Giovanni Trapattoni can always be grateful that, at the very least, he'll never find himself in the following situation. Eoin Hand was getting desperate. It was just a few days before Ireland's 1982 summer tour of South America and he had to somehow scramble a squad together.

His side had initially been due to play world champions Argentina in Buenos Aires but, with the Falklands War having just broken out, English clubs pulled their players out. Mindful of perceptions that they were being de facto dictated to by British sports policy, the FAI refused to cancel the fixture until it came right to the crunch... which left Hand to go cap in hand to the clubs and beg for players to be released for the remaining matches.

Manchester United and Arsenal, however, still refused while Liverpool advised their contingent not to go. The Anfield club "had visions of the players not coming back". That meant at least eight senior internationals wouldn't be travelling. Of the 16 players that Hand eventually hauled in, seven played in the English second tier or below while five earned the only Irish caps of their career on the trip. So a third of the squad were completely unsuited to international football. Instead of marquee names like Frank Stapleton and Mark Lawrenson taking on Socrates' Brazil in the second match, effective makeweights like Mick Fairclough of Dundalk and Johnny Walsh of Limerick United did. Ultimately, despite the presence of Liam Brady, they would be destroyed 7-0 by Zico and co. And, having endured Ireland's worst ever defeat on the trip, they would then suffer the most humiliating: a 2-1 reverse to Trinidad and Tobago.

It isn't just Trapattoni's defensive acumen or the more stable nature of South American politics that mean he'll never find himself facing that kind of defeat. Quite simply, he'll never have to cast his net as far down as Hand did.

Trapattoni may not have that core of quality (Brady, Stapleton, Lawrenson, David O'Leary, Ronnie Whelan, Kevin Moran) Ireland did in 1982 but there is a persuasive argument that the depth of the Irish squad has never been so decent in strength. If Trapattoni was missing eight senior players as Hand was, he would be much more assured by the side he could send out. A glance at the teams around these pages indicates that. We've attempted here to rank the potential XIs Trapattoni could put out, depending on his recent preferences. And Ireland's notional top-choice sides at the moment are, if not frightening, at least competitive-looking.

By contrast, the Irish team battered by Brazil was mostly a mix of Hand's second and third teams. That was how shallow it got. Now, you have to go to the nominal sixth team to find a player as far down as England's third tier.

At this point, a disclaimer: of the six teams set out here, four players – John O'Shea, Paul McShane, Marc Wilson and Keith Fahey – are used more than once. But that's only because they have, essentially, had no truly fixed position. O'Shea, for example, doesn't merely fill in different positions for Ireland but is one of the top choices at both full-back and central defence. McShane tends to be the same a little further down the pecking order. As such, it wouldn't have taken into account the reality of the situation to only include them once on the chosen teams.

Of the 62 players in total then – excluding the retired or out-of-favour 'exiles' such as Stephen Ireland – four are in the Champions League, including Moscow-based Aiden McGeady, three are in the Europa League, and a further 18 are in the Premier League. That's over a third of Ireland's deepest ever pool that play at the top level.

This, of course, is certainly not to say it's Ireland's best ever pool. Just that Trapattoni has a rarely high number of options that are all in or around the same level. It's a wider range, if not higher-quality range, than even Jack Charlton had.

Some positions are admittedly better bolstered than others. At right-back there's O'Shea, McShane, Seamus Coleman, Stephen Kelly and Kevin Foley. In central midfield there's Glenn Whelan, Keith Andrews, Paul Green, Darron Gibson, James McCarthy, Keith Fahey and – when he returns from injury – the irrepressible David Meyler. Even up front there are at least a few goal-sniffers behind Robbie Keane and Kevin Doyle like Friday night's goalscorer Shane Long and Anthony Stokes.

It's the poverty at left-back, however, that has seen a novice like Greg Cunningham promoted by Trapattoni and a part-time one like Burnley's Chris McCann fill in there in these teams.

Obviously, most managers would prefer one Andy Townsend to three effective identikits like Whelan, Andrews and Green. But the breadth of options available is still important. It was the lack of them, Lawrenson believes, that cost Ireland for so long. Especially in Hand's time. Bringing in players from the lowest divisions would also bring down the overall quality.

"One of the problems was, not being disrespectful, more often than not we'd have a couple of players from lower divisions. Now it's very, very difficult for those players to sustain the level [required]."

With a manager so fixed on a set system as Trapattoni is – and as Charlton was before him – it's imperative then for players filling in to have sufficient intelligence and ability to adapt to his demands. And, as these XIs show, he may not have stars but at least he has a lot of stalwarts.

That depth is proven by the numbers. No Ireland manager has called up as many different players as Trapattoni at the same stage of their time in charge. Indeed, there's never been as many Irishmen making a good living from the game, as the wages shown here emphasise.

Part of that is down to the effects of Italia 90 and the soccer explosion that ignited and part of it is down to the fact the FAI eventually started implementing the sort of youth structure missing from before and during Charlton's time.

The result may not be the most wondrous generation of Irish players, but probably the widest.

mdelaney@tribune.ie

Miguel Delaney's book on the Irish team between 1986-2002, 'Stuttgart to Saipan – The Players' Stories' (Mentor Books) will be on sale in bookshops soon

First XI

1 (P) Player Shay Given (C) Club Man City (W) Wage £80,000 (A) Age 34

2 (P) John O'Shea (C) Man United (W) £75,000 (A) 29

3 (P) Kevin Kilbane (C) Hull City (W) £13,000 (A) 33

4 (P) Seán St Ledger (C) Preston (W) £12,000 (A) 25

5 (P) Richard Dunne (C) Aston Villa (W) £45,000 (A) 31

6 (P) Glenn Whelan (C) Stoke City (W) £12,000 (A) 26

7 (P) Liam Lawrence (C) P'mouth (loan) (W) £14,000 (A) 28

8 (P) Keith Andrews (C) B'burn Rovers (W) £16,000 (A) 30

9 (P) Robbie Keane (C) Tottenham (W) £65,000 (A) 30

10 (P) Kevin Doyle (C) Wolves (W) £25,000 (A) 27

11 (P) Damien Duff (C) Fulham (W) £45,000 (A) 31

Second XI

1 (P) Keiran Westwood (C) Coventry City (W) £3,000 (A) 25

2 (P) Paul McShane (C) Hull City (W) £24,000 (A) 24

3 (P) Greg Cunningham (C) Man City (W) £7,875 (A) 19

4 (P) Marc Wilson (C) Stoke City (W) £9,000 (A) 23

5 (P) John O'Shea * (C) Man United (W) £75,000 (A) 29

6 (P) Darron Gibson (C) Man United (W) £5,000 (A) 22

7 (P) Stephen Hunt (C) Wolves (W) £30,000 (A) 29

8 (P) Paul Green (C) Derby County (W) £5,000 (A) 27

9 (P) Shane Long (C) Reading (W) £8,000 (A) 23

10 (P) Cillian Sheridan (C) CSKA Sofia (W) £4,000 (A) 21

11 (P) Aiden McGeady (C) Sp Moscow (W) £45,000 (A) 24

Third XI

1 (P) Joe Murphy (C) Scunthorpe U (W) £2,000 (A) 29

2 (P) Shane Coleman (C) Everton (W) £3,000 (A) 21

3 (P) Eddie Nolan (C) Scunthorpe U (W) £2,000 (A) 22

4 (P) Darren O'Dea (C) Ipswich T (loan) (W) £5,000 (A) 23

5 (P) Alex Bruce (C) Leeds United (W) £4,500 (A) 26

6 (P) Liam Miller (C) Hibernian (W) £4,000 (A) 29

7 (P) Andy Keogh (C) Cardiff (loan) (W) £6,000 (A) 24

8 (P) James McCarthy (C) Wigan (W) £14,000 (A) 19

9 (P) Anthony Stokes (C) Celtic (W) £9,000 (A) 22

10 (P) Noel Hunt (C) Reading (W) £8,000 (A) 26

11 (P) Keith Fahey (C) B'ham City (W) £10,000 (A) 27

Fourth XI

1 (P) Brian Murphy (C) Ipswich T (W) £2,000 (A) 27

2 (P) Stephen Kelly (C) Fulham (W) £11,000 (A) 27

3 (P) Stephen Ward (C) Wolves (W) £3,500 (A) 25

4 (P) Paul McShane * (C) Hull City (W) £24,000 (A) 24

5 (P) Shane Duffy (C) Everton (W) £2,000 (A) 18

6 (P) David Meyler (C) Sunderland (W) £20,000 (A) 21

7 (P) Jon Walters (C) Stoke City (W) £11,000 (A) 27

8 (P) Keith Fahey * (C) B'ham City (W) £10,000 (A) 27

9 (P) Caleb Folan (C) Hull City (W) £10,000 (A) 27

10 (P) Leon Best (C) Newcastle U (W) £3,000 (A) 24

11 (P) Daryl Murphy (C) Celtic (W) £15,600 (A) 27

Fifth XI

1 (P) Wayne Henderson (C) Preston (W) £2,000 (A) 27

2 (P) Kevin Foley (C) Wolves (W) £4,000 (A) 25

3 (P) Damien Delaney (C) Ipswich Town (W) £8,000 (A) 29

4 (P)Paddy McCarthy (C) Crystal Palace (W) £8,000 (A) 27

5 (P) Joey O'Brien (C) Bolton (W) £11,000 (A) 24

6 (P) Marc Wilson * (C) Stoke City (W) £9,000 (A) 23

7 (P) Wes Hoolahan (C) Norwich City (W) £6,000 (A) 28

8 (P) Martin Rowlands (C) QPR (W) £8,000 (A) 31

9 (P) Stephen Elliott (C) Hearts (W) £2,900 (A) 26

10 (P) Seán Scannell (C) Crystal Palace (W) £2,500 (A) 21

11 (P) Keith Treacy (C) Preston (W) £2,000 (A) 22

Sixth XI

1 (P) Colin Doyle (C) B'ham City (W) £7,500 (A) 25

2 (P) Steven Finnan (C) No club (W) – (A) 34

3 (P) Chris McCann (C) Burnley (W) £4,000 (A) 23

4 (P) Cliff Byrne (C) Scunthorpe U (W) £1,000 (A) 28

5 (P) Alan Bennett (C) Wycombe W (W) £1,400 (A) 28

6 (P) Stephen McPhail (C) Cardiff (W) £6,000 (A) 30

7 (P) Owen Garvan (C) Crystal Palace (W) £4,000 (A) 22

8 (P) Michael Doyle (C) Coventry City (W) £8,000 (A) 29

9 (P) Jon Daly Dundee (C) United (W) £2,000 (A) 27

10 (P) Alan Lee (C) Hud'field Town (W) £4,200 (A) 32

11 (P) Stephen Quinn (C) Sheffield United £1,500 (A) 24