Hoolahan simply makes everybody else in the Irish team play better and, because they know they can give him the ball, his mere presence takes the pressure off his team mates, writes Liam Brady.

Now there’s a great idea for a song title. Though, like the noted Mancunian poet, John Cooper Clarke, I’d probably only end up getting ripped off by the unscrupulous music biz if I bothered to flesh it out.