Authors: Trevor Keane
Any doubts that Mick might have felt about the move were
soon removed as he helped City gain promotion to the First Division in his first full season. At the age of twenty-five ‘Big Mick’ was in the big time and able to show the footballing world that he was capable of playing at the highest level. In the following season he helped City avoid immediate relegation and they finished in a respectable mid table place. However, their luck did not hold and City ended the following season by being relegated. Mick did not get the chance to help City make an immediate return to the First Division as by this time his performances had caught the eye of Celtic and David Hay, who lured him to Parkhead in May 1987. Although he was signed by Hay, Mick never got to play under him, as the manager was replaced soon afterwards by Billy McNeill, an old acquaintance from McCarthy’s City days. Despite the shock of being signed by one manager and then playing under another, it did not appear to be too much of a setback, and it was at Celtic that people really began to take notice of the centre-half. His first season in Scotland saw McCarthy pick up his first major silverware, as Celtic won the double under the new manager. The following season saw McCarthy once again savour success as he helped Celtic win another Scottish Cup, although the Parkhead club had to settle for a disappointing third place in the League.
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 not 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.