Mick McCarthy

Mick McCarthy sealed his return to the Premier League by leading Wolves to the Championship title in 2009. The spiky Northerner had been sacked by Sunderland in 2006, but is perhaps most famous for his bust-up with Roy Keane at the 2002 World Cup when he was manager of the Republic of Ireland.

In his playing days, McCarthy was a non-nonsense central defender who began his career with hometown club Barnsley. He made his bow as an 18-year-old in 1977, playing 272 games, before being transferred to Manchester City in 1983. After leaving Maine Road he played for Celtic and Lyon before finishing his career in London with Millwall.

McCarthy was also an experienced international with the Republic of Ireland, for whom he qualified through his father. His Ireland debut came against Poland in 1984 and he went on to win 57 caps. During that time the defender wore the captain's armband at the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

McCarthy's coaching career began well as he took over from Bruce Rioch as player-manager of Millwall in March 1992, aged just 33, a season in which the Lions finished 15th. In his first full season, the club finished seventh and then third the following year.

But 1994-95 saw things begin to turn sour for McCarthy with the supporters beginning to question his ability to take the club forward. They only just scraped into the top half of the table that season and McCarthy looked to be on the verge of the sack when, in February 1996, he accepted the chance to manage Ireland.

McCarthy had a tough act to follow with Ireland; the heroics of Jack Charlton had taken Ireland to two World Cups, as well as Euro 88. But, after four fruitless years, McCarthy guided Ireland to the 2002 World Cup finals in Korea/Japan.

However, preparations for the finals were plunged into turmoil when McCarthy clashed with Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane in a meeting during a pre-tournament training camp. Keane was angry with the whole Ireland set-up and the way McCarthy managed the side. It resulted in a full-on slanging match in front of the whole playing squad, coaching team and peripheral staff. Keane had overstepped the mark and was sent home.

The reaction back home was not good, as the public felt that McCarthy had ostracised their only world class player, meaning their chance of competing at the finals had been reduced to zero. McCarthy managed to focus the thoughts of the rest of his players to navigate Ireland through the group stage, but in the first knock-out round they were paired with Spain and, despite a fantastic display, were eliminated 3-2 on penalties.

On his return to Ireland, McCarthy learned just how much of a furore had been caused by the Keane fiasco. And, as the qualifying campaign began for Euro 2004, the vultures were circling and he walked away from the job after a home loss to Switzerland in October.

Despite the bad press, he had transformed Ireland from a nation going nowhere, ranked 54th in the world, to one capable of qualifying for the World Cup and ranked as high as 13th. McCarthy took time out of the game for several months before being approached by Sunderland in March 2003.

At the time Sunderland were rock bottom of the Premiership, having picked up only one point since the middle of December and were a certainty for relegation. It didn't get any better in the remaining games of the 2002-03 campaign under the new broom though - Sunderland lost all nine matches.

With Sunderland relegated, McCarthy faced a considerable task to turn the club around and after an initial struggle, he reinvigorated the side and dragged them to third, losing in the playoffs. Although the Black Cats again started slowly in 2004-05 it proved to be a mere blip in a fabulous campaign. After Christmas, McCarthy had his side in imperious form, losing just three of their final 19 games and sealing a return to the top flight.

But life back among the elite began as it had ended more than two years earlier. Sunderland lost their first five games of the new campaign and were relegated after the club endured its worst-ever start to the season. McCarthy wouldn't see out the season back in the Championship, as he was sacked in March 2006 - with Roy Keane, ironically, replacing him.

Picking himself up, McCarthy moved to Wolves in July 2006 and lifted the club into the play-offs in his first season. They lost out to West Brom, but did well to exceed expectations and in 2007-08 he impressed again, but narrowly missed out on a play-off place.

With two years of building the infrastructure of the club behind him, McCarthy began to see real results in 2008-09. Wolves topped the table and went on a great run throughout the season, sealing promotion to the top flight with ease. McCarthy's record in the Premier League may not be great, but his fiery personality and keen will to win should make interesting viewing.