Wolves will be in safe hands under Curbishley or Bruce

Mick McCarthy did a terrific job at Wolves

Mick McCarthy's departure from Wolves seemed inevitable given the 5-1 mauling his side suffered against West Brom on Sunday, but it's hard to see many other managers doing a better job than him at Molineux.

McCarthy was well-liked by the players, knew the club inside-out and had been terrific for Wolves since joining as manager in 2006.

A heavy defeat at home to your fiercest rivals though makes almost any manager's position untenable - unless you're Sir Alex Ferguson and in a position where you can't possibly be sacked - and the fact the result saw Wolves fall into the bottom three made a knee-jerk reaction highly likely.

The axe duly fell on McCarthy yesterday, but he can walk away with his head held high having done a terrific job.

The club needed someone to take it by the scruff of its neck and drag it into the Premier League, and there aren't many with a better track record of doing that than McCarthy.

Promotion to the top flight was secured in 2009 and McCarthy went on to prove he could cut it as a manager in the big time, keeping Wolves in the Premier League for two seasons.

That experience of winning battles against relegation would have stood he and his team in good stead had the board kept the faith, and it has to be doubtful whether his successor will be able to achieve what McCarthy did over the last two seasons.

There are some quality players on the books at Molineux, like Steven Fletcher, Kevin Doyle, Matt Jarvis and Wayne Hennessey, while there is a strong backbone to the side which should see them safe.

However, changing manager does not always guarantee success, particularly for a side battling relegation at this stage of the season.

It worked for West Brom last season with Roy Hodgson and it's worked for Sunderland with Martin O'Neill, but Alan Shearer and Iain Dowie both failed at Newcastle and Hull respectively.

There is an argument that sticking with managers fighting relegation can also be perilous, like Avram Grant at West Ham last season, and so Wolves chairman Steve Morgan found himself in a very tricky situation with McCarthy.

McCarthy provided only happy memories for Morgan at Molineux

He was going to be criticised whatever he decided, so his judgement cannot be praised or condemned until at least the end of the season.

What can be condemned, though, is the way he undermined McCarthy by giving his players a dressing down after their defeat to Liverpool, as the manager deserved better than that for all he had done for the club.

McCarthy has now left Wolves with a great deal of dignity and with respect seemingly from all fans of the club, so Morgan must surely regret how he handled the situation.

However, his decision to sack the Yorkshireman cannot yet be criticised and could turn out to be another example of a chairman intervening at just the right time to save his club from relegation.

McCarthy did excellently at Wolves but Morgan will be hoping the new manager will follow in the footsteps of Hodgson at West Brom and Alan Pardew at Newcastle, who were the replacements of Roberto Di Matteo and Chris Hughton respectively last season after they were sacked in unpopular circumstances, and take the club onto the next level.

Success for Wolves is clearly still survival, and that will be the short-term aim of the new boss.

However, Morgan will need to balance that with appointing a man he believes can progress the club further and establish Wolves as a mid-table Premier League team.

Of all the candidates rumoured to be in the frame to replace McCarthy, only Alan Curbishley and Steve Bruce have CVs to suggest they would have a better chance of saving Wolves than the former Ireland and Sunderland manager.

Curbishley has been out of football since leaving West Ham in 2008, and his chances of returning to the game have looked slim recently.

Curbishley has done very little wrong in his managerial career

He is perceived by many as arrogant for his view that he belongs in the Premier League and would therefore not accept a job at a lower level, but it is hard to argue against his top flight record.

Curbishley is a legend at Charlton for the job he did at the Valley, taking the Addicks into the Premier League and seeing them excel there before resigning after six successful years in the top flight.

He then joined West Ham and secured a miraculous survival followed by a top-10 finish before resigning after a row over transfers.

His reputation has taken a battering since then but he remains the same, successful manager he was in his days at Charlton and West Ham.

Curbishley's name is unlikely to set Wolves fans' pulses racing but he could be just what they need to secure survival.

He is certainly the calibre of manager they will be looking for but if he doesn't take over at Wolves, you would then have to question whether he would ever get back into the game.

The only other realistic candidate who would do the jobs Wolves need would be Steve Bruce, another manager whose reputation has recently taken a battering.

Bruce was always fighting a losing battle at Sunderland as a well-known supporter of their fierce rivals Newcastle, but his record stands up against almost anybody's.

Bruce is an early frontrunner to replace McCarthy

Even at Sunderland, he took the club to a top-10 finish but it was the lack of success from his big-money signings which eventually did for him at the Stadium of Light.

His other spells as a Premier League manager were at Birmingham and Wigan, and he did a terrific job with both of those.

He took the Blues to the top flight for the first time in 16 years in 2002, and the club only spent one more season outside the Premier League before Bruce left in 2007.

Bruce then went on to somehow save Wigan from falling into the Championship before leading them to an impressive 11th-placed finish the season after.

The job Bruce did at the DW Stadium is looking even more impressive now given their current struggles, and Wolves would surely love Bruce to do a similar job at Molineux, although they would want him to show them more loyalty than he did Wigan.

There really aren't many other realistic candidates who could save Wolves.

A bold appointment would be Huddersfield boss Lee Clark, who looks destined to manage at the top, but Morgan has already indicated he wants an experienced manager and there are doubts over whether Clark would leave his current job for a risky role with the Premier League strugglers.

Curbishley and Bruce are the two names who should be in the frame, with both more than capable of saving Wolves from relegation.

Everything seems in place for Wolves to become an established Premier League club and it is a shame McCarthy couldn't see through the job and do that, but he won't be out of a job for long.

Any ambitious Championship club looking for a manager in the near future will have McCarthy and Neil Warnock at the top of their shortlist as there are not many better at turning a club around and taking them to the Premier League.

McCarthy will feel hard done by to have left Wolves but it is understandable why the club made the decision to sack him after their poor run and heavy defeat to their fierce rivals.

This managerial appointment now though is crucial and the club must get it right or risk derision for getting rid of McCarthy.

The man Wolves need is Curbishley or Bruce, and if either of those can save them, the harsh-looking sacking of McCarthy will be justified.