Ahead are Ardiles and Hoddle, there's Ricky Villa. Beside him is Ramsey, at least he thinks that's the name but he can't be sure, he's only heard the older kids mention it in passing.

But it doesn't matter. For now this is his dream and nobody can get near it. Look one more time.

Remember that image.

The helping hand You'll have heard all the names in this tale but one. Eddie O'Rourke. The once youth coach of Cobh Ramblers. The guy who said he'd send the brown haired boy off on the FAS soccer course in Dublin, the one he was desperate to get on.

The guy who began it all, making names long before he got close to making his own. Still in Cobh working as a joiner, hoping some day for more.

"I was at Cobh a long time you know. Between playing and coaching the young guys. All my family were steeped in that club. But you are flavour of the month and then you can be gone.

People change and that's your time. But I've got the top job now. I'm inter-league manager for the Cork area and county. And it's been 20 years since they won the cup and I'm now after getting them to the final. This in my first year, you know."

His football life revolves around the Uefa B badge he has, his son who follows him as his assistant and his thoughts of the boy whom he helped make it. "When I look back and see what he achieved it's unbelievable. I'll tell you a good story.

When he was going over to Forest, we were winning everything here but I left him out of a semi-final and he nearly killed me. I said, 'You're not playing because you are going to Forest tomorrow and if anything happens ya. . .' But he didn't see it that way. He just wanted to play.

"And sometimes you wonder how it all happened. In 89/90 I had one of the best youth teams ever. We won everything you can name bar the FAI Cup and we were playing Belvedere in a replay. We were hockeyed that day 4-0 but truth be told, we were beaten when we left Cobh. Everything that could go wrong did. It was Murphy's Law.

We were hammered but he gave a performance, and I don't know what the scouts were looking at because no one had contacted us bar Noel McCabe. And Noel must have had his homework done and I'd say by the time we were back in Cobh he was on to us."

The manager Jack Charlton's fresh off a plane from Bournemouth. The after-dinner speaking circuit isn't as Sunday afternoon as it sounds.

Maybe it's because he talks for a living now, but he doesn't like to mention the boy. Not after what he did.

"I don't particularly admire him, but that was later. There was a lot before that and I would have first got to know him through Maurice Setters. He took me up to Dundalk I think it was, to watch the under-19s. He wanted me particularly to have a look at this right-sided midfield player. I watched and after it Maurice asked me what I thought, and I said to him, 'To be fair and going on what I've just seen, not a lot'. I wasn't too impressed. He said, 'Nah, he's a good player'. I think he was at Nottingham at that time.

I'd know most of the others playing but Maurice was so much into this boy. And he was correct. The boy proved that in other games later, he proved that he was a very, very good player."

He'll tell you about the night he made up his mind. It was a friendly between Forest and Sheffield United and every run and clatter has been memorised. Brian Clough's tactics always impressed Charlton and they suited the boy he'd come to watch. "He came into the options before America and everyone recognised he would be a good player. He had a tremendous engine, he'd run forever, he'd tackle, a good passer, he had everything for a centre midfield player. He didn't know everything about the game like he appears to have done towards the end of his career at Manchester United either. I remember in one of the qualification games we lost 2-0 in Austria.

I remember saying to him to just, 'Sit in the midfield, don't over commit, we need a result out of the game today. If we get a result we'll qualify. Let the game settle and once it does, if you want to join in and go with your runs, you can. But leave it 20 minutes'.

"We went on the park and he was going over the place, forwards, backways, he just ignored what I said to him. I mentioned it to him at halftime and gave him a bollocking after the game.

After that he was okay. I never had any problems, he didn't attend meetings late, he was just one of the lads. He'd behave himself in every way possible."

It's for that reason that what happened with Mick McCarthy surprised Charlton. It's for that reason too, that he lost respect for the boy. "That doesn't happen in World Cup football. It wouldn't have happened in America. He seemed to take the responsibility of being captain to an idea where he thought he had an input into the gameplan and as far as I was concerned, he never had any input into the game, he was just there because he was a good player."

The foe You'd never have guessed it in the lane but the little brown-haired boy had a temper. Alf Inge Haaland knows better than most from his time with Leeds and Manchester City. He's back in his home town of Bryne now, acting as a sort of general manager around the club as they push for promotion to the Norwegian top flight. He goes out the odd time to kick about with the lads there, but at 33, his knee gets the better of him before a half hour is run.

"It's not a good thing looking back at the tackles he made on me. If it had been a football incident, so be it, but obviously for him it was more than that. That is the sad part. If you are directly trying to injure someone, that's the hard part to take. I guess from the football side of things he was a good player, but in a way he's not a very good ambassador for the sport because of the way he reflects on things in his book and admits he tried to injure me, that's my view. Tackles happen all the time and I've had my bad tackles, but to get the ball you always try to be fair and shake hands after the match. But him. . . I don't think when kids read about these kinds of things it's very good.

"And I haven't played a full game after his challenge on me [in the Manchester derby] but then again I'm trying to forget that now, I'm looking at the good years I had. There is always a discussion about that tackle, whether he ended my career or not, but the facts are I haven't played a full game after that tackle. He initially tried to injure me [while Haaland was at Leeds] and he got booked and thought it was bad from my side, but never mind.

"It is in the past now, there is nothing you can do but hopefully there won't be too many comments from footballers in the future like that.

But in a way it's a bit sad that he would try to benefit financially from a book sale and all these things and it stinks for me. Apart from that, he's been a very good player and played for a good team for many years, so you can't take that away from him, but it's just sad that all that happened."

The friend Paul McGrath's gone quiet these last few years.

A middle ground after the lows and highs maybe, but his ground for the first time in quite a while. Many of his highs involved Roy Keane. The nights out in Manchester, the conversation, the company. He occasionally talks with his old friend, but friendship doesn't need conversation.

"My first memories of Roy are at Forest.

And then there was playing beside him with the Irish team. For someone so young, it was just amazing how professional he was at that age.

He was magnificent. Off the pitch, you hear so many stories about him. But myself and Caroline [Paul's ex-wife] would have got to know Roy closely in Manchester. The two perceptions of him were totally different. We had some great laughs going out for dinner and stuff. Just getting to know Roy over the years he was a totally different character. He was a genuinely nice fella.

McGrath goes back to his peace and quiet, Charlton keeps talking, Haaland wonders where he'd be playing now. And all the while Eddie O'Rourke sits on his couch and thinks to himself how that boy owes nobody anything.

emackenna@tribune. ie

ROY KEANE TESTIMONIAL MANCHESTER UNITED v CELTIC Tuesday, Old Trafford, 8.00 Live, RTE Two, 7.30