Football managers’ careers are rarely successful.

Regardless of how successful they are, it is rare for them to leave a club mutually or without any lasting concerns, but Mick McCarthy’s tenure at Sunderland is typically fondly regarded, considering the success we achieved on what was undoubtedly a tight budget.

The former Republic of Ireland manager was hired following Howard Wilkinson’s sacking in 2003. Upon his arrival, the team lost their remaining nine Premier League games, resulting in a then-record low total of nineteen points.

Despite the club’s large debts and having to sell the majority of his first-team players, McCarthy led the Lads to third place in the Championship in 2003/2004, before losing to Crystal Palace in the playoffs on penalties at the Stadium of Light.

The following season, McCarthy guided Sunderland to the Championship title with 94 points.

Despite a limited budget, Dean Whitehead and Liam Lawrence emerged from the lower levels and established their value in English football’s second tier.

Sunderland’s promotion was not unexpected, but winning the championship was almost unusual, leaving the team in an uncomfortable situation when it returned to the Premier championship.

This was because our players were either too old (Steven Caldwell, Alan Stubbs, Gary Breen, and Marcus Stewart) or too inexperienced (Whitehead, Lawrence, and Andy Welsh) for the top flight.

McCarthy had little wiggle room when it came to transfers for the next Premier League season, thanks to the massive debts we’d accumulated under Bob Murray, and with a budget of £6 million to cover fees and salaries, the manager had very little money to deal with.

The club was associated with many high-quality players in the summer of 2005, including Darren Bent (who broke our hearts for the first time during the first game of the 2005/2006 season), but we decided to stick with Championship players.

This philosophy saw Tommy Miller, Kelvin Davis, Andy Gray, and Jon Stead join from second-tier clubs, with McCarthy’s strategy centered on recruiting the best Championship performers and believing they could show themselves in the top division.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, this was a massive failure, and Sunderland stunk up the Premier League for the entire season.

McCarthy was fired after only two league wins, and Murray apologised to the fans for such a disastrous return to the Premier League.

I’d want to thank Mick McCarthy for his work for the club while at Sunderland.

While we fully anticipated a difficult first season back, none of us expected to be in the position we are now.

McCarthy has recently spoken about his tenure at the Stadium of Light and expressed regrets regarding his transfer policy following the team’s elevation to the Premier League.

I didn’t receive a budget. I mean, even just walking in through the entrance, I was bound to grab shots of players.

All of these players were making a lot of money when I started with those nine games in the Premier League, and even after that, we ended up signing loan players — you know, little salaries for players — all the way through.

Even when we were promoted to the Premier League and I was informed I had six million pounds to spend, I thought, ‘I’ll do it, I’ll prove everyone wrong’.

I am such a naive d*******. I lost my job.

To be fair, I went out and signed players I thought were top Championship players, believing they could do it, despite not having the money to purchase top Premier League players for pay or signings. Of course, they did not do it, and everything went wrong right from the beginning.

Despite McCarthy’s self-criticism, it appeared that he had no alternatives.

In general, Premier League transfer fees were rising, and it appeared that attracting players to a team that was clearly struggling financially would be tough.

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