From The Observer’s interview with Mick McCarthy:
'But do I have any regrets? Not at all. Things happen, you have to deal with them.
Still, I admit it was unusual to be asked by Uefa to come and speak at a media training session. I asked everybody there, "How would you have handled it? I'd like to know how I could have done it differently." People talk about crisis management and I said, "I think I know about managing in a crisis, but how do you manage that ?"
'I think the perception is it was handled fairly well, at least honestly and up front. In hindsight, I tried to do it with a bit of integrity and dignity. So to be asked to come and talk about it, well, I've enjoyed it. I guess from the last World Cup you couldn't get a better example [than me] of somebody in the media spotlight.'
Mick now says h
'We had just got to the last 16 of the World Cup without losing a game. If my record over the past three years warranted that sort of abuse then I'm going to have to take it. But I don't think it did.
'My family and I were protected from it. I did my job in Ireland and came back to the house in England so it wasn't in my newspaper; it's not like the kids and their mates would pick up a paper and read about their dad getting hammered. In fact I was getting positive press here and I'll be honest, that wound them up even more in Ireland for some bizarre reason.'