Me. In saying that, I soon became a bit more optimistic once I’d reminded myself of some of his work earlier in his managerial career (I allowed myself to be influenced too much by his time at Ipswich and his second spell with Ireland). Most impressive for me has been the improvements where it was hard to see how there could be any. Josh Murphy has already been mentioned, but I think Harry Wilson and Sheyi Ojo have improved under McCarthy. It’s not just an improvement in individuals though.

I’d always contended that playing with three at the back would solve so many problems in the team, but it was like theory and practice, it all sounded perfectly sensible, but as soon as City tried to put it into practice on the pitch, it all went wrong and I think it had been long accepted that this group of players couldn’t play an effective three at the back system, yet as soon as we started using it about an hour into McCarthys first match, we’ve looked comfortable with it.

As for my main bugbear, our passing in midfield, that’s still far from perfect, but having Marlon Pack playing well improves it a fair bit and, for me, players such as Pack and Nelson are doing so much better, while Flint looks so much secure than he did last season. The players were never as poor as they were looking six weeks ago, but the transformation has been marked in such a short time.