McCarthy says his time at the club has been "educational", but not a success.

[Eric the Half a Bee]

I think your idea of what Cardiff City is, is somewhat skewed. And based on a made-up version of the past. We are a capital city club, with a billionaire owner and Premier League aspirations. We're not a small club owned by the local scrap dealer from an insignificant northern town.

I sometimes think Sludge is a dying breed of fan that still thinks it's a luxury playing Championship football because of 18 years in the bottom two divisions.

We've now spent 18 years in the second tier. It's been 14 years since we finished outside the top half of the Championship. We've had 4 playoff campaigns. We've won automatic promotion twice and had two seasons in the top flight.

Plucky, little old Cardiff City we are not. There aren't many Championship sides with a better record than us over the last decade.