Had events panned out slightly differently, Paul Simpson could have been pitting his wits against Roberto Mancini tomorrow.

Yes, that’s the Roberto Mancini who played 36 times for Italy, over 500 times for Sampdoria – including the 1992 European Cup final against Barcelona – and for more than three years for Lazio.

Welcome to the surreal world of Notts County.

For when Shrewsbury Town head to face the world’s oldest League club tomorrow, it will be a very different outfit to the one they have faced in the past.

Gone is the squad that languished in the lower reaches of League Two, replaced by a side gunning for promotion this season and the Premier League in the not too distant future.

Admirable ambition or a flight of fantasy doomed to failure? Many would have initially assumed the latter but the backing of Munto Finance has brought previously unseen riches to League Two.

Audacious

How else can the arrival of Sven Goran Eriksson and Sol Campbell – albeit in the defender’s case for just one game – be explained?

And how else could a club make an audacious bid to lure Mancini as their boss before eventually plumping for Eriksson’s former assistant at Manchester City and Mexico Hans Backe as Ian McParland’s replacement.

“Roberto Mancini was up there in our thinking, Sven and I met with him and he is a fantastic man,” said executive chairman Peter Trembling.

“He is without doubt a fantastic coach, he could come into the club and do something from a PR point of view and he would put bums on seats.

“But I did not want a particularly high-profile appointment because we have had a media circus around the club for the last three months.

“It was important that we got somebody who would get on with the job and concentrate on the football side of things.

“I am sure Roberto would have wanted to do that, but I don’t think the media circus would have allowed it.”

Instead it is Backe who has inherited a squad packed with players who have plied their trade at a higher level.

And even taking former Shrewsbury duo Ben Davies and Luke Rodgers out of the equation, County boast players which would be the envy of rival managers.

The goalkeeping duties tomorrow will fall to Kasper Schmeichel while their attacking options include Ade Akinbiyi, Karl Hawley and Lee Hughes.

But unstoppable Notts County are not and defeats to Morecambe, Chesterfield and Burton should offer real encouragement to Shrewsbury.

It promises to be an intriguing afternoon.