Mick's invasion plans

13 April 2012

Mick McCarthy will place Millwall striker Richard Sadlier on European Championship red alert when Ireland fly home to Dublin this evening.

The Ireland manager will lead his team on an open top bus parade to the Phoenix Park as a nation thanks the players who illuminated a World Cup summer.

McCarthy is slightly ill at ease with the notion of celebrating after a penalty shoot-out defeat at the hands of Spain in Suwon on Sunday.

But he knows how much his team have enjoyed the support of his Green Army, particularly in the wake of the Roy Keane debacle.

Already he is making plans to launch an Irish invasion of the Algarve when Portugal hosts the 2004 European Championships.

"The hard work starts here," admitted McCarthy as he boarded a flight from Seoul this morning. "We are about to go home and celebrate the World Cup achievement with our fans, but I know that my backside is back in the bacon slicer as soon as the celebrations are over.

"We have to qualify for the European Championships now or all this popularity will go out of the window.

That is the reality, we start with a clean slate when we go to Moscow in September and only a place in Portugal in two years will keep the fans and me happy. That is life as an international manager and I am more than happy to accept it."

McCarthy will lead the Dublin farewells tonight for Niall Quinn, Steve Staunton and Alan Kelly after all three retired in the wake of Sunday's-defeat against the Spaniards. Quinn's expected departure will now open the international door to Sadlier, limited by injury to just one cap in the World Cup warm-up games last spring.

McCarthy said: "Richard is one of the players we will be looking to bring into the squad. I had him down for all three games in the spring but he was unfortunate with injury and required surgery when I thought he might make a late push for the World Cup squad.

"His chance will come now though. We have a friendly in Helsinki in August and then the start of the Euro qualifiers in Moscow a month later. Those games will be upon us before we know it and it is important that we start to think about the future now."

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