Martin O’Neill has his eyes peeled. Roy Keane's, well, they're peeled too. They wake up peeled.
Friday afternoon's Ireland squad announcement, the first of 2016 but also the second last before the European Championships roll around in three short months' time, gave all the indication needed that the nation's management team are focusing in on their chosen ones.
But there was also a message that there still remains time for those on the periphery as new faces made the cut in a 40-man selection. And so eyes will again be peeled this weekend.
“He's (Doyle) a huge part of what we're doing here and really, he's still got so much to give - at all levels" - Pádraig Smith
From Carrow Road to the Britannia to Goodison Park. But also to less salubrious surrounds.
New York Stadium will be watched closely as Derby County - who could end up providing about an eighth of the eventual Euro 2016 squad - take on Rotherham. So too will matches in Nottingham, Cardiff and elsewhere in the Championship.
By Saturday night however all will have gone quiet across the channel and eyes might instead shift across the pond. Dick's Sporting Goods Park doesn't have much of a ring to it, doesn't quite sound like the kind of place where dreams float or founder. But they might just.
The last time Ireland took to a major championship stage, Giovanni Trapattoni's attack was headed by the two men who will lead opposing lines in Denver tonight as the Colorado Rapids welcome LA Galaxy in their home opener on the second weekend of the new Major League Soccer season.
Four years on from the debacle of Euro 2012, Robbie Keane and Kevin Doyle are desperate to contradict recent history and prove a point. The former, that he can still captain the country in the true sense of the word - on the field. The latter, that at the very least he can still contribute on the fields of France.
There would have been a third man itching to grab a glance tonight but so little luck has shone on Sean St Ledger for so long that it would be near foolish to expect any now.
The defender, Ireland's only goalscorer in Poland four years ago, will be on the sidelines tonight, his pre-season stunted by injury. He's not far away though even if he seems a million miles removed from the conversation Keane and Doyle hope to stay prominent in.
This is now the state of play for three men who in the not too distant past were locked into the Ireland teamsheet.
"It's funny, yeah, in very different ways it is a big few months for all of them," says Pádraig Smith, the Rapids' sporting director.
"Obviously Sean was unlucky, he was dealing with an injury so he's a little behind the other two but yeah, there are targets, big targets, there for all three of them. It's a huge few months to start the season for them."
Smith is well placed to gauge the standing of the only three Irishmen who currently call the MLS home. He's the man making all of the football decisions for the club that employs two of them. But for four years he called FAI HQ and Abbotstown home.
He's entering his second full season in the Rockies after making Doyle the headline move of his first term here.
"Kevin's been spectacular since he joined us," says Smith, an FAI compliance and financial director who moved on to similar roles in UEFA before pitching up in the US.
"He's just brought a level of professionalism that we maybe didn't have. He's had a great pre-season [this year], got a hat trick in his first game and another couple of goals since.
“He's a huge part of what we're doing here and really, he's still got so much to give - at all levels."
Doyle believes so too. He's said as much. Once he settled after making the switch Stateside last year, he thrived.
He was recalled to the Ireland squad for September qualifiers but didn't feature and was only on standby as Jonathan Walters, Shane Long and Daryl Murphy were spearheads on the decisive final nights of the journey. Yet the 32-year-old remains the joint-second highest international scorer available to O'Neill.
The highest scorer does not want to go gently either. France may shape as a swansong but Keane doesn't want to spend it on the bench.
He kicked off his fourth MLS season, unsurprisingly, with a goal and a win against DC United last weekend (the new-look Rapids lost narrowly to San Jose).
LA are eager to wrest back the crown from the Portland Timbers and amongst the likes of Kaka, Sebastian Giovinco and Andrea Pirlo, Keane is intent on staying marquee.
"Robbie is Robbie. He's just an absolute giant," says Smith. "What he has done in his career, there's a good chance that that won't ever be done again by an Irishman," says Smith.
"He's come over here and he's had three of the best seasons - by all statistical or whatever measure - of any striker. He's been phenomenal for the league, for the Galaxy... even if we're hoping we can keep him quiet."
"The Euros may be a big factor but I think you're likely to see more guys get over here sooner rather than later" - Pádraig Smith
And what of St Ledger, who picked up 37 caps at the heart of the defence in less than four years but none since 2013, when a wretched run of luck kicked off.
"Who knows? I mean who really knows?" wonders Smith. "It's something that Martin and his team are going to sit down and pretty much be intently studying from here on in.
“They'll be evaluating everything. We just want to see Sean fit, healthy and playing great football like he can. If that puts him in any sort of position to give Martin something to think about... that's what Sean wants to do."
For Smith too this shapes to be a key season. His first full year in situ was a struggle at times, Colorado finishing bottom of the Western Conference with goals an issue.
However he feels much more at home in the unique surrounds of North American game now.
"Nothing really prepares you for the challenges and the differences, the vagaries of the MLS. It's a completely different structure to what we see in Europe. So it's always going to take time to adapt, on and off the pitch," says Smith, whose key off-season move was the recruitment of Albanian striker Shkelzen Gashi, top-scorer in Swiss football the past two years.
A potentially major coup, in the shape Tim Howard, also looks to be in the pipeline.
"It's just an exciting league to be a part of. We're getting flooded with calls from agents in Europe. People want to be a part of it.
“On the field, it continues to grow very, very quickly. What I like is the move away from trying to attract the older player, the mid-30s guys.
“Now, it's much more about the Giovincos, the Gashis. Two players in their prime, both internationals, both hoping to go to the Euros. That's what we need to do."
While the very top of North America's soccer pyramid has already got things underway for 2016, Irish exploration extends all the way down through the supporting blocks, the NASL and the USL, both still in pre-season.
Richie Towell, who Smith confirms Colorado were interested in, may have opted against such a move but this off-season has seen a couple of major names from the League of Ireland punch a trans-Atlantic ticket.
Former Ireland midfielder Liam Miller's meandering career path had already taken him from Parkhead to Perth but he's now swapped Turner's Cross for North Carolina and the Wilmington Hammerheads. James Chambers left St Patrick's Athletic for Bethlehem Steel, also of the USL.
A rung up, veteran LOI frontman Eamon Zayed pitched up at Indy Eleven in the NASL. He'll find many familiar faces this term.
Richie Ryan, our domestic player of the year in the recent past, had been expected to attract MLS attention after a sterling campaign for Ottawa Fury but instead switched to Jacksonville.
Fellow former Sligo Rovers Derek Foran and Iarflaith Davoren are among a clutch of Irish to also call the league home.
From Atlantic to Pacific, in some of football's most unlikely outposts, where gridiron or baseball or even NASCAR are king, exiles are chasing some semblance of an American dream.
Having had plenty of involvement in the domestic scene back home, it's a switch that Smith understands and agrees with.
"The structure of the the clubs here is top class - throughout the leagues," says the Meath native. "So players are coming into very very good environments to further develop their careers. So that's something that appeals to them.
"But then when you look at it from a lifestyle perspective too, there's no doubt that moving over to the US is a wonderful opportunity for players.
“Especially those that are knocking around the fringes of squads in the UK or trekking around the League of Ireland.
"I know that there's a couple of other Irish [international] guys who are very interested in coming over. The Euros may be a big factor but I think you're likely to see more guys get over here sooner rather than later."
On Saturday night at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, however, two of those already here will be striving to prove they can still factor too.
