Regardless, given the travails of the current regime, Irish supporters may eventually come to look back on McCarthy's time in charge with a fond regard.

While Steve Staunton claims his squad is currently in a transitional period, McCarthy was faced with a much bigger bridge to gap when he inherited an ageing squad from Jack Charlton. His attempts to qualify for the 1998 World Cup floundered on some bad luck and a play-off loss to Belgium, but it was after that campaign that he realised the squad was in need of a significant overhaul and a transfusion of fresh blood.

So it was that on this day nine years ago that McCarthy took a team to Olomouc for a friendly with the Czech Republic and handed out five new caps, while selecting one of the youngest teams ever to represent the country, with an average age of just 23. The newcomers were Damien Duff, Mark Kinsella, Rory Delap, Graham Kavanagh and Alan Maybury while Robbie Keane became, at 17 years and eight months, the youngest Irish international in almost 40 years.

Having previously been seen as a henchman for Charlton, McCarthy had already proved to be his own man by ditching the long-ball tactics that as a player he was central to. The night in Olomouc is seen by many as the night when he stamped his own vision on the team. But despite the mass of changes McCarthy never pleaded for time to allow his side to gel, instead they came within 30 seconds of qualification, the march being stopped in its track by a lastminute goal being conceded in Macedonia in the final qualifier.

That led to a second play-off heartache, losing out on away goals to Turkey.

The third time proved a charm though, with qualification achieved for the 2002 World Cup in Japan. Of course that success paved the road to Saipan, and to more heartache.