More McCarthy musings
Oh blimey. Myself and plenty of other Wolves fans were perhaps guilty of jumping the gun a couple of weeks back with talk of handing Mick McCarthy his P45. A couple of vital wins since then have put us right back into a competitive position, so all was looking rosy. And then he goes and plays the reserves against Man U last night...
Mick's logic is easy enough to follow. We gain three entirely unexpected points against Spurs on Saturday, so we are already 3 points ahead of our expected total for this week's matches. We also have a crucial game against Burnley at Molineux on Sunday, which we have a good chance of winning. Mick reads an article about how players can't perform to their best three days after a match, knows we'd struggle to get a result at Old Trafford at the best of times, and therefore gives the entire first team a rest. At 7:30 last night I was shocked, but not exactly angry as I didn't expect anything from the game, and ultimately Mick is the manager and can pick whatever team he likes.
However, the outrage from all quarters at the team selection can hardly be seen as a surprise. Now, I don't really give two shits about what Chelsea, Arsenal, Villa or Man City fans think, because (a) it's not the first time a manager has played a weakened side against a "big" club and it certainly won't be the last, (b) their own clubs rotate their squads all the time with a view on Europe, etc, and (c) if we'd played our strongest team the result would probably have been no different.
Our fans, who paid £40 for a ticket, were chanting for their money back, and this is the main problem. Yes Mick has taken the long view in financial terms - the amount of money on offer and the increasing gap between the Premier League and Championship means staying up is vitally important. But for all the talk of football being a squad game now, etc, putting your reserves out and essentially throwing a game is one hell of a slap in the face to the fans who've made the trip. Time for Messrs McCarthy and/or Morgan to put their hands in their pockets and offer up a refund, perhaps?
That aside, the rest of the haters can go screw themselves :-D
Mick's logic is easy enough to follow. We gain three entirely unexpected points against Spurs on Saturday, so we are already 3 points ahead of our expected total for this week's matches. We also have a crucial game against Burnley at Molineux on Sunday, which we have a good chance of winning. Mick reads an article about how players can't perform to their best three days after a match, knows we'd struggle to get a result at Old Trafford at the best of times, and therefore gives the entire first team a rest. At 7:30 last night I was shocked, but not exactly angry as I didn't expect anything from the game, and ultimately Mick is the manager and can pick whatever team he likes.
However, the outrage from all quarters at the team selection can hardly be seen as a surprise. Now, I don't really give two shits about what Chelsea, Arsenal, Villa or Man City fans think, because (a) it's not the first time a manager has played a weakened side against a "big" club and it certainly won't be the last, (b) their own clubs rotate their squads all the time with a view on Europe, etc, and (c) if we'd played our strongest team the result would probably have been no different.
Our fans, who paid £40 for a ticket, were chanting for their money back, and this is the main problem. Yes Mick has taken the long view in financial terms - the amount of money on offer and the increasing gap between the Premier League and Championship means staying up is vitally important. But for all the talk of football being a squad game now, etc, putting your reserves out and essentially throwing a game is one hell of a slap in the face to the fans who've made the trip. Time for Messrs McCarthy and/or Morgan to put their hands in their pockets and offer up a refund, perhaps?
That aside, the rest of the haters can go screw themselves :-D
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