The worst sacking of all time?

Ok so the headline might be a little but over the top but few managerial sackings have resulted in such disastrous results as Wolves decision to dispense with Mick McCarthy back in February 2012. The long serving manager was relieved of his duties following several disappointing results which culminated in an embarrassing 5-1 thumping to fierce rivals West Brom, which left the club in the bottom three albeit only on goal difference.

With just 13 games remaining though there were few managers tempted to take a risk on attempting to keep the club up with several of the boards outlined targets turning down the opportunity. In the end and almost by default McCarthy's assistant Terry Connor was given the unwanted task as his first managerial assignment, inevitably a mission that would prove beyond him. That said few would have expected such a dismal showing of just four points from 13 games, a return which was already making the decision to sack McCarthy look foolish given that he had guided the club through some testing circumstances to clinch survival over the previous two seasons.

Upon returning to the Championship Wolves brought in the relatively unknown Stale Solbakken as manager, yet he was soon gone by January with the club stumbling in eighteenth and therefore some way off a promotion push. Dean Saunders was then handed the reigns yet he fared little better as the club incredibly slipped to successive relegations, despite possessing a squad that many deemed should have been competing in the upper reaches. To make the situation worse McCarthy was back in management with fellow championship side Ipswich and showcased his experience and skill of managing in England's second tier as he took the tractor boys from bottom of the league a quarter of the way in to finishing the season in a respectable fourteenth.

Unquestionably If McCarthy was in charge of Wolves now they would not be in League One, they might well have still been relegated from the Premier League although it is hard to imagine in such diabolical fashion. Few managers know this division and more importantly know how to succeed in it like the McCarthy, whilst Wolves have found out the hard way just how much extra he was getting out of their current set of players. It is not just the actual sacking decision but the timing of it and then the bizarre nature of the subsequent decisions that have really hurt Wolves and they have come to learn in the worst possible manner that you should be careful what you ask for. The belief was that McCarthy had done all he could at the club and new blood was needed to progress, what the club would give now to be fighting for Premier League Survival or to be competing in the Championship play offs rather than the dark place they currently sit, a place where it is hard to see how they will turn things around.

Comments

[Scott Dawson]

Mick McCarthy should have been sacked 12 months previous with 2 reasons languishing around the premiership relegation zone. He was unable to take the club any further and struggling to change his teams and adapt to matches tactically because of the players he had bought to club and had at his disposal. To headline this as the worse sacking is somewhat misleading as it was the boards failure to appoint a suitable replacement for not only McCarthy but also Solbakken that has been the cause of the clubs decline!

[Bill Thompson]

Came across this blog by accident and if you want to read regurgitated history dressed up as a new twist on old news then this is for you. Obviously whoever wrote this is not a Wolves fan and was never close to the events as they unfolded. Churnalism but not Journalism.

[V R]

The sacking wasn't the problem. Even the season previously MM admitted that he would have expected to have been sacked following such poor results, to then repeat it the following season the writing was on the wall and his backing had been pushed to the limit in the boardroom.

The problem lies in the decisions taken since that point. From appointing Connor to only giving Solbakken 6 months to totally revolutionise the playing side of the club and then plumping for Saunders in the vain hope of the "new manager bounce" pushing us back up the league (as it was we got a dead cat bounce and the rest is history!).

Mick has been my favourite manager of my Wolves supporting life but just because the decisions made since he was sacked have been horrible does not mean that sacking him in the first place was wrong.