Clinton Morrison was the latest veteran of the Mick McCarthy era Irish team to appear on the Fantasy Football Club on Sky Sports.
Unsurprisingly, his team has a very heavy Irish tinge, with six members of the Clinton XI playing alongside him for the green. Shay Given, Steve Finnan, Richard Dunne, Roy Keane, Damien Duff and Robbie Keane were the six men honoured. And few could quibble with these selections.
He waxed lyrical about Robbie's movement, Roy's exacting standards in training, and said that it was a close run thing between Steve Finnan and Stephen Carr. The former got in partly by virtue of the fact that he ensured that Clinton got a feel of a Champions League medal on a night out.
Most interestingly, he observed that Damien Duff was a "quiet shy lad, who didn't used to speak to anyone, who didn't want to socialise." Merse piped up at this point and said that Duff, though he doesn't get much of a mention these days, was "a proper player."
But the biggest chortles were reserved for Richard Dunne.
When I went to the Ireland setup I looked at him and I thought 'he's a big guy. This guy can't move.' In training, we had 11 v 11, and the ball has gone down the side, and I'm not lying to you know, he cleaned me and the ball and everything and put me basically over the hedges. It was an unbelievable tackle.
Incidentally, the remaining places were taken by Ledley King, Ashley Cole, Christophe Duggary, Emile Heskey and, most interestingly, Attilio Lombardo.
*For those that don't know, the Fantasy Football Club involves former footballers picking the best XI of players they've played with.
