Words can often come back to haunt you, particularly when your backside is in the bacon slicer that is life as a top football manager.
 
Late last Saturday afternoon Mick McCarthy had cause to celebrate when a 1-0 win for Wolves over QPR guaranteed his team promotion to England’s Premier League.
 
It was a happy day for the pack at Wolves, and a happy day for Mick and his family who have been through thick and thin with him in his life as a professional footballer and boss.
 
Immediately after the final whistle thousands of Wolves fans spilled onto the pitch at Molineux to acclaim their heroes and the manager who has brought them back to the big time at the third attempt.
 
It’s not the first time Mick has tasted promotion. A few years back he led a Sunderland side built on a shoestring budget into the then Premiership, only to discover that he was still dealing with shoestrings when he got there.
 
Former chairman Bob Murray was nowhere near as generous with the cash as Niall Quinn has been since the Irish and then the Irish Americans took control at the Stadium of Light.
As a result Mick failed to last until Christmas, and just months after the Sunderland fans had chanted his name on the day they were promoted, he was out the door.
 
The glories were soon forgotten on Wearside that winter, and ultimately the team that Mick brought up went straight back down again -- with a record low number of points.
 
Now we all know that not long after that debacle a certain Irish consortium took control of the club, appointed Roy Keane as manager and spent their way to the Championship and subsequent Premiership survival.
 
Naturally, many of the media who were present for Mick’s latest finest hour on Saturday were curious as to his feelings after winning promotion second time around.
 
They also wanted to know how he would deal with it, and if he feels he has a point to prove on his return to the Premier League.
 
“Of course I do, if I am given a sporting chance,” said the former Ireland captain when asked if he wanted to prove himself this time around.
 
He then went on to make a statement that has been highlighted on more than one Irish website in the days since Wolves went up.
 
Asked how it felt to be treated as a hero when some Wolves fans were calling for his head earlier this season, Mick made reference to his past.
“When we were struggling through January and February no one once said to me, ‘Oh, you’re a good manager because you took Ireland to the World Cup and Sunderland to the Premier League.’
 
 No one once mentioned any of my achievements. They are consigned to the history books,” replied Big Mick.
 
Of course some of the smart alecks who populate the Internet chat rooms have pointed out on more than one occasion in recent days that Ireland got to the last 16 of the World Cup in 2002 and not the quarterfinals, as Mick claimed in his hour of glory.
 
All of which proves that as a nation we can still win the gold medal for begrudgery, but at least not all the Internet chat rooms are full of anti-Mick bile and reeking of post Saipan fall-out.
 
One fan offered his congratulations, then signed off with a simple message – Mick for Ireland.
 
Now there’s a good idea.