Wolves manager Mick McCarthy has blasted the former pros who condemned his decision to make 10 changes at Manchester United.

“These ex-players doing radio and TV shows saying ‘if you’d have said to me I couldn’t play after Tottenham, I wouldn’t have been happy’, are talking bull because the game has changed,” said the boss.

“It’s like saying TV is the same as when we only had Match of the Day. Five years ago when I was at Sunderland, I said rotating players to give others a game was rubbish.

“It’s not, because you have to do it. I’m just learning, but our fitness and conditioning coach Tony Daley and the head of medical department Steve Kemp have re-educated me.

“If it hadn’t changed then what are we all doing with sports scientists, fitness and conditioning coaches, nutritionists, dieticians, psychologists?

“If there are no improvements in sport, why do records keep being broken?” McCarthy revealed the club’s sports therapist Bill Stevens has played a role in the team’s recent improvement .

“The players had a meeting with Bill and that was quite lively,” he said. “Nowadays, the players are fitter, bigger, stronger and quicker athletes than ever.” The Wolves boss admits McCarthy the player would have probably disagreed with McCarthy the manager.

But he says they must look at the bigger picture – and go to Old Trafford next season and the season after. “As a player, I had rucks with managers and my players had have reacted the same with me, they would have been in bother with me,” he said.

“I heard all these old pros saying how they would have loved to have played at Old Trafford, I say to our lads ‘play at Manchester United next year and the season after’.

“I say ‘stay in the Premier League for five years with Wolves, and then I can go when I’m an old so-and-so and someone else with fresh ideas can take over.’”