Liverpool FC

Re McCarthy and the Ireland squad, I'd think the main reason he pulled out of the squad was one of the fixtures was against Scotland, the country he is just after turning his back on. I know it's hard to judge, these days especially, but he doesn't seem like a bad egg, where as Stephen Ireland was always a prat (Though I wouldn't use the Granny incident as a stick to beat him with, was a complicated situation). I'd agree that the McCarthy absenteeism could have been handled a lot better but I think Trappatoni has handled the issue of all these absentees fairly poorly, it's always discussed openly with the media and he either still doesn't have the English, or the full facts, to really put across what he wants to say, it all becomes a bit messy. Needless to say I think Kenny would do it a lot differently, more in-house.

Anyway getting away from the Irish setup, from what I've seen of McCarthy on the pitch he'd be an alright squad player but I think he'd need some serious improvment to be worth a spot in the first team. He technique and vision seem pretty good but I still havn't really seen him light up a game. Plus we also have Shelvey as an up-and-coming central/attacking midfielder. Still, we've been linked with him since he was at Hamilton so I'm sure our scouts know a damn sight more than I do!