The fans were dreaming about the World Cup in the USA. The players were in Tirana and focused on the match against Albania. Paul McGrath was wondering how he'd get back from Israel.
As Ireland were preparing for their vital World Cup qualifier in a group where no point could be dropped, McGrath was supposedly injured and unable to play. In a way, he was.
The disease of alcoholism had Ireland's greatest ever defender in its ugly vice.
“I was skulking around the tarmac, liquor humming through my head,” McGrath later told Vincent Hogan in his superb autobiography, Back From The Brink.
Remarkably, a few weeks later, McGrath was back in the Irish lineup for another away assignment against Latvia in Riga where he scored. Even more remarkably, a few short weeks after going AWOL in Tel Aviv, McGrath walked up to a stage and accepted the PFA Players' Player of the Year Award to wild applause from his fellow professionals.
What else would you expect from a man that's still affectionately known as God from the Villa fans?
McGrath's battles with alcoholism and his glory days in a green jersey are well known, but standing by his side was always Jack Charlton.
For so many football fans, the concept of man management is solely related to behaviour on the pitch. The proverbial wisdom is that a manager needs to know when to throw an arm around a temperamental player that's out of form, when to fire a rocket up the arse of someone that's not carrying their weight, how to break the news to someone that they're not starting.
In the case of Jack Charlton and Paul McGrath, football was never an issue to be discussed, analysed, or argued. McGrath required a different type of management.
As Charlton said: "Paul was an exceptional player. You could play him anywhere and he would do a job for you - up front, midfield, at the back. Paul was one of those players that every manager in the world would have had in their team."
On the pitch was never a problem.
Charlton was required to manage McGrath off of it and that's where his managerial skills excelled was he adopted a sagely fatherlike mix of attention, freedom, and patience to protect the famously shy defender.
Case in point, Charlton's take on McGrath's sojourn to Israel: "When you talk about Paul, his great problem was alcohol. He had a real problem with this. When he played for Villa, he used to fly into Dublin and we would go across and pick him up, take him and stick him in his room, ask him what he wanted to eat, and someone would sleep across the front door of his bedroom so he couldn't get out.
"Paul was one of those lads. He didn't turn up one day and I asked who went to pick up up from the Airport and nobody knew. Later that night, I got a call and it was from Paul. I said 'where are you?' and he said "I'm in Israel. I was with a friend and we went down to Cork and jumped on the first plane we could get onto, it was to Israel. Can I come back? I said of course you can come back, but you're not going to play. He turned up for the game, that was typical Paul."
All managers give leeway to their more gifted players but McGrath would prove to be a unique case for Charlton.
Charlton's indulgence of talented and technically gifted players who wanted to pass the ball wasn't always consistent - the magnificent talents of Roy Keane, Liam Brady, Ronnie Whelan, and Mark Lawrenson might have a very different opinion on Charlton's tactical and man management skills - but to Charlton, McGrath was different.
"Paul had a knee problem and it was one where you couldn't let him train, put tackles in, or change direction. He used to go for a jog around the field while we were doing the other work. Paul would train with Mick Byrne, but he was always under supervision whenever he trained because he was such a good player and we needed him," said the former Ireland manager.
Whether or not you agree with Charlton's tactical ideas of put 'em under pressure, there's one thing that's apparent from everyone who played for him, Charlton was universally adored.
Mick McCarthy rightly said that Charlton's work with the Irish team elevated the entire country, Andy Townsend felt it was an honour to play under the World Cup winner.
The news of Charlton's sad passing instantly bringing back glorious memories of Stuttgart, Genoa, and New Jersey.
However, in this haze of nostalgia, it's worth remembering some of the other Irish performances that might not make the highlights reel like the win against Scotland during the Euro '88 qualifying campaign, a dominant performance against England at Wembley in '91 that really should have seen Ireland win, a similar story a year later when Spain were lucky to leave the pitch in Seville with a point, beating Portugal at home.
McGrath was pivotal in all them, despite his battle with the bottle.
During a special Late Late Show tribute to the former Aston Villa and Manchester United defender, Charlton explained why McGrath was given special treatment.
"I love Paul, I love all the lads that played under me. I really did, we had good relations for years but I love Paul because he was a bit different in some ways. We had to look after him. The players had to look after him, I'd look after him, Mick Byrne would look after him because Paul was Paul. He's shy, but we never knew where he was!
"He got away with murder but when you've got the ability that Paul had, you can. Andy Townsend once asked me for the responsibility of looking after him and Andy told me "it's in our interests to look after Paul because he's such a great player, we need to look after him for our sake, not yours."
Of course, there were moments when Charlton spectacularly got it wrong too. McGrath still feels aggrieved that he didn't start the USA '94 qualifying defeat to Spain in Dublin in his favoured position of centre-back.
Elsewhere, the tactics that were so successful in previous campaigns were ultimately ineffective in the sapping heat of Florida vs Mexico and the Netherlands, there was the draw with Lichtenstein, a week of drinking before the Austria qualifier and that infamous fish and chip challenge on the night before the game.
Finally, there was Jack's farewell at Anfield where Ireland were played off the park by the Dutch.
However, those downbeat moments are completely dwarfed by the seismic impact that Charlton's Ireland had on the psyche of the nation. At the heart of it was the manager's relationship with the team's most consistent and talented player.
While Irish supporters have wonderful memories of Houghton's header into the English need, Sheedy's piledriver in Cagliari, Bonner's save in Genoa, that chip over Pagliuca and much more, there's one small anecdote that captures just why the bond between McGrath and Charlton was so special.
"He is a funny man, he gets one or two things wrong - which I can't tell you about! He's just a lovely, lovely man. He used to keep me in when the other boys were going out on the town, I think about one time in Limerick. I was in the room when they were all getting taxis, he'd come up to me and sit on my bed. He'd have a box of chocolates and say "you understand the reason why I can't let you out?'
"He'd try and explain it to me and I'd think to myself 'you're out of order!' but he was always right because I could have gone anywhere. He was great with me because he gave me chance after chance after chance. Then I'd always want to do great for him, to repay his loyalty," said McGrath to TodayFM.
That sense of loyalty was instrumental in McGrath's performances. Off the pitch, he was wayward. On the pitch, he was a colossus that was doing everything he could to not to disappoint a manager who put his total faith into him.
McGrath felt like he owed Charlton a debt and he did.
In paying it off, Irish fans were treated to some of the most incredible moments and memories in our sporting psyche.
McGrath will always be one of Ireland's most beloved and favourite sons, it's telling that he would describe Charlton as a "father figure" and someone that he "genuinely loved."
"It's difficult for me to articulate what Jack meant to me both on and off the football field. Throughout his ten years as manager of our international team, Jack backed me as a footballer and as a person - he became a father figure to me," said McGrath in a statement.
Jack may have had an audience with the Pope during Italia '90, but he knew how talk with God.
In doing so, both men helped take Ireland to the promised land.
A heartfelt tribute from @Paulmcgrath5
Incredible words for the great man.#RIP pic.twitter.com/ZBJFBWMrFa— FAIreland ⚽️🇮🇪 (@FAIreland) July 11, 2020
Main image via Paul McGrath/Twitter
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