Andy Gray Column: Short-term fix may be the best for Wolves

Feb 19 2012 By Andy Gray

Mick McCarthy stood no chance of hanging on to his job as Wolves boss after that crushing defeat to West Brom last weekend.

I can’t say I am surprised that Big Mick was given the shove after that devastating derby drubbing.

As I said in this column a couple of weeks ago, the writing had been on the wall for some time as the fans were clearly not happy.

And there is no doubt that the 5-1 defeat to bitter Black Country rivals West Brom was always going to be the final nail in his coffin.

Losing 5-1 at home to anyone is bad enough – but to do it to your closest rivals is obviously doubly so.

And while I say it was no surprise to me that Mick lost his job, I don’t think it would have been a surprise to him either. Mick is a realist. He understands the industry he works in and he has been in this position before.

Funnily enough, I never really worried too much for him earlier in the season, when some fans were already calling for his head,

If you remember, Wolves actually started the season quite well and I thought his job was pretty safe.

But, as often happens in football, things quickly turned sour and after the defeat to West Brom I immediately started to worry.

Mick’s own reaction was very telling. I think you could tell by his face at the end of the game that even he knew the end had come – and he certainly wasn’t wrong.

After all, when the chairman and owner is going into the dressing room and giving your players a rollicking in front of you for losing at home to Liverpool, you know you have got a problem. Then you lose 5-1 against West Brom at home!

I am sure that some Wolves fans will be wondering Mick’s sacking has come a little too late to save the club’s Premier League status and whether he should have been shown the door earlier.

On the flip side, there will also be those thinking he should have been given the opportunity to see if he could keep them up and only time will tell if Steve Morgan and chief executive Jez Moxey have made the right decision.

In terms of his replacement, they have obviously drawn up their list of candidates and there is no surprise that it includes the likes of Steve Bruce and Alan Curbishley, although it appears latter interviewed poorly.

They are all very experienced but it depends what they want because I also think there are plenty of people currently in jobs that would be good enough.

Whit that in mind maybe they’d consider an interim manager – a short-term, quick-fix from somebody who could come in and do the business for them.

I still think that they have enough about them in the team to stay up and maybe it will just take some fresh impetus to keep them up.

If that happened, they could look again in the summer for a younger, ambitious manager, one that they saw the long-term future being with.

I’m not sure which way Morgan and Moxey will go – but it is going to be interesting that’s for sure.