James McCarthy calls it “a long road” and he’s been on it for the guts of three years. For a 29-year-old professional athlete, that’s not just long, it’s hard, uphill and there will have been times when it felt like the wrong road. “It’s been a tough couple of years,” he says, “but I’m back and hoping to kick on.”
McCarthy was speaking last Saturday. He had just completed his first full Premier League 90 minutes for three years.
Back in December 2016 he was an Everton midfielder, not long past his 26th birthday, playing in a team with Romelu Lukaku in front of him. Now he is a Crystal Palace player, and a somewhat downcast one after a late and undeserved 1-0 defeat at Newcastle.
He is what he is: a calming midfield presence, taller than you might think, with a willingness to work sideways, backwards and forwards. The chat from Palace fans was about McCarthy’s second-half retrieval of a dangerous Newcastle situation and the odd flash of spikiness. Perhaps they feel their team is a little too nice.
But for James McCarthy – and Mick McCarthy – the most important thing was that the former lasted an entire top-flight match without any obvious discomfort beyond the result.
He has had games when he played close to the full 90 in those three years, and there was a full 90 against Colchester in the League Cup at the end of August. But it’s been mainly 11 minutes v Norwich and seven against Watford, though he mentioned the 80 at West Ham in early October, when Palace won 2-1.
So for McCarthy last Saturday was a small personal landmark. His 2018-19 season had consisted of 14 minutes for Everton, his 2017-18 having been ended after six appearances by a broken leg against West Brom.
Blocking a shot from Salomon Rondon, McCarthy was caught and chopped unintentionally by the striker. It was such a sickening collision, Rondon would later break down. “I’m crying,” he said, “because apart from the fact that he’s a fellow professional, it was an injury that I actually felt when it happened. I’ll never forget it.”
If Rondon felt that bad, imagine what it did to McCarthy.
Hamstring strains had previously limited McCarthy’s time on the pitch with Everton, a situation that caused tension between Ronald Koeman and Martin O’Neill. But the leg-break was an interruption no-one could argue about. McCarthy moved out of sight and out of mind. Forgotten but not gone.
It was January 2018. Having cost Everton £13m when he arrived from Wigan – Roberto Martinez being the common factor – there would be only one more appearance in a blue shirt. That was the 14 minutes in April. Everton were getting through managers and Marco Silva sold McCarthy to Palace in August.
This is the long road he refers to and suddenly his last Irish appearance was over three years ago – in Moldova, a 3-1 World Cup qualifying win. It was his eighth Irish cap of 2016, having played in all four matches in France at the Euros. McCarthy was a stalwart player and has the years and capacity to be so again.
He has been in the squad since 2016, but those hamstrings. Now, though, as McCarthy says, he is back and while his recent past means nothing can be taken for granted, he can see Bratislava in March. He had just seen Slovakia’s goalkeeper Martin Dubravka up close. Dubravka will be a significant barrier for the Irish.
Is the playoff something McCarthy can think about?
“Yeah, it’s not far away and hopefully I can get a few games going here, get a run, then get back involved.
“I play for Crystal Palace. I need to get my club career back on track and once I’m playing week in, week out, then the international future will take care of itself.
“That’s the ambition, that’s the aim. I want to get back involved, but as I say, I want to get playing here. Then confidence, getting that run of games, once I’m back doing that, then the international will take care of itself.”
Has Mick McCarthy been in touch?
“Yeah, he’s been in contact a few times, looking to see what’s happening, making sure I’m fit and hoping to get me back involved. But I need to get playing here. Then I can go from there.
“I’ve played one game in a couple of years. I need to keep on top of my fitness, make sure I get a run of games. As everyone says, once you get that run of games, you feel better, sharper. I’m no different. My fitness feels good, its that sharpness I need. I need to keep working.”
By St Stephen’s Day McCarthy was back on the bench for Palace. But West Ham’s visit to Selhurst Park brought him another good memory, coming on with two minutes left and the score 1-1. Palace then won 2-1.
Today it’s Southampton, then Norwich next Wednesday and all the while McCarthy should be gaining the fitness and sharpness he requires. His long road may have an end in sight. It could lead him to Slovakia.
Ancelotti’s Everton starter just to his taste
It says quite a lot about the dysfunction at Everton that when James McCarthy signed for the club, Roberto Martinez was the manager at Goodison Park.
Martinez was still there in May 2016, then gave way to Ronald Koeman. There were 16 months from the Dutchman followed by six from Sam Allardyce. In came Marco Silva for 18 months and now Carlo Ancleotti is in charge. Add in David Unsworth and Duncan Ferguson as caretakers and Everton’s squad have heard seven different coaching voices in three-and-a-half years.
Ancelotti is the most exciting of these, however. He has a laid-back charisma and a charming lack of ego. And he is a great storyteller.
Whether this means he’ll work at Everton is another matter but it does present the opportunity to recall Ancelotti’s tale about looking at Yuri Zhirkov and “all I could see was a rib-eye steak . . . I looked him in the eye and suddenly I was starving.”
Ancelotti’s is frank about his foodism. Aside from football, it is his life’s passion. Wanting to stab his fork into Yuri Zhirkov is merely one illustration of this.
It would have been worth seeing, therefore, how Ancelotti looked at Dominic Calvert-Lewin when the final whistle blew at Goodison Park on St Stephen’s Day. Calvert-Lewin’s late goal had given Everton all three points.
The Ancelotti eyebrow will have been raised: just the start, or the starters, the Italian desired.
