Over quarter of a century into his career as a football manager, Mick McCarthy is still going strong.
Keeping Ipswich Town on the relative cusp of the play off places with a very limited budget, the former Ireland manager discussed on Jarlath Regan's Irishman Abroad podcast how close he came to a life as a miner instead.
It's a given now that any detailed conversation or interview with McCarthy will inevitably turn to the topic of Saipan, Roy Keane and queries as to whether he would do anything different now.
However, in his lengthy discussion with Regan, McCarthy offered some far more interesting views on footballing culture that didn't necessarily have anything to do with the events on a Pacific island, sixteen years ago.
Discussing the current Irish set up and the difficulties that come with the extravagant riches available to players today, McCarthy recalls a different kind of blind loyalty that came with the wider squad of players he had available to him while managing Ireland:
I'd ring Curtis Fleming up when I needed him for a friendly because other big players weren't coming.
And I'd say, 'Curtis', and straight away, 'Ya gaffer, my bags packed, I'm on my way now.' That's the kind of team spirit you want.
Kevin Kilbane, a player who was given his international debut by McCarthy, similarly evokes only positive thoughts:
I'd give him the keys to me house, I would have him as a son ya.
Speculating on some of the precursory details that enable certain players to develop into good people also, McCarthy discussed the idea of happy, healthy home life, and the sacrifices that a player's partner or wife often have to undertake.
Detailing his own wife's sadness when McCarthy stopped playing in Lyon so as to maintain his footballing presence in England, there is no doubt regarding the importance that a strong partner can bring:
Footballer's wives are much maligned and I hate the term WAGs ... it's derogatory, it's always said in a derogatory fashion I think, and that's not the case.
I would have thought most footballer's wives are very much right behind us, and supporting us, and you know, traveling up to Glasgow in a car with three kids ... and [my wife] has the goldfish in the front, and she's trying to stop it from coming out of the bowl, and I would think there are lots of those stories.
A fascinating insight into McCarthy's thoughts on a matter that is normally met with a level of derision that he is only too aware.
