Love him or
loath
him, Mick McCarthy was a central figure at Millwall for six years
and his media friendly personality meant Millwall got a lot of
publicity for the football rather than other things.
Mick McCarthy started out
with Barnsley before playing for Man City and Celtic and
Olympique Lyon. He arrived at the
Den in March 1990 when Millwall were in freefall heading towards
relegation from the old First Division. Docherty and McLintock had
been sacked and Chief Scout Bob Pearson was put in charge until
the end of the season although the fact that he was only a
Caretaker Manager was kept secret.
The Millwall defence,
although not leaking 3 or 4's were giving away 1 or 2 goals each
game, had the second worst goals against total and a Central
defender was urgently required. McCarthy was keen to return to
England to boost his World Cup hopes, after undergoing his third
Knee operation, he had not started a game for Lyon since the new
year. The signing of the 31 year old was drawn out over
two weeks, Reg Burr saying: "Mick seems keen to join us, but
the main problem is the fee which keeps shooting up and down like
a yo-yo. Nothing has been finalised yet."
Eventually, with doubts over
his fitness, Millwall signed him on loan till the end of the
season, rather than parting with the £500,000 Olympique Lyon
wanted.
McCarthy was an unused sub
for the home game v Everton, which Millwall lost to a late Tony Cottee
goal, after an error by Wood. McCarthy was given his debut away at
Luton and marked it with an Own Goal. However he could not
be blamed for it was a driven corner that went through Branagan's hands
and hit McCarthy in face and went in. Although relishing
being back in English football, he admitted his style of play was
not the best for a plastic pitch joking: "I was like Bambi on
ice."
The signings of McCarthy and
Allen however did not turn around Millwall's fortunes and they were relegated in
bottom position and new manager Rioch decided to sign McCarthy full time. He
made Lyon an offer and Lyon Chairman decided to sell against
the advice of his coach Barnard Leconde. The fee has been quoted
as being £200,000 in some quarters and as high as £340,000 in
other. McCarthy signed a 2
year contract and said: "I
was playing in the French Third Division and that is not good
enough to play for Ireland."

McCarthy did indeed revive
his World Cup hopes, being called up for friendlies against the
USSR in April and Finland and Turkey in May. While Mick was named
in Jack Charlton squad, Millwall teammate Garry Waddock
suffered the heartbreak of being the last player cut from the
squad. McCarthy had a great World
cup, Captaining Ireland to the Quarter finals where they lost 1-0 to
host nation Italy and meeting the Pope and kissing his ring.
However at the start of the
new season, McCarthy picked up an injury and was forced to sit on
the sidelines as Millwall made a good start to the season. Mick
said: "I've got no complaints, Steve Wood and Alan McLeary
have been playing well and there's no way the manager could leave
them out. All I can do is put as much pressure on them as possible
and hopefully I'll get a chance before too long. I don't want to
spend all season on the bench. It's frustrating because I was
really fired up after the World Cup but then I picked up a knee
injury and in trying to protect it I pulled a thigh muscle. That
cost me my place and now I'm having to work to get it back."
Despite sitting out
Millwall's first 12 games, Mick was called up and Captained
Ireland in their 5-0 win over Turkey in Dublin. This was enough to earn
Mick a call up for the game away at Notts County in a back three
and a clean sheet was earned. However a bad defeat at home to
Bristol City with the defence at sixes and sevens led Rioch to
drop McCarthy for the next game, which Millwall won 4-2 at home to
Sheff Wed.
In November, McCarthy was to
captain Ireland again, winning his 50th Cap, against England in
the Euro 92 Qualifiers. On his call up he said: "If I can't
get my backside up from the sub's bench and raise myself in an
International against England, I've got to have my head seeing to.
The problem for me will not be leaving the Millwall bench, it will
be all about going back to it." McCarthy played well and
subdued Gary Lineker in a 1-1 draw in Dublin.
McCarthy soon got a first
team recall on the back of his International form, but picked
up another injury after a bruising battle with Devon White." It
hurts when 14½ stone lands on" said
McCarthy with two Ice packs on his strained calf. Showing his
future managerial credentials, he defended Gary Waddock,
"Fans pay their money and have a right to have a go. But it
is not fair to single out Gary, because he is playing well. Gary
laughs and jokes about it, but that's the only thing you can do,
if you don't top yourself."