With the guts of seventy years managerial experience between them, it is not perhaps surprising that Neil Warnock considers Mick McCarthy a "close friend."
Excuse McCarthy's six years managing the Republic of Ireland, and both men have spent their time in management periodically coming across one another in opposing dugouts.
Unlike Warnock however who has Cardiff City sitting second in the Championship this season, McCarthy finds himself struggling to retain the support of an increasingly frustrated Ipswich Town fan-base.
Dismayed by a stagnation in form that McCarthy has overseen, fans appear keen to try their luck with someone else - despite Ipswich Town sitting only 8 points outside of the playoff places.
This is a temptation Warnock has urged them to overlook:
He’s done well. If you’re not the big five or six with the wage bills they have, it’s a very difficult league.
He’s got them with an outside chance of the play-offs and because I know what it takes, I know how difficult it is.
You have to be careful what you wish for and you won’t get much better than Mick.
The extent of McCarthy's frustration was revealed during Ipswich Town's 1-1 derby draw with Norwich City on Sunday. Having taken a late lead, McCarthy was captured on camera urging a certain portion of the ground to "fuck off."
Speaking before his Cardiff side visits Portman Road tomorrow night, Warnock was similarly adamant that these kinds of mistakes can happen:
It’s just passion. You don’t carry on if you don’t have a bit of passion, you’d be sat at home.
We’re at the situation where we care and you score a late goal against your rivals, it’s a fabulous feeling and you get carried away at times but that’s what we’re in the game for, you guys wait for us to do something silly like that!
How long McCarthy has left to him with Ipswich Town remains to be seen. Having joined the club in 2012, his highest achievement remains a 6th placed finish in 2014-15; they lost the two-legged playoff semi-final to Norwich City.
