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Johnson: it’s the team’s fault, not Mick’s

Comment: 0 February 15th, 2012 by: admin

WOLVERHAMPTON Wanderers captain Roger Johnson faced the press to insist that it is the players and not sacked manager Mick McCarthy who are at fault for the team’s poor performance.

The squad, languishing at 18^th place, attempted to remedy the situation Monday by dismissing McCarthy, who has managed the team since 2006.

In an interview with Sky Sports, however, Johnson insisted that all the blame is with the players.

“All of it,” he emphasised.  “The manager can maybe take five to 10% [of the blame].  The rest of it is down to the lads.  We have let Mick down, the club down and ourselves down.”

Johnson continued, stating that while the challenges facing them seem insurmountable at the moment, there are chances for remedying the situation, with the Wolves tied in points with 16^th and 17^th placers Queens Park Rangers and Blackburn Rovers.

“Thankfully we have got enough games to get enough points to get out of trouble,” he observed. “We probably need six wins from 13 games and we have a good enough team to do that.”

According to Yahoo! Sport, the Wolves bosses are planning to find a replacement for McCarthy in time for the team’s showdown with Newcastle on 25 February.

The latest reports suggest that Alan Curbishley, formerly managing Charlton and West Ham, Sunderland’s former manager Steve Bruce, and Neil Warnock of QPR are gunning for an opportunity to grab the position.

According to the club’s chief executive Jez Moxey, the quest for a replacement for McCarthy is yet to begin.

“I like to think that we are football professionals, so we understand what is happening in the market place, that we understand who is and who isn’t around,” he said.  “It’s part of our job.  It’s like a manager who has to scout players.

“But there wasn’t any plot in the background,” Moxey insisted, addressing notions of having had someone waiting in the wings even before McCarthy’s exit.

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