If I said that Mick McCarthy is a simple man and that Roy Keane is a moody bastard, would you disagree? It's a generalisation, based on a public perception of their personalities which is to large extent controlled and who knows, to know them the opposite might even be true. All the same from what we know of them, I think it's a fair summation and I've read both "Keane the Autobiography" and "Captain Fantastic".
Mick is a practical person thinking about the realities of the situation he finds himself in and trying to get the best result possible. Keane is a winner who accepts nothing less than victory. Mick would make the best of a bad situation, Keane cannot stomach mediocrity.
It was unfair to see Mick pummeled by the media and everyone else this week. He didn't invent the Premier League and it's not his fault it's top heavy or that he had to go to Old Trafford three days after grinding out a win at White Hart Lane. The English said he was worse than Thierry Henry because at least Henry was trying to win. Practicality over single-mindedness.
Neil Warnock is still going on about Liverpool playing a weakened team against Fulham in 2007. What is never mentioned is that Warnock himself played a weakened team at Old Trafford himself that season and United too played a weakened team against West Ham in the last game of that season, a game the Hammers won sending Sheffield United down. No one dares to criticise Ferguson but it's always open season on easy targets like Benitez and McCarthy. Steve Coppell famously did his best not to qualify for Europe and just about succeeded the same season. It is unfortunate but undeniable that success has become a relative concept in the Premier League.
I'm stating the blatantly obvious here which does not make for interesting reading. That I feel the need to rebut such weak arguments from football's most eminent writers is a further indication of how boring and irrelevant football is becoming. It sold it's soul a long time ago while those with a vested or professional interest continue to deceive us (and probably themselves) into thinking that the romance is still alive. Mick McCarthy is neither sentimental nor delusional and never has been.
Arsene Wenger criticised Mick for bringing the integrity of the Premier League into question. The beauty of the Premier League is that it has no integrity. It doesn't care for local talent, fair play or level playing fields. It is survival of the fittest at a very base level. If you are big and strong you can devour the weaker teams but even the weaker teams are happy to take a beating once in a while as long as they live to fight another day.
Wolves are like Ireland in the EU, small fry but as long as we get a cut, we won't bother the big boys. Mick is a simple man and he has no illusions about Wolves becoming Kings of the Jungle. The Premier League is great not because any team can win but because survival and success is gained by the most efficient use of all resources available to a team over the course of the season. It forces everyone to think outside the box and try every trick in the book.
Occasionally this results in diving, cheating and submission but there's also the magic produced when there's no other way out, the sheer unpredictability of it all (I mean, let's face it the Wolves team that night and all the controversy that has followed was unforeseen), getting a result when you absolutely need it or not when it's absolutely expected, the euphoria of survival, financial ruin for those who don't and all of it happening at a hundred miles an hour.
That's why people love the Premier League. There are so many factors which dictate the outcomes, no one controls them and so we are always left guessing, questioning and most importantly of all, watching.
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