What with having to move house and learn to drive in a few short weeks, Gary Doherty probably could have done without a week or so kicking ball in the south of France just now. Yeah, but then, whaddya gonna do?

As it happens, the Donegal-born striker might well be travelling even farther afield next week, for Don Givens admitted yesterday that Mick McCarthy and he had agreed players from the panel here in Toulon might yet be brought to America. Doherty and Barry Quinn are the obvious candidates.

Even to keep Doherty for the group stages has taken a bit of arm twisting, says Givens, but "we need his physical presence up front and so it was something I leaned on Mick a bit about. In the end, though, his squad is more important, and that doesn't change even if we do make the semis or final, so he'll probably still go in the end."

For Doherty the prospect of another senior call-up is obviously appealing, even if he was only starting to get used to being capped at under-21 level.

"It's all been happening so fast I can't believe it," says the 20-year-old, who smiles as he recalls the weekend last month when "I did a medical on a Thursday, signed for Spurs on the Saturday, got a call from Mick on the Monday and made my senior debut on the Wednesday. Two things I'd have always wanted to do to happen like that in the space of four days, it was amazing."

The transfer involved a fee of more than Stg£1 million, a substantial figure but hardly the sort that guarantees first team football in the Premiership. Since he switched from Luton, Doherty has come on against Manchester United and Sunderland, but he knows that next year will be difficult.

"I know it's going to be hard, harder now that they've signed Rebrov. But I'm used to fighting for my place in a team and that's what I'm going to do at Spurs. "To be at a club like that is fantastic, and after playing first team football at Luton I feel I'm better prepared than if I'd already notched up 90 reserve games at the club."

While Doherty's big break appears to have been bagged, though, there are a string of his team-mates here in Toulon who still have points to prove to employers . . . or prospective ones. Martin Rowlands, Joe Murphy and Dean Delaney are just three of the Irish squad who are currently the topic of transfer talk.

Arsenal's Brian McGovern, too, is hoping that with more than 50 scouts watching games here over the coming week his career can move up a gear or two.

"Players like Richard Dunne, Andy O'Brien and Jason Gavin are great players. but somewhere along the line they got their chance and took it," says the 20-year-old, who will start only his second game at this level this evening. "Now that they're not here it's up to me. I need to have a good tournament here." Following the collapse of a proposed move to QPR, where he had a loan spell earlier this season, the Dubliner's agent has been faxing clubs to tell them that he would be playing here and several have said that they'll be having him watched.

"I'd love to stay at Arsenal if I thought that they rated me, but they've never offered me more than a one-year deal, which is what's on the table again for next season.

"I thought I was going to QPR, but then Liam Brady came to me and said they'd offered a measly amount (£50,000, one-tenth of Arsenal's asking price). It annoyed me because if they reckon I'm worth half a million, why don't they give two or three years so that I could get a bit settled rather than spend all my time in digs?"

A good showing tonight might persuade Arsenal to improve their offer or another club to make a better one. Either way, it's why they call this the "tournament of hopefuls".