Mick McCarthy believes many players operating in the Championship would be good enough to play for lower-end Premier League clubs as a result of the huge cash bounce England's second-tier division has enjoyed in recent years.
The Championship has been injected with huge sums of money as the swathes of cash in the modern Premier League drips downwards.
Much has been made of the Republic of Ireland having to call on so many footballers playing outside the top flight but McCarthy - approaching the six-month anniversary of his second stint in the hot seat - insisted there's an abundance of quality a step down.
"The Championship has improved no end because of the money that's poured into it," he told FAI TV.
"You get promoted you get £100m, and you come down and you get £100m to spend on players.
I think the players in the Championship are not that far away from the bottom end of the Premier League
"So the quality has definitely gone up. The commitment and work rate and desire couldn't have got any better, except maybe for the prize of getting promoted and what that does to a club... maybe that's upped even the desire to get up to the Premier League. It's a really tough league.
"I think the players in the Championship are not that far away from the bottom end of the Premier League. It doesn't bother me where they come from. My job is to get the best out of them, whatever league they come from. It's about making the whole better than the sum of the parts."
Ireland will head for a training camp at Quinta do Lago in Portugal to prepare for June's crucial Euro 2020 qualification double-header with Denmark and Gibraltar. Having started with two wins, two more positive results will really set the Boys in Green up for a crack at making it the finals.
"Nothing that went on up until me coming in on 1 December really matters to me," said McCarthy when reflecting on previous clashes with the Danes.
"I can only plan for what I'm going to do, myself and the staff. It's gone well so far. Don't get me wrong, we'll have tougher games than we've had so far. But that's the excitement of it; I'm looking forward to it.
I could hear my granddaughter shouting down at me
"Winning the two games against Gibraltar and Georgia put us top of the group and has meant players are thinking ‘you know what, we may have a chance here, we may be at Euro 2020’ everyone wants to be involved in that and that’s great for all of us.
"To go back [to Lansdowne Road] and start with a win [against Georgia] was brilliant. I thought the lads were great. They responded to everything we asked of them.
"I could hear my granddaughter shouting down at me. It was lovely to have heard it. My kids didn't see it all the first time around. They certainly didn't see me playing. They came to the World Cup in 2002 but they weren't at all the games and probably didn't understand it as much. It was great to have them there."
McCarthy managed an Ireland Legends game for a benefit match against Liverpool at the Aviva in aid of Sean Cox. It was, said the manager, a special night.
"The whole evening was brilliant. I loved seeing all the players I've worked with before. I hadn't seen them for years. We went up to meet Sean and he's there in his Liverpool gear. I said, 'what's the game Sean? I thought you were an Ireland fan!'.
"His family said, 'aw he supports both'. I'm stood between Ian Rush and Kenny Dalglish and someone said, 'who's your favourite?' He looked up at me and shook my hand! I've gone, 'waheeey!' That's made my career that. To be stood between Rushie and Kenny and someone saying I was his favourite... I think he was kidding me on!
"To see him and the family and friends he had around him was quite emotional for us."
