Monday, March 06, 2006

Why Sack McCarthy?

Sunderland today announced they have sacked their manager, Mick McCarthy. I have to question the wisdom of this. Their team is going to be relegated. This has been known for some time - quite simply, their team hasn't been good enough to stay up, and is totally lacking in Premiership quality. This, I think, would have been the case no matter who their manager was.

If they felt they could have stayed up, McCarthy should have been sacked far earlier. This wasn't particularly realistic in any case. Sunderland will not find a better manager for a team in the Championship than McCarthy; his record there is superb. They've just harmed their chances of being promoted again next year, with no chance of staying up for now.