Mick McCarthy named 38 players in his first squad back as Ireland manager, and you get the impression that he would have named more if possible.
The new Ireland manager happily admitted that he wanted to make sure that there was no forgotten folk going into the start of the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying campaign.
And as a result, there was a very, very familiar look to the majority of the squad for the upcoming double header against Gibraltar and Georgia.
Daryl Murphy would probably have taken it to 39, had the Nottingham Forest man not emphasised that he had retired. Mick may not yet be fully convinced.
Patrick Bamford and Will Keane are another two who will most likely be included in future squads as international clearance appears to be on its way for the front men.
Ciaran Clark and Callum Robinson are on the road to recovery from injury and will not be considered for the upcoming games.
So an element of continuity, in one sense, as McCarthy has utilised the Martin O’Neill provisional squad tactic, which certainly limited the questions that could be conjured at the press conference for his first squad announcement.
"Twenty-three," confirmed the manager, when asked how many would report for duty on Sunday week, which kicks off the beginning of the ten-day camp.
The trip to the Iberian peninsula will herald McCarthy’s first competitive fixture back in the role, away in Gibraltar on 23 March, followed by the former manager’s first home tie against Georgia the following Tuesday.
So for all the good news stories for the likes of Padraig Amond and James Collins receiving their first call-ups, the reality is that one or both may not make the final cut as the manager has to chop 15 players over the next week.
McCarthy’s squad is top heavy with frontmen as he acknowledges the importance of scoring goals in these opening two encounters, which surely fall into the must-win category.
Amond, the FA Cup king from Newport, and Collins, Luton Town's League One top goalscorer, with 20 league goals, have been plucked from the lower divisions where Ireland managers tend not to tread.
However, for this particular juncture of the campaign, McCarthy gave the impression that the players playing with confidence are set to take priority.
"If you have someone in a rich vein of form, as in goalscorers, you may just require that at some stage," said McCarthy.
"Putting someone on who has not scored 20 goals, I’d sooner have someone who I know if a chance falls to him, he might just put it in the net."
So good news perhaps for Amond and Collins. And with David McGoldrick, Ronan Curtis and Sean Maguire all positively name-checked by McCarthy, there could be no place for Scott Hogan, Aiden O’Brien, and possibly even Shane Long whose selfless, work-rate style may not be needed in these opening fixtures.
"I think he is one of our best midfield players," revealed McCarthy, when discussing the engine room of the team in the middle of the park.
The manager had already had his say on Glenn Whelan, a man who he believes can still do a job in the sitting role in midfield, but on this occasion, McCarthy was talking more about another he could build his team around.
The almost forgotten figure of James McCarthy is back to full fitness and getting named in Everton’s matchday squads, yet the influential midfielder has little or no competitive football to speak of having recovered from injury.
The manager spoke about wanting McCarthy to go out on loan in January, showing the importance that he places on the player, and while the Everton man was named in the extensive squad, his namesake appeared to concede that he would not be available for this round of games.
"I’ve spoken to him a couple of times. And hoped he would go out on loan in the January window. They wouldn’t let him go or he couldn’t go for whatever reason.
"So he hasn’t started a game for a long time. I think he is one of our best midfield players. I’d love to have him back and I have stressed that to him
"But the best midfield player who doesn’t play is not the best midfield player. You need people who are playing games, who are battle-hardened."
And McCarthy was also quick to point out that he would not risk the wrath of Everton by throwing him into competitive action with no game-time under his belt.
"If he played two or three games [with the under-23s], at least he would have had the 90 minutes, and I can’t stress how important that is.
"Never in my time, someone who has been out that long, would I let them go straight back into the first team. They would have had to play with the reserves or the 23s. You need football before you go back into the first team."
'The next game is the most important' is often the mantra that managers speak of, as was suggested to McCarthy by a member of the media.
Yet you get the impression that McCarthy has all eight games mapped out with what he expects from each and the return his team should garner from every fixture.
McCarthy, no doubt, believes that he has enough in his current crop to return the maximum from the two opening games, albeit with the usual warning that Georgia cannot be underestimated.
And the manager surely has a squad and starting XI in mind for the big game that leads into the summer as Ireland travel away to Denmark.
While McCarthy – the player – may be temporarily gone, but not forgotten, another midfielder who has gone and is set to soon be forgotten, barely managed a mention at the media gathering.
Declan Rice will no longer fly the green flag, but rather looks set to enter the Three Lions’ den, and while that particular circus played out in public for a lot longer than it should have, the manager did not commit to steering clear of such scenarios in future.
The Bamford case appears to be a victim of bad timing, but looks resolved at this stage, while the Will Keane capture seemed a lot more straightforward.
"I won’t answer it, we’ll wait and see," said McCarthy when it was suggested to him that former player, John O'Shea, believed that Ireland must stop their crusade to tempt qualified players to commit.
But then the manager had a change of heart.
"England have done it. I will answer it," McCarthy boomed.
"They’ve chased one of our better ones and they’ve took him, so it’s not only us who are doing it.
"Surely, it is my job to have the best team possible of players that qualify, and that’s what I will continue to do."
The Barnsley-born son of a Déise man was one of many who benefited from the crudely called "granny rule", and having played for many years in the green of his country, before managing Ireland at the 2002 World Cup, McCarthy does not see any arriving players as a disruptive factor.
"Not at all," he said, solemnly.
"Because I have been in the dressing room when it’s happened. I’ve actually walked into the dressing room and took somebody’s place that was born in Ireland.
"Did it cause any consternation or upset? I don’t know. Not with me.
"I played in ’88 and ’90 and I had a pretty good time to be quite honest, and a lot of other guys who were in that squad were not born and bred in Ireland. And I’ve never seen any trouble with it at all."
