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A Premier League disgrace
Published by Ian John on December 18, 2009
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I’ve got a lot of time for Mick McCarthy. I think he has done well as a manager, emerged with credit from the Ireland FA World Cup debacle with Roy Keane and achieved a respectable amount with the teams he has taken from the Championship into the Premiership. On top of that, he’s a genuinely affable chap and comes across well in interviews.
However on Tuesday night, he picked a team that was a disgrace to the Premier League, Wolverhampton Wanderers and which slapped firmly in the face of the thousands of Wolves fans who had made the journey up to Old Trafford to watch their heroes in probably the most attractive away Premier League fixture of the season. Never mind calling into question the integrity of the Premier League title chase and relegation battle.
The fact that McCarthy chose to rest his 10 outfield players who started in their stunning 1-0 victory over Tottenham at the weekend, for the game with Manchester United at Old Trafford beggars belief. It was a cowardly and shameful act. The principle of the Premier League has always been that teams play to win. Yes, we now have a squad system that is utilised in some games by all teams, but what happened on Tuesday was not McCarthy electing to use his squad. It was simply McCarthy giving the points to Manchester United.
That to me is a cardinal sin and unless the Premier League takes its head out of the sand and addresses the problem, then it is going to crop up again.
McCarthy’s logic is certainly sound. Wolves had a tough game at White Hart Lane on Saturday and emerged with an unexpected three points. They face a home game against Burnley at the weekend, a game which McCarthy has obviously earmarked as a potential win for his team. In the middle of these two games, he had a trip to Old Trafford to take on the Champions. His logic was that, well we are likely to lose this game anyway, so it is worth resting all my players for this game and playing reserves, as they will lose just as easily as the first team would and at least the first team will be fresh for the weekend game.
No doubt there will be Wolves fans who will applaud this decision should Wolves first team beat Burnley on Saturday, particularly if, at the end of the season, they remain in the Premier League by three points or less. It will look like a decision of great foresight and invention then. However it is a cowardly, cowardly way to operate in the highest eschelons of English soccer and McCarthy should hang his head in shame.
Will he play his reserves against Arsenal ? Chelsea? Liverpool? Man City ? Aston Villa or Birmingham away from Molyneux? I don’t think so. He’s not likely to win these games either is he? So why shouldn’t he? Why should Manchester United have the advantage of playing a reserve side at home and not Arsenal or Chelsea? What happens if Wolves go down by a point and United win the title by a point. Are you telling me Wolves fans and Carlo Ancelotti or Arsene Wenger are going to be happy about it?
The integrity of the game is at stake here. While I understand players need rest and a squad system needs to be used, to make wholesale changes like this runs contrary to the very tenet that you will pick your best team for every game. That underpins what makes the Premiership so great. If you arbitrarily decide to play weakened teams in certain games, you hand an unfair advantage to the team you are playing. That is cheating.
And that is not worthy of a team in ANY league, let alone the Premier League.
So, with all respect to the poor Wolves fans who spent £42 on tickets and god knows how much on transport to Old Trafford. I hope Burnley absolutely stuff you on Saturday. I hope the FA bring McCarthy to book and I hope that this nonsense never happens again.
Image Courtesy of ***Stewie D***at flickr.com
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Nabyl Charania on Fri, 18th Dec 2009 11:18 am
What McCarthy did is shambolic, and a slap in the face to Wolves’ fans and the league in general, but like you say if they win this weekend at Burnley and stay up in the premier league he looks like a genius.