Saipan rivals need to turn things around

SOCCER ANGLES:Both Mick McCarthy and Roy Keane are under increasing pressure as their respective clubs fail to meet supporters' grand expectations, writes MICHAEL WALKER

GIVEN THAT it’s not “debt” or “despair” or “bail-out” or “Merkel”, there’s a word you probably won’t have heard in the past week, one that takes us back to a different time, and to a very different “crisis”, one that was not a crisis at all compared to this week’s events. The word is: “Saipan”.

Ah, the good old days.

Saipan popped forth around Monday morning when this weekend’s fixtures were being perused. For Mick McCarthy and Roy Keane, the two principals of that island in the Pacific where no one of an Irish hue was pacified eight years ago, this is looking like a testing 48 hours.

For McCarthy, whose Wolves team have just lost four consecutive Premier League games to sit second-bottom of the division, there is a visit of his and Keane’s former club Sunderland today to contemplate.

For Keane, whose Ipswich side have won two of their last eight games in the Championship, there is the small matter of a trip to neighbours Norwich City tomorrow.

If you listen to the chatter around both Ipswich and Wolves, the mood music is discordant. Faith that had been either handed over or built up has been eroded by recent results. We have approached a stage in a manager’s shelf-life at a club when some supporters long for defeats because that will lead to change and that in itself will satisfy. No one mentions Saipan any more.

Keane is entitled to note the Championship table and say Ipswich are three points and a bounce in their goal difference off the play-offs. Should they win at Carrow Road, moreover, Ipswich will have the same number of points as Norwich, who are generally perceived to be having a prosperous season.

McCarthy can say that at this stage last season Wolves had one more point than now but stayed up, finished 15th and bucked all expectation. Thanks in large part to his management, Wolves were not only promoted in May 2009, they banked that promotion money by surviving. Wolves are considerably better off than when the club sacked Glenn Hoddle four and a half years ago.

That deserves to be remembered daily but how quickly goodwill fades. Judging from highlights admittedly, Wolves did not look too bad in defeat at Blackpool last Saturday. Yet it is that very expression “defeat at Blackpool” which has some shuddering.

Wolves have already failed to beat one other of last season’s promoted sides, Newcastle, at Molineux, and start a run of four games before Christmas that will see them meet the third, deadly rivals West Bromwich Albion.

That will be the halfway mark of the season. Last year Wolves had 19 points by then so a reasonable target is to match that. But that means 10 points from the next four games and McCarthy, whilst upbeat, is not inspiring similar positivity from all quarters locally.

In the context of this season, Wolves fans are free to be sceptical about the chances of reaching that mini-target.

Their pessimism is not ridiculous. Yet in the context of Wolverhampton Wanderers, formed 1888, founder member of the Football League, McCarthy is surely equally free to mention a few truths.

The most pertinent of these is that if Wolves do stay up this season it will be the first time since 1982 they have played consecutive seasons in England’s top flight – whereas from 1986-88, they were in the old Fourth Division.

Almost three decades is a long time to wait for such a top-flight possibility, so you can understand some of the exasperation, but it and other facts should simultaneously act as a reminder of where Wolves have been. McCarthy has earned the right to see out not just this season but to start next season, in whatever division they find themselves.

Keane could be nodding at this juncture. “Mick’s right”, you can hear him say, nearly.

Fairly remarkably, Ipswich were in the Uefa Cup this month eight years ago. But they had just been relegated from the Premiership and they have not been back since. They have not been in the play-offs for six seasons. And the budget was rearranged in the summer, not to Keane’s advantage. Keane is in his second season at Portman Road. He got second-season syndrome in early, finishing 15th at the end of his first season.

That is a different 15th from McCarthy’s and there is a discernable feeling in Suffolk that two seasons may be all Keane gets at Ipswich, or deserves. This despite the longer-term pattern at the club. Keane did not seem particularly bothered in September that he has only a two-year contract but then Ipswich were doing pretty well until mid-October. He said he was “dead relaxed”. The team were showing something. It’s since then the problems have arisen and the fans have begun to turn.

Experience should have made Keane and McCarthy more sanguine than they were once. Despite the current criticism, they must know that fans generally seek to see the best in their manager. A promising victory and supporters can always be turned back. Unlike the clock.

United's rapid progress

FC UNITED of Manchester are a club for the times. Formed out of disillusion and anger at the Glazer family takeover of Manchester United in 2005, FC were expected to burn out quickly.

But these people were underestimated. Not only have they formed a club, they have achieved promotions with it, consolidated, loved it and nurtured it and have now reached the second round of the FA Cup. It is some rise.

Today FC United meet Brighton and Hove Albion – established in 1901. On Thursday FC were granted permission to begin construction on a new stadium of their own in central Manchester. They are a club going places, as are AFC Wimbledon. Supporter-owned and with admirable principles as well as ambition and competence, they deserve all the luck they need.

Scots score own goal

FROM THE inside it must be fascinating in its own way, a situation full of intrigue that encompasses politics, personalities and, the suggestion is of course, religious affiliation. But what about Scottish football? Rangers did okay in their limited ambition on Wednesday against Manchester United in the Champions League but their efforts were still overshadowed by the long grip of the law.

From the outside one obvious repercussion is the perception of Scotland. Those charged with the organisation of the game may feel over a barrel because of the referees’ decision to strike – and there is clearly responsibility in various quarters that it got to this – but the episode represents another shot in already bloody feet.