PIERS MORGAN: Wolves boss Mick McCarthy should be sacked for putting his ego before his team

19 December 2009 20:55
Wrong move: Mick McCarthy's decision to field a reserve team at Old Trafford left him looking weak[LNB]Mick McCarthy doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who spends too much time immersed in the teachings of the Japanese peace activist and Buddhist leader, Daisaku Ikeda.[LNB] Apart from anything else, those teachings don't contain any references to the Premier League's greatest egotist, so he'd find it very hard to get past even one page before concluding: 'This saving the planet stuff's all fine, Daisaku old son, but what's in it for Mick McCarthy?' [LNB]Which is a shame, because if he did, then he might have strayed across this quotation: 'Strength is happiness. Strength is itself victory. In weakness and cowardice there is no happiness. When you wage a struggle, you might win or lose. But regardless of the short-term outcome, the very fact of your continuing struggle is proof of your victory as a human being.' [LNB]And it might, just might, have made him re-think his ridiculous decision to field a reserve team against Manchester United last week. Because that decision - made to save his players for today's clash with fellow relegation contenders Burnley - has left him looking pathetically weak and cowardly, and Wolves' players and supporters feeling distinctly unhappy. [LNB]I've listened to all the arguments since McCarthy's tactical moment of madness. The big boys like Arsene Wenger moaning that it was grotesquely unfair, disingenuously ignoring the fact that they themselves have all fielded many weaker teams in pursuit of the 'bigger picture'.[LNB] And the minnows like Tony Pulis moaning at the Wengers for moaning, equally disingenuously ignoring the fact that big boy reserve teams are still good enough to beat most minnow first teams (as we see in the Carling Cup every year) so the comparison with minnow reserve teams is irrelevant and pointless. [LNB]    More from Piers Morgan... THE INSIDER: Lily Allen put her arm around mine and said, 'Piers, I've never been so in love as I am right now...'18/12/09 THE INSIDER: Gwyneth Paltrow shimmered past me - and I have to admit she looked damn hot...03/12/09 THE INSIDER: A large box arrived from Katherine Jenkins. 'To Piers, with love from your Domestic Goddess'26/11/09 THE INSIDER: 'Christine Bleakley is brainy, funny and pretty... so way too good for Frank Lampard'19/11/09 THE INSIDER: 'The poll is proof that you rank nowhere in the public's eyes,' scoffed Lord Alan Sugar12/11/09 THE INSIDER: Dannii Minogue texted me: 'Thank you for the opportunity you gave me to be me'29/10/09 THE INSIDER: 'Cindy Crawford is getting herself ready,' her assistant told me22/10/09 THE INSIDER: I offer Gordon Ramsay some Viagra, play a 'joke' on Tony Blair and make Peter Mandelson smirk 15/10/09 VIEW FULL ARCHIVEBut consider the facts. United had just lost to Aston Villa and are currently ravaged by injuries. Wolves had just beaten a rampant Spurs at White Hart Lane. So there was never going to be a better time for McCarthy to go to Old Trafford and pull off a shock victory. [LNB]All the psychological advantage lay with him and his team, not Sir Alex. And if they'd pulled it off, Wolves would have marched on up the table with a renewed confidence and enthusiasm. [LNB]Instead, they threw in the towel, ran up the white flag and may as well have shot themselves there and then. [LNB]McCarthy's behaviour reminded me of Phil Brown's half-time on-pitch humiliation of his players last season, just when Hull threatened to be a Top Eight club. [LNB]In both cases, one fell swoop in the form of a manager's ego wrecked all the effort, commitment and morale-boosting success that had been built up. And we all know what happened to Hull afterwards. [LNB]I have enormous sympathy for Wolves fans and for the players caught up in their manager's appallingly arrogant attention-seeking. But I have even more sympathy for the integrity of the Premier League and the sport of football. [LNB]And for that reason, I hope Wolves get stuffed 4-0 by Burnley today, are relegated at the end of the season and McCarthy gets sacked and replaced by Roy Hodgson. [LNB]How Hughes lost his Sparky . . . Which brings me neatly to poor old Mark Hughes. Or 'Dubai' as I now prefer to call him. [LNB]Because he promised us the greatest show on earth, splashed millions on the glitziest, richest, most extravagant trinkets money could buy, and brought dozens of different cultures together, then discovered that the whole self-inflated edifice was built on sand, had no real substance or soul and collapsed when the going got tough faster than Tiger Woods's trousers in Vegas. [LNB]And, again like Dubai, he was entirely reliant on the billionaires of Abu Dhabi to bail him out but they hung him out to dry instead. [LNB]I wish I could feel sorry for Sparky, especially at this time of festive goodwill to all men. But I can't. He sold out to oil and trashed his working-class hero image in the process. Now, having made his slick, he must lie in it.[LNB] As for his successor, Roberto Mancini, he'll be gone by next autumn as the temperamental, football-ignorant sheiks lose patience again when City fail to win the World Cup. Bet your Alfa Romeo on it. [LNB]While Lampard's still got class . . . When I praised Frank Lampard a few weeks ago, I received a load of scathing emails suggesting I had massively overstated his credentials as a classy kind of guy.[LNB] Last week, I texted him at 7am asking if he would possibly be able to sign something for my long-suffering PA and equally long-suffering Chelsea fan, Tracey, for her birthday. [LNB]At 8.10am he replied, saying he'd just signed the last Premier League shirt he had worn and left it with reception at Stamford Bridge for me to pick up. I rest my case. [LNB] He's worth it: 'Classy' Frank Lampard deserves praise [LNB]And Fabio knows he's worth it!I bumped into Fabio Capello at a Help for Heroes awards show on Tuesday night and told him I had demanded in this very column last week that he be paid twice his current England salary. [LNB]The great man, who had neither read the article nor had a clue who I was, stared at me intensely for a few seconds as he struggled to comprehend exactly what I had said.[LNB] Then his aide from the FA repeated it, the penny dropped, he smiled broadly and said: 'I agree. You are right. I am.' [LNB]The man is magnificently terrifying and self-confident. And I love him for it.[LNB] Harry Redknapp orders his Spurs players not to have a Christmas party. So his captain, Robbie Keane, promptly sneaks the whole team off to Ireland anyway for a drunken knees-up. And they lose their next home match. [LNB]The breathtaking stupidity, arrogance and selfishness of some top footballers never ceases to amuse me.[LNB] But, as an Arsenal fan, can I just take this opportunity to thank Mr Keane very much indeed for being such a complete and utter chump. [LNB] Diappointed though I was for Jenson Button that he didn't win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award - what more does a man have to do, though, win the world title naked while simultaneously playing maracas on Paris Hilton's cleavage? - I was thrilled for Ryan Giggs. [LNB]When I interviewed him last year, he explained how he has managed to avoid lengthy injuries to become the greatest player in Premier League history. [LNB]'I sold my Ferrari,' he told me, 'it was bad for my hamstrings.' [LNB] Worthy winner: Ryan Giggs, Sports Personality of the Year 2009[LNB]He also gave me his best-ever Manchester United side that he'd played with: 'Schmeichel, Irwin, Gary Neville, Ferdinand, Pallister, Keane, Scholes, Ronaldo, Beckham, Hughes and Cantona.' [LNB]And the best team he'd ever played against: 'Seaman, Zanetti, Tony Adams, Maldini, Roberto Carlos, Figo, Del Piero, Zidane, Gerrard, the Brazilian Ronaldo and Romario.' [LNB]The ultimate tribute I can pay Giggs is that he would walk into either team. [LNB] Now have your sayLove your comments with regard to Tiger Woods, and I couldn't agree more . . . what a man. However, it does affect us golfers at grassroots level. I can't go for a round now without my wife going through my bag looking for condoms and I haven't dared broach the subject of a four-day golf/poker holiday in Spain. ALEX BROOM [LNB]Piers says: 'Tell me about it. I can't even go for a walk in my Pringle jumper without getting a third degree inquisition when I get home.' [LNB]Morgan, love your work but, honestly, to be scared of Sol Campbell is like me being scared of you. Just something that should and never will happen! CHRIS HOLLAND [LNB]Piers says: 'Oh, yeah. Well, come and have a go if you think you're 'ard enough, Holland.' [LNB]Some while back you were bemoaning the fate of your mate, Kevin Pietersen, when he was axed as England's skipper in favour of a proper captain, Andrew Strauss. You were pretty underwhelmed by Strauss's appointment at the time. Have you changed your tune in the interim? KEN TURNER [LNB]Piers says: 'I was right to defend KP and think he would have made a great captain given time. But I was wrong about Strauss. He's been miles better than I thought he'd be.' [LNB]E-mail your comments to me at: piers.morgan@mailonsunday.co.uk [LNB]  

Source: Daily_Mail