Since exiting from his second spell as Ireland manager, Mick McCarthy has had quite the journey.
He ended up in Cyprus, managing the country's most successful club in APOEL Nicosia. He even brought Jack Byrne over there with him.
However, he arrived at a struggling club who had a propensity to sack managers at the first sign of trouble. It always looked likely to end badly and so proved the case with the 62-year old losing his job after only eight games in charge.
It was difficult to see what his next move was going to be, but McCarthy soon landed on his feet with a decent job in the Championship.
Cardiff City made the play-offs in the division last season but had been struggling during the current campaign. McCarthy was likely seen as a steady hand for the rest of the season, but they have surpassed expectations in recent weeks.
The club have won five of the seven matches McCarthy has taken charge of, drawing the other two. It leaves them sitting in seventh-place in the table and very much in the play-off hunt having previously been flirting with relegation.
Speaking on talkSPORT this morning, Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan said he was hugely impressed with the job McCarthy had done since taking over last month.
👏 "Mick McCarthy has done a great job."
🙏 "Hopefully we can get into the Play Offs. We pray we'll be able to get there."
🤞 "We hope to be promoted."#CardiffCity owner Vincent Tan hopes Cardiff can return to the Premier League. pic.twitter.com/wbqIkLUx1D— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) February 22, 2021
I'm very happy and very pleased that Mick McCarthy has done a great job in a short while. Any owner would be very please with his performance, so I'm happy and thankful that Mick and all his boys did a great job.
This needs everybody's cooperation and the team ha stepped up well under Mick's leadership. Hopefully we can do better and get into the play-offs...
We pray that will be able to [the Premier League]. For example, last season we were in the play-offs. Neil Harris, our former manager, did a great job last season but this season didn't do too well so we had to change.
I believe Mick is doing a great job and we have a good chance of getting to the play-offs. After that, we hope to be promoted. Everyone wants to be promoted!
While his style was heavily criticised during his most recent spell as Ireland manager, the Cardiff squad seem to have embraced McCarthy's no nonsense approach.
Midfielder Will Vaulks has also been praising the former Ipswich Town boss, saying making the team 'horrible' to play against has been key.
The gaffer had a joke and said it was no point getting the ball back because I kept giving it away, which was true.
But I’ve really enjoyed it and felt confident. So long as you give everything for him then he’ll back you and that makes a massive difference as a player...
It suits me as a player, because I always felt, ‘why can’t we just embrace what Cardiff City is?'
We are horrible to play against, we are physical, we run further than other teams, we win our battles, but we also have quality now.
It would certainly be quite the turn of events to see McCarthy back in the Premier League next season.
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