Ah, the hypothetical situations of Football Manager.
Ever since we had Wayne Rooney partnering Robbie Keane up front for Ireland on Championship Manager 4, we've always been interested to see who the game has declaring for the us down the road. Today, we're wondering was Mick McCarthy a keen Football Manager player in his time off from being, you know, a football manager.
Back in 2015, we had a look at some of the players who kept showing up playing for the boys in green on the game, and given the events of the last couple of weeks, the whole thing just feels a little strange.
Here are the players who just kept popping up playing for Ireland in Football Manager 2016.
Patrick Bamford
The oft-injured forward did play for Ireland at underage level, before changing to England early on and playing for them at three levels. A long time Chelsea loanee, he was just off his best career season at Middlesbrough when this game was released and looked set for bigger and better things, and certainly didn't seem to have Ireland on his radar.
Now at Leeds, and 25, he's reportedly considering throwing his lot in with Mick and the boys. Did Football Manager predict the future or did Mick see the future predicted and liked what he saw?
Nathan Redmond
Of course. Then a teammate of Wes Hoolahan and Robbie Brady at Norwich, Redmond showed no signs of declaring for his mother's country in late 2015, and in fact, would even go on and win a senior England cap between now and then.
And yet... if the reports are to believed he's on the verge of declaring for Ireland in the coming weeks.
So let's have a look at who else was popping up in the Football Manager crystal ball in 2015.
Mark Noble
Ah sure look. The streak was good while it lasted.
Richard Stearman
A weird one this.
He's 31 now, but we are short on central defenders and he did play for Mick McCarthy at Wolves...
Kyle Naughton
Someone you'd imagine there would have been a lot of interest in four or five years ago, the ship has probably sailed for the 30 year old Naughton, especially with Ireland's options at right back.
Alex McCarthy
This doesn't seem likely. Another who played for England (albeit only in a friendly), McCarthy stock has risen significantly since the release of this game. We're not sure he even qualifies for Ireland or just sounds Irish, but if he is approached, it will be the clearest sign yet that Mick McCarthy is, in fact, a FM addict!
Connor Wickham
An England U21 stalwart in his day, the Wickham and Ireland talk has been going on a LONG time. We don't think it's going to happen. We thought for a minute of a possible Mick connection but Wickham was gone from Ipswich the year before the big man turned up.
If this list has thought us anything though, it's that you never know!
Can you see any of the others on this list being on Mick McCarthy's radar in the coming months?
