McCarthy's likely lads of summer

On Thursday morning Mick McCarthy's players travelled back to their clubs knowing that the next time they hear from their international manager, he will be bearing either very good or very bad news.

Most, of course, have no need to worry. There is virtually no debate regarding the majority of the names that will be submitted to the FAI ahead of Niall Quinn's testimonial game next month, but for a few there are some nervous weeks ahead as they wait to discover whether they have done enough to earn themselves even understudy status in the Irish squad for Japan.

Earlier in the week McCarthy went out of his way to reassure those who had been unable to travel to Wednesday night's final eliminator that he would not be forgetting them. Mark Kennedy and Lee Carsley must have drawn considerable comfort from his comments. Roy Keane, you suspect, hasn't been sweating on the state of the manager's recall.

McCarthy also reiterated this week his intention to reward those who have been with him over the course of his first successful qualification campaign. The commitment will have been of interest to Kennedy and Carsley, too, but it will also have come as music to the ears of David Connolly and Richard Dunne, both of whom would appear to be under severe threat from some of those that have seized the opportunities they have been given in the three warm-up games played since Christmas.

If the four are fit, and McCarthy delivers in the way he implied on Monday, then all will be present in the Big Swan stadium in Niigata on Saturday, June 1st. And if they are, then some of those who have been busy making their mark over the last six months or so are in for difficult calls from the big Yorkshireman over the weeks ahead.

Wednesday's bout of water sports at Lansdowne Road will not have made the manager's task any easier. Before the 2-1 win over the United States, McCarthy suggested that Gary Doherty had slipped out of the 20-strong list of outfield probables during his six-month injury lay-off: then the 22-year-old comes on late and scores.

Having been described in the aftermath of the Denmark game by Newcastle United's assistant manager John Carver as the club's real star of the season, Andy O'Brien provided further evidence this week that he can become one of the Republic's stars of the future.

And then there is Colin Healy, who could not possibly have been asked to do any more to get himself to these finals over the course of his three senior internationals.

Looking further afield - and a little further back in time - there is undoubtedly a case to be made, too, for Phil Babb, on course these days for a Portuguese championship winner's medal with Sporting Lisbon where, so well is he regarded at the moment, that he has displaced Beto, the club's local international star who must now content himself with playing at right back.

Next season he is likely to be mixing with the Continent's best strikers in the Champions League and perhaps his performances in that competition will finally be enough to win him back the patronage of McCarthy.

For the moment, though, the bridges burned by his drink-fuelled antics during the build-up to the draw in Amsterdam remain unmended and having won the last of his 34 caps against South Africa two years ago, number 35 is not looming anywhere on the immediate horizon.

He may, of course, have compounded his offence in some way subsequently, for there was a remarkable contrast between the way in which he has been discarded and Mark Kennedy forgiven. Whatever has gone on, it appears that the Republic's manager sees Babb as not only having supped a little too late into the night at the last-chance saloon, but he then slipped next door to the establishment's no-looking-back nite-club in order to dance till dawn.

In his absence, and in the likely event that Dunne's heroics in those opening two away games are rewarded with a place in the squad, then McCarthy has to choose between O'Brien and Doherty. The pace of the former, a precious and desperately scarce commodity amongst our central defenders, tends to tip the balance towards O'Brien.

The ability of Doherty to provide an aerial threat up front at a time when Niall Quinn's fitness can never be entirely relied upon evens the scales up somewhat, though.

Logic suggests that McCarthy should avoid the dilemma altogether and let Dunne down as gently as possible. But the loyalty factor will probably save him.

Similarly it is hard to see what is to be gained by sticking by Carsley when it comes time for McCarthy to select his midfielders, given that Healy appears just as capable defensively while also offering much more of an attacking threat. Healy, though, may still be accommodated.

If McCarthy is to pick eight midfielders in addition to Damien Duff, then it would almost certainly mean disappointment for both Steven Reid, a strong performer since his debut against Croatia, and Rory Delap, whose overall showing on Wednesday while good was not quite as sparkling as it probably needed to be.

With any other manager, Kennedy's position could also be open to question, but nobody has benefited more from the support of McCarthy than the man who got his first taste of first-team club football from the former Millwall boss. In fairness, the Dubliner has been up there with Dunne and Jason McAteer when - in games of critical importance - they have defied the sceptics and rewarded their manager's loyalty with big performances (Just remember Kennedy's goal against Yugoslavia at Lansdowne in the last European qualifying campaign). Kennedy then will travel one way or the other.

If Duff is notionally included amongst the midfielders, then Healy will miss out. In that case, though, there will, at least, be little to fret over up front, where the choice will be more or less four from four. The beneficiary will be Clinton Morrison, who has done much since he actually started playing for Ireland to make up for his abysmal carry-on while he was still just talking about it.

One way or the other, Connolly looks certain to be there along with Niall Quinn and Robbie Keane, but the Wimbledon striker has long struggled to live up to the promise he initially showed at this level. In five starts during the recent qualifiers, four of which were against the group's weakest two sides, and one appearance from the bench, he scored just once and he is another whose presence in Japan, though contingent only on him being fit enough to travel, seems unlikely to be justified by events once McCarthy and his men arrive there.

Soccer correspondent Emmet Malone: For me, 17 of the places in the squad are more or less foregone conclusions, while for the remaining six there are just about a dozen serious contenders.

Nicky Colgan has done well over the past couple of seasons and his emergence has left Mick McCarthy with a degree of quality goalkeeping cover that is unprecedented for the Republic, but he can have little complaint that Alan Kelly will travel ahead of him if fit.

Kelly's outstanding performances came in Holland and Portugal where Richard Dunne was also amongst those who shone. In Japan, though, the big Manchester City defender could hope, at best, to be the fourth preference central defender and in view of that, my preference would be to take Andy O'Brien and Gary Doherty, who offer the options of slotting into midfield and attack respectively.

If any significant good has come of the three-match build-up to these finals, then it is the emergence of young Colin Healy in midfield. Even at 21, he already appears to offer more than Lee Carsley, his main rival for a seat on the plane, in the centre of the pitch and then there is the fact that he looks fairly comfortable on either flank or even playing at full back.

Given the fact that Roy Keane, Matt Holland and Mark Kinsella will pretty much monopolise the central midfield slots between them, it may be a little academic who gets the fourth slot, but investing in Healy's future looks like a better reason to bring him than rewarding Carsley's past, however admirable it might seem that he was willing to remain a regular squad member while, for instance, having only 23 minutes against Cyprus last October to show for the whole World Cup qualifying campaign.

Steven Reid, similarly, would benefit from the trip, as would Clinton Morrison, who still only looks to have achieved a fraction of his potential. Neither David Connolly's strike-rate nor his overall contribution is quite enough at this stage to justify him travelling ahead of the Crystal Palace man.

EMMET MALONE'S SQUAD

Goalkeepers: Given, Kiely, A Kelly.

Defenders: Finnan, Kelly, Harte, Staunton, Cunningham, Breen, O'Brien, Doherty.

Midfielders: Roy Keane, Holland, Kinsella, Healy, Kilbane, Kennedy, McAteer, Reid.

Strikers: Robbie Keane, Quinn, Morrison, Duff.