Mick McCarthy has explained that he would be a Leeds United fan if he was not involved in football, but the Ipswich Town boss insisted that he wants to "slap" the Whites on Saturday.

The ex-Ireland international, who supported Leeds while growing up, has been in charge of Ipswich since 2012.




Despite McCarthy revealing that he is no longer a Leeds fan, the 58-year-old stated that he would want the Yorkshire giants to flourish if he was not involved in the game.

And the former Wolverhampton Wanderers boss, who has often come up against Leeds in his managerial career, said that he wants to slap the Elland Road outfit when Ipswich take on Thomas Christiansen’s team at the weekend.
 


“As everybody knows I was a long-time supporter when I was a kid while I was growing up”, McCarthy said on Ipswich Town’s official channel.

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“The Johnny Giles era and the Allan Clarke era and it was wonderful.

“I used to love that team, but I’m no longer a supporter.

“But I’ve got to be honest that if I wasn’t in football, I would still want Leeds to do well.

“I just think it’s a great club and they’re from Yorkshire, where I come from.

“I want them to do well, but I want to slap them on Saturday.”

Leeds, who appointed Christiansen as their new head coach in the summer, have made a solid start to the season and presently find themselves top of the Championship table.

The Whites also brought in several new players during the summer transfer window and McCarthy admitted that they have a strong squad at their disposal.

“They’ve started exceptionally well”, he continued.

“Thomas Christiansen played with Barcelona and he has got a good pedigree.

“It’s not always easy to transfer that onto the training ground.

“But it seems to me that he has.

“They bought a lot of new players, they have new owners as well and new investment.

“But they lost Chris Wood, he was their top scorer last year in the league.

“They’ve replaced a number of players, Stuart Dallas hasn’t been playing, [Kemar] Roofe hasn’t been playing.

“They’re nice to go to, those type of players.

“They’ve a very solid and a very organised team.”