Ipswich fans may regret calling for Mick McCarthy’s head

After announcing two weeks ago that he would be leaving his post at the end of the season, Mick McCarthy could be forgiven for thinking Ipswich fans might finally give him a break. An increasingly toxic atmosphere has permeated the fabric of Portman Road in recent seasons and the unsustainable mutual antipathy of a hardcore section of supporters and their manager meant a parting of company was quite obviously best for all concerned.

Having finally got what they wanted, those in the stands could have contemplated the good times – and there were good times – under a likable manager most people agreed had overstayed his welcome. Attendances are down and those who still file through the turnstiles are overcome with ennui, but only the most churlish Tractor Boy could deny McCarthy has left the club in far better shape than the decidedly pear-like one in which he found it.

At the behest of his chairman, Marcus Evans, McCarthy has been forced to operate on a ridiculously tight budget, assembling his squad with string, sticky back plastic and spare change. A perusal of Transfermarkt.com suggests he has spent £5.5m (€6.4m) on personnel since November 2012, while bringing in £18.45m (€21.3m) by selling players. The irony of this parsimony will not be lost on fans of their East Anglian rivals Norwich, who had £20 notes waved in their faces by Ipswich fans during the first meeting of the clubs after Evans took ownership.

Despite their lack of spending, Ipswich’s Championship status is secure for another season and they run an academy that is in extremely rude health. These are obvious reasons to be cheerful for supporters of a club that looked League One-bound upon McCarthy’s arrival in November 2012, but there was little sign of bonhomie at Portman Road on Tuesday night. Despite seeing their side take the lead in a match they would go on to win, a vocal section of fans eschewed the option of celebrating in favour of raining more abuse down on their manager. Displeased at the sight of him removing their best player on the night, they once again gave vent to their fury.

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The footballer in question was Barry Cotter, a 19-year-old defender signed from the League of Ireland Premier Division side Limerick FC in January for a paltry fee believed to be in the region of £50,000 (€57,000). Renowned as a bit of a Neymar lookalike during his time in Ireland, Cotter was scouted and signed by McCarthy for a sum that would barely secure his more famous lookalike’s toenail cuttings. On the evidence of an outstanding debut for Ipswich, his acquisition looks like a very shrewd bit of business. Yet another reason, you might think, for the club’s fans to cut McCarthy some slack, but instead many chose to froth with mass indignation when it became apparent the visibly exhausted teenager was being substituted.

“It was a disgraceful reaction, that, but I won’t have to listen to it again because that’s my last game. I’m out of here,” said McCarthy in his post-match interview that culminated in a violent thump on the table that sent a coffee cup flying from its saucer. It subsequently emerged that this was not a spur-of-the-moment decision, but one he had agreed with his Evans a few days previously.

It was not the first time McCarthy had called out Ipswich fans for their lack of respect and many of them cite his confrontational attitude as one of the main reasons they wanted him gone. The kind of all-too-common, delicate football-going flowers who are only too happy to dish out relentless abuse but swoon like Victorian ladies when any comes back their way, they had taken exception to being told to “Fuck off!” by their manager when Ipswich took a lead they would go on to lose against Norwich in the most recent derby. McCarthy unconvincingly denied insulting anyone, saying he “was just celebrating the game”.

While a weirdly high number of Ipswich fans seem to be of the opinion anyone who does not have a season ticket to Portman Road is completely unqualified to comment on their situation, this apparently does not preclude them from waxing lyrical on the comparative merits of other Championship clubs they rarely attend. Whatever you make of this contradictory stance, their frustrations are completely understandable. They are bored with the tedium of it all. They have not seen their team contest an FA Cup fourth-round match in six years. They have not beaten Norwich in nine attempts. Attendances are dwindling accordingly.

Change is overdue. They know it and so did McCarthy. With the search for his successor presumably already under way and a fresh start under a new regime guaranteed, how these angry fans decided to heap further opprobrium on him last Tuesday smacked of little more than spitefulness. Their team was winning and the manager they dislike so much had already announced his intention to leave. They had got what they wanted and their team was winning, so their ire could no longer be interpreted as rumblings of discontent from disillusioned fans with very little to complain about. Worryingly, it sounded like the cruel baying of an angry, entitled mob of ingrates determined to stick a few last boots into the twitching corpse of an otherwise well-respected man. – Guardian service