There’s bound to be a bit of a ‘friends reunited’ vibe about the place when the Ireland squad begins to assemble in Portmarnock tomorrow ahead of Friday’s game against Germany in Cologne and then the final World Cup qualifier at home to Kazakhstan the following Tuesday.

The 50th anniversary of George Best’s debut for Manchester United — as a 17-year-old against West Brom on September 14, 1963 — has been marked by the publication of yet another biography of the Belfast legend.

You find this column in a holding pattern today which, as anyone who has ever experienced the same situation in the sky above Heathrow will know it could mean a landing any time between now and Christmas.

Given the consensus that the business end of the Champions League only kicks off when the competition reaches its knockout stage, there has always been an unavoidable element of phoney war about what UEFA calls ‘Matchday 1’.

Changing of the guard.

Brian Carey arrived for the interview at a Cork hotel with a ready-made intro: by sheer coincidence, the Tuesday on which we were meeting turned out to be 24 years ago to the very day since he’d left his hometown, Cork, for England to begin a career in professional football which would take him to Manchester United, Leicester City, Wrexham, Doncaster Rovers and Wolves and see him experience almost all aspects of the game – from the glorious to the grim – as, variously, player, skipper, coach, scout, assistant manager and manager.

It wouldn’t have been much help to a stressed-out James McCarthy, I know, but your correspondent never had any doubt his move from Wigan to Everton would go through last Monday.

Giovanni Trapattoni will be counting them all out and trusting he can count them all back in again this weekend.

Romance was in the air at Ford’s showrooms in Sandyford, Dublin on Tuesday but, despite the gleaming array of new and vintage motors on display, that special tingle had nothing to do with the lure of the open road or the magic in the night that Springsteen had in mind back when him and Mary were “pullin’ outta here to win”.

We few, we sorry few, who were in attendance at Cardiff City Stadium on Wednesday night won’t be mourning the passing of the August friendly, as FIFA prepare to launch their brave new world of ‘bundled’ internationals.