Dave Jones

[AfricanBluebird]

Watching the game tonight and not enjoyed the style of football so much since Dave Jones. Loving the style and attacking press as opposed to the long ball and anti football of the last few managers.

we improved every year for six years under Jones, whilst building a new stadium.
yes the start under McCarthy is very impressive, and enjoyable but it is still very early days. wait until we have had a bad run before we start drawing comparisons. we aren't going to win every game.

we've seen from McCarthy he's been able to motivate the players, cut out the silly mistakes and get good effort from the players and play a simple game so that everyone knows their role.
that's pretty similar to the improvements that Neil Warnock made when he first came here.

the trouble with managers who are mostly about "man management" is there often seems to be a law of diminishing returns. once the players have heard their motivational speeches and methods umpteen times they aren't going to still be as effective. I think we also see this with a certain Tottenham manager.

that said at least Mick McCarthy doesn't completely disregard the future of youth development like warnock, but it remains to be seen if he can build an attractive team over several seasons beyond his admittedly impressive initial impact

I think you are making some fair points.

Apart from the results, which have obviously been tremendous, I have been impressed with McCarthys commitment to the young players and development squad.

With only a short term contract, and with a mandate of improving first team results, you would understand if he ignored the youth teams and concentrated on the first team only. It's a testament to his character and love of the game that he is not only bringing in youngsters to the first team set-up but also attending youth team games.

I really didn't expect that at all.