There was a time when Mick McCarthy thought football was straightforward —but it didn't last very long.
'Oh yeah, it's easy at first, when you are young,' he says. 'Everyone says you are going to be a star.
'It was like that for me at Barnsley when I was a kid. It was all nice things. My mum used to keep a scrapbook of it. Then I went to Manchester City, we reached the old First Division and suddenly it's a completely different ball game.
'I used to go and look at the newspaper and think, 'Blimey I didn't think I was that bad… especially when I was given a one out of 10 playing against Cyrille Regis.