Before the Lions there was Lyon.
Mick McCarthy spent some time in France before joining Millwall and it seems the new Aston Villa manager Remi Garde was the reason Big Mick’s continental adventure ended so soon.
Before joining Arsenal in the twilight of his career, the Frenchman started out at Lyon, where he shared a dressingroom with the Republic of Ireland legend.
McCarthy spent a very brief period with Lyon in 1989 after he left Celtic, but he only stayed with the club for around nine months as his place at centre-back was nicked from under his nose by the new Aston Villa boss.
The Ipswich boss spoke to Four Four Two magazine in 2009 about his very short period in France, and by all accounts it was one of the stranger times in Mick’s career.
He first explained how the move came about,
“Somebody rang me up and asked if I’d be interested. I have to say I didn’t know exactly where Lyon was. It wasn’t as easy then. You didn’t go on the internet and just type Olympique Lyonnais and find out everything about it. Somebody had seen me play in the European Championships in 1988 for Ireland in West Germany and marked me down and followed me and they approached the club.”
Mick McCarthy con la camiseta del Olympique Lyon.Temp 89/90 pic.twitter.com/KyAIlhFiyT
— RememberTheFootball (@RemTheFoot) October 30, 2015
Mick made the move to France but it wasn’t all plain sailing, least of all in the language department. What’s ‘arse in a bacon slicer’ au francais?
“The only thing I remember about that is the players saying to me “Tu parles francais comme una vache espagnole” – I spoke French like a Spanish cow. So that bit really stuck with me.”
Things didn’t really work out for Mick because of Remi Garde and his defensive colleagues, who eventually forced the Irishman to decide that with a World Cup on the horizon he’d be better off back in England,
“I was only there from June till March. I’d had an operation at Celtic, I’d rehabilitated, I’d got myself in the team. But the knee played up again. Remi Garde and Bruno N’Gotty were in the team and they were two fantastic players. So I just didn’t get back in the team and didn’t really see myself getting back in the team while they were playing so well.”
Remi Garde captained Lyon in the late 80s & was partnered briefly in central defence by Mick McCarthy. Hard to think of a slower pairing.
— Beyond The Last Man (@BeyondTLM) November 3, 2015
Mick saw the writing on the wall and decided that a move to Millwall was his best option, even if it did interupt his home decorating efforts
“I wanted to play in the World Cup in 1990 and Millwall came up. I’d just put the last roll of wallpaper in the house when a guy from Millwall rang. I didn’t want to leave Lyon. I wanted to play in the World Cup and the only way to do that was by playing first team football.”
Unless Garde arrests Villa’s slide pretty soon he could be reunited with his old clubmate in the Championship next season.
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