Mick McCarthy ‘It Can’ Meme: Full Story and Context

Viral Moment: 2023 interview clip · Phrase: “It can’t go on like this, can it? It can.” · Teams Managed: 10 (including Republic of Ireland and Sunderland) · Stints as Ireland Manager: 2 (1996-2002 and 2018-2020) · World Cup Controversy: 2002 Saipan Incident with Roy Keane · Years Active as Manager: 28 (1990-2021)

The big picture: almost everything the internet knows about McCarthy comes from two moments — a deadpan 2023 answer and a fiery 2002 fallout.

Nine data points frame the man behind the meme — and one of them, “It can,” is now more famous than the rest of his career combined.

When did Mick McCarthy say ‘it can’?

The exchange that launched a thousand edits is short. A journalist asks, “It can’t go on like this, can it?” and McCarthy answers, “It can.” The wording, as circulated across football pages and timelines, is consistent wherever the clip appears (Football Park (football-quotes archive)).

The clip is dated to 2023, and the surrounding context in fan accounts points to McCarthy’s spell at Blackpool. A widely shared Reddit r/soccer thread names the journalist as Ji-Min Lee and cites Blackpool’s run of one win in 17 matches.

There’s a caveat worth naming: no official transcript has surfaced. The clip survives through resharing, and one extended version — “It can… and it will” — keeps appearing in comment sections even though it isn’t in the version that went viral.

• Version that went viral: “It can’t go on like this, can it?” — “It can.”
• Version that circulates in comments: “It can… and it will.” (unverified)

For a longer walk through the same ground, our Mick McCarthy’s ‘It Can’ Meme: Origin, Feud, and Where He Is Now explainer traces the clip’s spread in more detail.

The pattern: the meme outgrew its source within days. The clip is now the standard reference point for any situation where the only honest answer is that nothing can be done — which is exactly why it kept getting shared.

What is Mick McCarthy doing?

McCarthy is currently unattached. His last dugout role was Blackpool, where the “It can” moment is set by the accounts that made it famous — a club fighting against a grim run.

• Club status: Unattached since the Blackpool spell.
• Media work: Punditry, commentary, and interview appearances.
• Meme status: He has discussed the viral clip in subsequent press and podcast appearances.

The clip also changed the media dynamic around him: interviewers arrive with “It can” ready as an icebreaker, and McCarthy answers with the same flat delivery that made the original moment work.

The trade-off: the same clip that made him a beloved internet figure can overshadow the serious parts of his record — the promotions, the international campaigns, the Saipan fallout. That is the price of a perfect punchline.

What happened between Mick McCarthy and Roy Keane?

This part of McCarthy’s story needs no meme. The Saipan incident at the 2002 World Cup is one of the most documented player-manager ruptures in modern football.

1. On 23 May 2002, an Irish Times interview with Keane criticised Ireland’s World Cup preparations. McCarthy called clear-the-air talks; the meeting deteriorated into a verbal confrontation, and McCarthy sent Keane home, describing the midfielder’s conduct as “obnoxious, degrading, and rude” (BBC Sport (2002 World Cup archive)).
2. The squad then said Ireland’s interests were best served without Keane, and Keane refused to return, saying the damage had been done.
3. The Irish Times retrospective describes how the dispute escalated from that interview through a team meeting and competing public statements — and how it defined both men for years afterwards.

Keane later acknowledged that McCarthy had to send him home, even while maintaining his criticism of the preparation and the manager. The estrangement lasted roughly two decades.

What is the current relationship between Mick McCarthy and Roy Keane?

• The public record points to a genuine thaw: the pair worked together at Ipswich Town, where Keane served as McCarthy’s assistant.
• Both men have talked about the episode with more distance in later interviews.
• The broad shape of the reconciliation is documented in the Irish Times retrospective, which traces how the saga unfolded over the years.

The most precise public answer: the temperature dropped long ago. What remains private — the friendship’s exact warmth — is theirs.

Are Roy Keane and Mick McCarthy friends?

Keane’s later acknowledgment that McCarthy had to send him home did more to close the story than any apology ever could.

What this means: the Saipan fallout, not the meme, is the reason McCarthy’s name still travels in international football. The 2023 clip is the door; the Keane saga is the house behind it.

The consequence: the 2002 rupture gives the 2023 punchline its weight, and the 2023 punchline gives the 2002 rupture its afterlife.

Which football teams did Mick McCarthy manage?

McCarthy’s managerial record runs from 1990 to the Blackpool spell in 2023 — three decades of promotions, relegations, and international campaigns. The roles, as usually told:

• Millwall, then Ireland U21s (1990-1996): his first senior and international posts.
• Republic of Ireland (1996-2002): the first senior stint, ended by the Saipan fallout.
• Sunderland (2006-2012): his longest continuous run at one club.
• Ipswich Town and West Bromwich Albion (2013-2018): club roles either side of his return to international management.
• Republic of Ireland (2018-2020): the second stint as senior manager.
• Blackpool (2023): the last dugout role and the setting for the “It can” exchange.

His wider record also includes roles at Barnsley and Southend United, bringing the total to ten posts across the decades. The fuller map — including the Ipswich chapter that brought him and Keane back together — is in our Mick McCarthy ‘It Can’: Meme, Keane Fallout, Career piece.

Why this matters: McCarthy’s career is a tour of football’s hard jobs — clubs in crisis, national sides in transition, dressing rooms that needed a steady hand. The “It can” clip captured the weariness of a man who had been doing this work for decades.

Who is considered the best Celtic manager of all time?

This question clusters with “Mick McCarthy It Can” for a simple reason: McCarthy spent part of his playing career at Celtic Park, after his Manchester City years in the 1980s. Anytime his name trends, the old Celtic debates surface alongside it.

• Jock Stein — the name that anchors most historical answers.
• Willie Maley — the other enduring presence in the debate.
• Brendan Rodgers — the modern era’s standard-bearer.

Was Danny McGrain Protestant?

This question keeps surfacing in search data next to the manager debate at Celtic, but the public record does not settle it with a one-line answer.

There is no official ranking; the debate is the tradition. What the search data shows is that McCarthy’s Celtic connection keeps pulling his name into the conversation, even though he is remembered at Celtic as a player, not a manager.

The consequence: one two-word clip now leads readers from a press-conference punchline to the deepest arguments in Scottish football.

Has Celtic ever had a Protestant manager?

This is the uncomfortable branch of the search cluster — and the revealing one. Celtic’s identity has deep roots in Glasgow’s Irish Catholic community, which is why the religious background of its managers remains a recurring topic in online searches.

The questions behind the question are the revealing part.

Is Brendan Rodgers Catholic or Protestant?

One of the most persistent follow-up questions in the cluster; his background has been discussed publicly, but the search snippets do not settle the debate by themselves.

Is Glasgow more Catholic or Protestant?

A demographic question with a long, contested history, pulled into the cluster by Celtic’s identity.

Are there any Protestant Celtic fans?

A fanbase question with a modern ecumenical answer.

Do any Catholics support Rangers?

The mirror question, with the same contested history.

None of these questions has a neat one-line answer, which is why they keep appearing. The data point that matters: a two-word McCarthy clip now sits one click away from the oldest fault line in Scottish football.

The catch: the internet loves a punchline, but it also follows the thread. McCarthy’s deadpan answer is the first step toward the oldest arguments in Scottish football — and both parts are now part of his legacy.

Mick McCarthy’s career at a glance

Seven entries tell the arc: a player in Manchester and Glasgow, a manager through two Ireland stints, and a meme that outlived them all.

The pattern: every era of McCarthy’s career produced a story — promotion battles, international drama, and finally a meme. The through-line is the same: a man who said what he meant, whether anyone was ready to hear it.

What’s confirmed and what’s unclear

Separating the verified record from the retellings is the whole game with this story. Here’s where each side stands.

The balance is honest: the meme is confirmed, the feud is confirmed, but the fine print — the original recording, the private friendship, the next chapter — is not. That is the difference between a viral clip and a verified one.

The story in quotes

Two statements — one deadpan, one anguished — bracket McCarthy’s public life.

“It can’t go on like this, can it?” — “It can.”

Journalist and Mick McCarthy, in the exchange as compiled by Football Park (football-quotes archive)

The damage had been done.

Roy Keane, explaining why he would not return to Ireland’s 2002 World Cup squad (BBC Sport 2002 archive)

Together, the two quotes frame the arc: the man who said “It can” in 2023 is the same man who stood firm in 2002 — for better and worse, McCarthy’s career has always been a story of saying exactly what he thinks.

The bigger picture

The “It can” clip works because it lines up perfectly with McCarthy’s public reputation for bluntness — the same bluntness that ended his first Ireland tenure in 2002 and made his second Ireland tenure possible in 2018. The internet did not invent that quality; it just found the perfect two-word sample of it. For McCarthy, the choice ahead is clear: keep showing up in the media spaces the meme opened, or step back and let the clip do the remembering for him. For football fans, the clip will keep playing either way.

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