What do you do when you are going backwards, but have someone who appears a decent manager? Indeed McCarthy has done a good job at Wolves, turning them into a proper Premier League team.
The problem appears to be mainly that they aren’t getting better at a fast enough rate. They are improving, but other teams improve quicker. McCarthy isn’t failing, he’s just not succeeding quickly enough. Last year WBA and Newcastle were in their first seasons back in the Premier League and were better than Wolves. This year Swansea, Norwich and QPR have all done the same.
The effect of this is that those teams improving the least – Wigan, Wolves and Blackburn primarily, as well as Bolton, are sucked into a relegation battle despite on the face of it appearing to be on the up. But when everyone is on the up, someone has to go down, right?
That is Wolves’ problem. So do they fire a manager who is by all accounts, decent, for one who is better? Perhaps McCarthy has taken them as far as he can. If you stand still you go backwards, but now it appears if you only move forward a little you also go backwards, contradictorily.
It is also the problem faced of course by Wigan and Bolton, and Blackburn. All have kept with their managers, wisely probably, but you would imagine that at least two, probably three of these teams will drop into the Championship next year. So what is a chairman to do? It is risky to change things – that could make the situation worse. But then it could also make it better. How are you to know?
That is the problem. It is increasingly difficult to compete in this Premier League. The standard is constantly improving at the bottom, and those who set the trend don’t get left behind. But for Wolves and those around them, they are being cut adrift in a desperate and worrying situation. Sooner or later they and Wigan will drop back into the Championship. To some extent it is the product of the size of the club – but then teams like Norwich and Swansea have less money. They presumably have better managers, and better systems too. Football is increasingly tactical in England. In such a situation, those managers who are least tactical, risk falling behind. That is the situation for McCarthy perhaps – an old school boss. It would also be true of Stoke were Tony Pulis not given seemingly limitless funds by his chairman, who allows him to spend tens of millions each season on new players. Wolves would love to be in that situation.
Then teams like Wigan simply have smaller squads, and can’t afford to buy new players. Imagine Roberto Martinez with a team he could build with significant funds – he would be a superb manager, and Aston Villa would surely be far better had he gone there in the summer. But this is the problem facing teams like they, Bolton and Wolves. Stick or twist? It’s a difficult one to answer.
