to be a feature of McCarthy's managerial style.

Now after an average World Cup once again full of tactical errors and mishaps he should have quit his (overpaid) job, but he stayed on and now once again we our suffering the consequences. He could have left on a 'high', as the fickle English press would have got him a premiership managerial job.

At the World Cup he dropped Steve Finnan (who was in last year's PFA Premiership team of the season) at the start, he didn't drop Ian Harte against Spain after previous poor performances (and we suffered as a result as he missed a penalty), he played who I think has been the worst player in the last 2 years that I have ever seen play for Ireland - Kevin Kilbane, and continues to play this no confidence, can't even get in a struggling Sunderland, no brain footballer. He also brought on David Connolly against Spain because he 'was good in training'. He played Kilbane at left back for part of the Saudi Arabia match. Was this the time to be experimenting with a position that a player had never played in before? We didn't even practice penalties before the Spain match and it cost us dearly. He couldn't even notice that Spain had only 10 men during extra-time. Not even Ian Evans saw it. That would have made a huge difference and don't say that he got caught up in it all, that's rubbish. He's the manager. He should have noticed it. I was at the game. Even we, the fans, noticed it! It was also Mick's fault to a large degree that Roy Keane wasn't at the World Cup. He has been digging away at him for years and Roy was also partially to blame, but Roy wore his heart on his sleeve and said what he thought was the truth and paid dearly for it. He was also set-up and where were the same players that before said he was such an inspiration, team leader etc.? Has anyone else paid or been hurt as much as Roy? No one even comes close.

I suppose it wouldn't be fair not to let the Roy Keane episode get it's airing once again, but it isn't the main focus of my argument. After the Switzerland match Mick said he couldn't understand why we had gone from the top of the pile to the bottom - from heroes to zeros in the space of a month from the previous 2-3 years of performances. Two words Mick: Roy Keane. The others are good players and we should still be beating Russia and Switzerland, but Roy is more important than any other player in the history of Irish soccer. We won't go into the whole Saipan incident, but it was a situation waiting to happen. They never liked each other and now Mick is paying the price for messing around with his best player. The fact of the matter with Roy Keane is that, if he was still there and at the World Cup, Ireland would be in the top 10 of the world and Mick would be seen as an Irish hero. You live by the sword, you die by the sword.

cont...

gavinjoyce · 18-10-2002 4:40pm

cont...

The argument that Mick didn't have world-class players like Jack did isn't true. What about Roy Keane, Robbie Keane, Damien Duff, Shay Given, Steve Finnan, Stephen Carr (Mick has been deprived of him in the last year though)? He also had some of Jack's players at his disposal like Haughton, Quinn, Irwin etc. We've also got John O' Shea, Colin Healy, Clinton Morrison, Stephen McPhail and Steven Reid coming through. These players have proven themselves. Kilbane is on his way out, so is Breen, McAteer, and Kinsella and Holland in midfield aren't working and are being overrun. Mick stays too loyal to some players who have one good game in every five and he can't make the tough decisions and just drop these has-beens. Changes are needed, Mick needs to go.

I can't understand why in the past he says he won't play you if you not playing for your club. This is admirable in theory, but why are Gary Breen and Kevin Kilbane starting, amongst others in the past that weren't getting in their club sides. John O' Shea can get into the Manchester United team, yet can't play for Ireland when we badly need him. Gary Breen is struggling to keep Christian Dailly out of the West Ham (bottom of the premiership table) team. I could go on and on about Mick's hypocrisy's here. The Russia game was a perfect chance to shake things up and not keep the team stale, but whereas we capitalised on Holland and Croatia being stale after good summer tournaments in the past, Mick didn't learn. He decides to make no changes for the Russia game and one change for the Switzerland game. We all know Mick is a stubborn man and he continues to play Damien Duff up front and accommodate the lackluster Kilbane on the left. Duff is best running at opponents, not with his back to them. Anyone can see that! Our team improved when Morrison was brought on in both qualifying matches. He didn't even figure in the World Cup. Where's Connolly now? Straight after the World Cup Jason McAteer decides to quit international football, because he got dropped at the World Cup. Good move, his time had come. What does McCarthy do? Asks him to come back, and makes him bloody captain for the Finland match!

One thing Mick does do well is command the respect of the players and they play with passion, but realistically Irish players in any sport always give 100%. Kevin Kilbane giving 100% isn't good enough. Mick says no matter how badly his team play (or how badly he selects it) he can never fault them for effort. This is international football. When I'm playing at the weekend, I'll always give 100% and work my hardest for the team, but if I can't defend or have no confidence should I be playing? I could play for Ireland and run harder than any player in Europe, but I wouldn't pick myself!! And if the players are so supportive of Mick, how come they only get behind him when he's under stick, they never praise him when we do well or no players even go over to him when they score and make a gesture like 'this was for you Mick'. I think some of those players can easily be lead, like Duff, when they've the same manger for such a long time.

The FAI want to give him another contract because we've gone from 54th to 13th in FIFA's world rankings. I'm not sure who's worse Mick or the FAI. First of all the world rankings don't mean anything or don't qualify you for tournaments. We've only qualified for one tournament under Mick. But more importantly when he took over where were we in the world rankings? When he took over in February 1996 we were 27th in the world rankings and only 4 months before that we were 12th under Jack Charlton, until we lost to Holland in the playoffs and he resigned. Under McCarthy we dropped to a lowly 57th by November 1998, because we got good results (not because of Mick, more so because of the players) against sides above us in the rankings that were only above us because we had previously under performed, somehow it's down to Mick. Don't forget it swings both ways. We should have always been in the top 20.Spain are 2nd in the world rankings. What does that say about the rankings?

We've qualified for 1 out of 3 tournaments under Mick McCarthy and he's possibly cost us another, that's 1 from 4. And he says judge me on my results? It's a joke. Mick has 'learned' along the way, to our cost. He's deprived us of our greatest footballer ever and the player who'll put more effort on the pitch and honesty then Mick can ever do as manger. Mick now is the time to go. Actually, it was much earlier than now. Mick is currently the longest serving international manger in Europe. I'm all for a bit of stability, but this is too long. Why does the FAI want to keep him on? They're paying way over the odds for a manager who's qualified for one tournament, where you can say we had a good or bad World Cup depending on how you look at it. If you're cute enough you'll see that we were only ok and could have and should gone further, possibly with a different manager.

I'm so annoyed. I've never been the biggest fan of Mick. We've had our ups and downs under him, but we should have had much more ups. I'm so disappointed for Ireland. We deserve better. Mick says he'll leave if he doesn't have the support of the people.

Mick your country needs you. It's time to relieve us of our depression.........

Paul Wycherley

www.gavinjoyce.com/McCarthyMustGo Quotes

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