, Alex McCarthy and second keeper syndrome

Alex McCarthy and second keeper syndrome

‘Second Season Syndrome’, like ‘that difficult second album’ is a well-known concept: everyone knows who you are now, they’ve had your best stuff, and they’re a bit bored with you acting like the underdog when you’ve just made the big bucks.

But, what about second keeper syndrome? The life of a back-up goalie is an unrewarding one, just ask QPR’s number two Alex McCarthy. Everyone sort of forgets you exist and yet expects you to be sharp when you suddenly have to make an appearance.

Two years ago, McCarthy was coming off the back of his breakthrough season. A product of Reading’s academy system, McCarthy had been patient through a series of loan spells, honing his craft, waiting for the opportunity to come for the first team.

And come it did, as a knee injury ruled out long term first choice Adam Federici in September 2012, McCarthy established himself. A string of strong performances drew plaudits, and although his mid-season was lost to shoulder surgery, once fit McCarthy returned to the team, regaining his form in a side destined for the Premier League’s relegation slots.

McCarthy continued as number one the following season, making 44 appearances as Reading narrowly missed out on the Championship play-offs.

During the season McCarthy found himself elevated briefly to the enviable/unenviable position of England number three. That most useless of all international squad members, requiring an injury to a specific colleague to even get a chance at warming the bench.

Nevertheless, the photos of him in a Three Lions training top, coupled with a precarious financial situation at Reading, were enough to seal a move away. He packed up his bags and headed down the M4 to Loftus Road.

There are few harder things to judge in football that the timing and details of the ‘big move’. For Football League clubs especially, and arguably anyone who isn’t actively challenging for the Premier League title or a Champions League spot, players come through the ranks dreaming of the chance to take on the best on the biggest stage. But judging it right, not going too soon to the bigger club and hindering your development, finding your first team opportunities limited, or wasting years waiting for the right chance to come along.

On paper McCarthy played it right – he joined Queens Park Rangers as they were promoted to the Premier League. He had experience in that league with Reading, and had been firm favourite in goal with a team that finished just a handful of places lower in the Championship. QPR had an established number one, but his light was fading, surely, while McCarthy’s star was on the rise.

That’s not how it’s worked out – just three senior appearances in his first season with QPR, and he finds himself once again in the Championship.

“It has been frustrating. I played the the full season for Reading last year but I’m playing the odd game here and I just want to play football”, McCarthy told the Evening Standard.

Pressure makes teams conservative – they won’t try new things until desperation kicks in. QPR have been under pressure all season. The lesson was there to be learned, even Julio Cesar spent the entire 2013/14 season twiddling his thumbs, bizarrely playing more times for Brazil at the World Cup than he did for QPR in the Championship. What chance did McCarthy stand in a world where that happens?

There’s a particular brand of schadenfreude that comes from watching a former player slipping back, heightened when a player left on bad terms – as is often the case, when a player agitates for the move. Not so with McCarthy, ushered to the exit by a club in need of funds. A prize asset turned into ground maintenance and payments to HMRC.

Some reserve keepers seem happy to fill the role – case in point, another former Reading man Stuart Taylor, also ex of Arsenal and Man City, who spent an entire career averaging 5 or 6 appearances a season. But for those who want to play, the patience required to wait for a first-team chance is super-human.

McCarthy, already 25, and having toiled season after season at Reading waiting for a chance behind Federici, will be short on patience reserves.

If Rob Green stays at QPR beyond the summer, Alex McCarthy may not.

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