Despite a lack of spending power, Mick McCarthy’s Wolves side are already showing promotion potential. With a team assembled from home-grown youngsters and seasoned pros Wolves are surpassing many people’s expectations this season to find themselves third in the Championship. Mick McCarthy has been speaking to Sue McCann.

We spoke when you were appointed and at that stage you hadn’t met the players and had no idea of the quality you were inheriting…eight weeks on what’s your assessment?

“I inherited a lot of good young players actually. I honestly didn’t know them and of course there were twelve of the senior players that were in the team last season who had left. Now when I came in I genuinely didn’t have a clue about lots of the players but some of the young players who are in the team now like Mark Little who’s an England U19 player, Matt Murray and Carl Ikeme are both excellent goalkeepers, Daniel Jones, Lewis Gobern, Kevin O’Connor, Leon Clarke these are all lads who are only 19 who have all done well. They are really, really good and the lads that have been brought into the Club; the likes of Gary Breen, Jamie Clapham, Jay Bothroyd, Karl Henry have done really well and all contributed. The players that were left were good players and that’s been proven, they’ve all got a good attitude and it’s been great.”

Every Managers ‘dream job’ would be to have plenty of money to assemble a squad with depth, the reality these days is that is rarely the case. So as someone who enjoys coaching, how satisfying is it for you working with youngsters and having to blood them into the team early?

“Very satisfying. You’re dead right, it would be nice for anybody to go into a job and be able to assemble a squad of experienced top players but it doesn’t happen, jobs don’t come up with clubs like that. So it is really satisfying to be out on the training ground every day with them (the youngsters), we all work with them, my assistant Ian Evans does a lot of work with them, I do a lot of work with them. So they all get plenty of work. It’s a small squad and I sometimes think that is a benefit because we all train together.”

Over the years I’ve asked various players ‘what’s the manager like as a person’ and their response has often been ‘I don’t know him really’. What type of relationship do you have with your players, because I get the impression that you do give a bit of yourself and that there is a good rapport?

“Absolutely, I couldn’t go in everyday and be stand offish with them. I have a chat with them, I think they all know that they can have a chat with me and they can all take the ‘mickey’ out of me as well if the time is right if we’re having a bit of fun and we’re having a laugh. I do like to create an environment when they want to come in and want to train and work and it’s easier to do that when it’s an enjoyable atmosphere to come into. They also know the ground rules and where they all stand; I’ll have great fun with them and great banter with them but if I say ‘jump’ I expect them to say ‘how high?’ It’s a mutual respect, I don’t think you can get anything out of people if it’s just one way…you can’t expect people to respect you if you don’t respect them.”

With so many young players in the team, are the senior pros like Jody Craddock and Gray Breen almost an extension of your management staff given their experience and the example they can set to the kids?

“Yes, I will say to the older lads ‘look I need you on side here, I need you on board here with this.’ They do it naturally anyway but there are occasions when I say to them ‘look I need a little bit extra, I need your help on this’, and they’re willing to do it, they buy into it, they’re great to be fair, they’re good lads.”

Going back to when you were appointed, you said ‘let’s get the team spirit together first because without it we’re going to struggle’; I watched the way your players celebrated their victory over Leeds together and you seem to have accomplished that target which is difficult, given you have a team of very young players and older players who don’t necessarily have a lot in common….

“I’ve been in both situations; and I remember as a young player how you look up to those older players and have a respect for them. Then as an older player when the younger ones come in and if they’re good young players they give you a real lift as well. When you are a senior player and you come in and see the likes of Mark Little, Daniel Jones or Kev O’Connor play and they really play well it kind of enthuses you as well as an older player. So they do form a bond, the older ones take the younger ones under their wing and the young ones look up to them and appreciate it. The team spirit is good and they all have something to play for and something to fight for; the younger ones coming in who are trying to prove themselves and some of the older ones who were disappointed last season and some have come into the club and are still hungry for it, so yeah there’s a good spirit at the moment.”