BY any Irish manager's criteria, it would seem like the English FA Cup semi-final line-up from hell, coming as it does four days after Mick McCarthy's first game against the Russians. Already through are Aston Villa and Manchester United, with perhaps Liverpool and maybe Chelsea to come as well, on top of which the Russian game is preceded by the Aston Villa-Leeds League Cup final on the Sunday beforehand. Welcome to international management, Mick.
As things stand, the Aston Villa trio of Paul McGrath, Steve Staunton (rendered doubtful with a thigh muscle injury, in any case) and Andy Townsend in McCarthy's inaugural squad could be involved in both of their club's big games.
Add in two Manchester United players, Roy Keane and Denis Irwin, along with a couple from Liverpool, Phil Babb and Jason McAteer, or one from Leeds, Gary Kelly, and perhaps even Chelsea's Terry Phelan, and as many as six, and possibly eight, of McCarthy's 24-man squad announced on Wednesday could be involved in the March 31st semifinals.
Not that McCarthy is tieing himself in knots over the potential damage to his first squad. Far from it. "There's no problem. The players will all be coming over. There can't be any problem, can there? They're on international duty to be fair."
Maintaining this theme, McCarthy added: "At the end of the day it's international football and if I was an international player there's nobody who would have stopped me coming to play. It's an international cap, and if you're going to play for your country that's the pinnacle of your playing career, you can't get any higher than that.
Be that as it may, not every Republic of Ireland player has always demonstrated such unstinting loyalty to the green shirt. More pertinently perhaps, their club managers haven't always regarded it as such a high priority.
One of the latter who has on occasion put his own club's needs above that of his players' international duties is Alex Ferguson, though here again McCarthy has been assured as to the availability of Roy Keane (who missed all but three of the Republic of Ireland's 11 qualifying games for the European Championship finals under Jack Charlton) and Denis Irwin.
McCarthy commented yesterday: "I spoke to Alex Ferguson and he said he's getting a private jet to fly his two players back. He didn't say anything about a problem of them playing. He just said he would be getting them back immediately.
"I've never even thought about it to be honest. They've all been called up. I suppose it's up to the managers to contact me if they've got any problem with it."
In that light, it will be surprising if Brian Little does not make contact with McCarthy at some point in the near future. The week of March 24th-31st is shaping up to be the biggest in Villa's history since they won the league in 1981.
Whether or not they regain the League Cup, which they won two years ago, on the 24th, three days before the Russian game, it's doubtful whether Little would regard a midweek international as the ideal preparation for the semi-final with Liverpool or Leeds on the 31st.
McCarthy accepts such a problem could well arise but, on the understandable life-is-too-short basis, he isn't inclined to countenance it until it happens. "I know you're pre-empting problems but it's only if somebody comes and says that to me that I will actually decide what to do. There's no point in going looking for a problem. There's no reason why I should. I'll cross it when I come to it.
McCarthy makes that point that if, say, Liverpool emerge from their quarter-final replay with Leeds to meet Villa then both Roy Evans and Little "will be at the same disadvantage". Time will tell whether they, too, see it that way.
