Mick McCarthy has revealed that the presence of Terry Connor as his assistant manager at Ipswich Town has made his job with the Championship club a little easier. But McCarthy does not expect Connor to remain his assistant for long.
Connor had a brief taste of management after replacing McCarthy at Wolverhampton Wanderers, having previously acted as McCarthy’s assistant at Molineux before the manager was sacked with Wolves’ Premier League status under threat. Connor could not save Wolves from relegation and soon left when Stale Solbakken was appointed the club’s new manager, joining McCarthy in November after he replaced Paul Jewell at Portman Road.
Despite Connors’ time as a manager in his own right, McCarthy revealed that there was no persuasion needed to get the Leeds United forward to agree to a return to the old set-up. “We have a really good working relationship there is no difficulty at all. I had spoken to him and asked if he fancied a manager’s job himself and I guess if the opportunity arises at some stage he would and he should because I think he would be very good,” McCarthy said.
“ I am sure some people think that me and Terry didn’t talk when he was manager but we had five years of real close friendship so of course we talked. I know he enjoyed his stint as the manager, making the decisions and planning everything but he was involved in all of that anyway when I was the manager.”
McCarthy added: “He inherited my job at Wolves because of circumstances, but that was a tough job when the two of us were there and it just made it even tougher when I left,
“We have got a really good relationship and friendship. In terms of our business working relationship that is terrific and it’s not me making all the decisions and him just agreeing, it’s a good partnership that we have.”
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