Viva Espana

SPANISH style is all the football rage just now. After their national team's triumph in South Africa, there is a desire for a bit of Spanish flair, a touch of tiki-taka in football outwith the major part of the Iberina peninsula.

Interesting therefore to find Mikel Arteta of Everton, who has acquired a British passport, after seven years playing in British football, being touted as a potential English international.

I may be maligning my countrymen unfortunate enough to be born south of the Solway and east of Offa's Dyke, but I don't think they would take too-kindly to having the iconic lillywhite shirt sullied by some Johnny Foreigner type, not matter how well he has done in their own over-rated top flight.

Let's be clear here, there is a sizeable minority of England fans who are none-too-keen on English-born-and-raised players of Afro-Caribbean ethnicity playing for England. But, that's their problem and given how religious differences have blighted Scottish football over the years, we can hardly afford to cast stones south.

So, I feel that even if Pele and Maradona were to be restored, at the height of their powers, to today's Premiership and be eligible for England, picking them would be controversial.

But Scotland, with our shallower gene pool, lower quality teams and players - why shouldn't we try to recruit him?

I am not certain of the eligibility criteria for players who become naturalised Britons. Do they have to play for the single British country in whose league they play - or can any one of the four countries have a go at recruiting him?

It's not as if Arteta is a stranger to Scotland, he first came to this country with Rangers remember, and if he hadn't spent that period at Ibrox, he still would not be eligible for a British passport. So, let's go get him.

There are precedents in other sports - former Scotland rugby captain Budge Poutney was born in the Channel Islands and was therefore able to pick from the four Home Countries when it came to international rugby - he chose Scotland.

As I see it, Arteta has the same passport as every other one of our international players, so why shouldn't Craig Levein try to persuade him to play for Scotland. He'd be better-appreciated by the Tartan Army than by the Barmy Army I feel, and, he'd make a difference to our side.

Go for it Craig.