A week in the lives of five Irish managers

SOCCER ANGLES: Martin O'Neill seems to have cracked the code at Aston Villa but the past seven days proved difficult for some of his peers in England

TAKE FIVE Irish managers in England across one week and this can be what you get.

Mick McCarthy

What was Mick thinking? Well, we know what Mick was thinking. He was thinking that Burnley at home rather than Manchester United away offers him a better chance of three points and thus of keeping Wolves in the Premier League at the end of the season.

But to make 10 changes? Integrity is an overused word, but the charge on Tuesday night when the Wolverhampton teamsheet arrived was that the integrity of the Premier League was being damaged by McCarthy’s actions.

The integrity of the Premier League, now there’s a concept. This is a league built on monopoly capitalism and the most significant managerial ambition Mick McCarthy has just now is to join that monopoly.

To that end he needs probably 37 points come May. Wolves have 16 today with 21 games left.

The club’s surprising victory at Tottenham last Saturday gave McCarthy some breathing space. He has used it as best he thinks. The judgement will be resounding if Wolves either win or lose to Burnley at home tomorrow. A draw would satisfy McCarthy’s critics more than him.

Arsène Wenger, at Burnley the following night, questioned Wolves’ tactic and said it reduced the season to 37 competitive games for United, plus one bye. You could understand Wenger’s irritation, though it may have been stoked by Arsenal’s failure to win at Turf Moor.

Wenger then declared: “It’s not my problem, it’s the Premier League’s problem,” and in this the Frenchman was correct.

The financial gap between the Premier League and the Championship has been allowed to grow so vast – despite warning after warning over more than a decade – that Wolves’ actions, which were the same as West Brom’s at Chelsea a few seasons ago, may be copied quickly.

Manchester United versus Wolves in 2009 is not a meeting of two of the grand clubs of England. It is a something of a charade McCarthy has chosen not participate in.

Yet what happened will niggle.

Martin O’Neill

Here comes a contrast. At Sunderland on Tuesday night, Aston Villa named an unchanged team from the one that won at Old Trafford three days earlier. Although Villa’s exertions at Manchester United were of historic proportions, O’Neill sent the same men out again on a wet pitch on Wearside.

And Villa won again. They looked a coherent unit, players familiar with each other and with a pattern of play. They work constantly, defending from the front, then hit on the counter.

Richard Dunne appears revitalised. Sunderland are not winning much of late but they gave enough going forward for Dunne to be involved throughout.

On the touchline, O’Neill was less animated than he can be. It could be that trust is increasing and three years on from succeeding David O’Leary, O’Neill has assembled a squad that has eased itself into the top four and which seems to have the depth and quality to stay there longer than they did last season.

Six points from two hazardous away games, with Stoke at home today, O’Neill was entitled to his jokes at the Stadium of Light. He did not criticise McCarthy.

Steve Staunton

He turned up for his press duties on Wednesday, Staunton, which was an improvement on the previous two weeks.

Staunton’s failure to appear then, allied to a comment made after last Saturday’s calamitous 5-0 defeat at Torquay – “I don’t know what I can do,” – led to speculation around Darlington that after 10 weeks Staunton had had enough of the seemingly doomed club and was off. After all, he’s not at Darlington for the money.

But no, on Wednesday Staunton reaffirmed his commitment to the job at hand even if it is the opposite of O’Neill’s at Villa.

Staunton is 40, sometimes we imagine him to be older and more experienced. But he is learning and there can be no more difficult school just now than Darlington’s. The defeat at Torquay was the fifth in a row. The bus journey home, Staunton said, took eight hours.

That’s a long time to contemplate the meaning of management. Then Tuesday’s training pitch was waterlogged, Wednesday’s training was staged only thanks to an offer from Sunderland and, heading into yesterday, Staunton was less than certain Darlington would be able to train anywhere.

In the midst of this Staunton is trying hour by hour to reshape a squad and a team. He said three League of Ireland trialists had arrived midweek but was coy on their identities.

Today Northampton Town are the visitors to the Northern Echo arena, such an apt name. The North-east is weathering bouts of snow, it is five days before Christmas, the team is bottom of the league. The crowd could be small.

But Staunton will be among them.

Brendan Rodgers

Who knows where Rodgers will be today. Perhaps watching his son Anton, a prospect at Chelsea, or simply taking a weekend off football given that Rodgers was sacked by Reading on Wednesday.

That felt like an odd decision on a couple of counts. For one, Reading only appointed Rodgers as Steve Coppell’s successor in the summer and, while Reading’s results have not been great, all at the club know that Rodgers has had to allow players to leave.

Secondly, why now?

Why wait five days after a home draw with Scunthorpe? If that was considered unacceptable then why not dismiss Rodgers on Monday morning? The theory is that the time has been spent lining up a replacement, though there was also the notion that Rodgers and his chairman John Madjeski had a row over transfer funds.

One of the reasons Madjeski had opted for Rodgers was that the 36-year-old from Carnlough had joined Reading as a promising teenager.

Injury ended Rodgers’s playing career early but he took up coaching and did the bulk of it at Reading. Then Chelsea came in for him and Rodgers became part of Jose Mourinho’s inner circle during the latter’s successful reign at Stamford Bridge.

Sitting with Rodgers in his office nine days ago, he was planning for the FA Cup-tie against Liverpool and all the matches in between. He was even planning his career for the next 15 years. He’ll maybe stop that now.

Jim Magilton

No sooner had Rodgers departed, and QPR had confirmed Magilton was on his way too, Magilton appeared high in the odds to succeed Rodgers.

It seems unlikely. If Madjeski did sack Rodgers during a blazing row, Magilton is hardly the tranquil answer to Reading’s problems. Then again, it’s been one of those weeks . . .