Fitz Hall, Scotland

[James.g]

Read a report in the paper today about Walter Smiths interest in Wigan defender Fitz Hall.
The guy has a scottish rent though he knows about the scottish interest he was still loath to make the decision to play for us.

Could this be because the guy is english and prob harbours ambitions to play for engurland?
I cant understand why walter is still interested the guy obviously doesnt want to have any thing to do with us and who could blame him, i really cant see why anyone would want to play for another country, i can see the pull of being involved in internationals but would you no feel a bit phony? ken i would but it does happen and too much if you ask me,i would rather someone felt scottish before they got to play for us.
We are starting to get our act together at international level again and its looking good for the future, but if it was'nt i'd rather we played with 11 scots and were shit that have even 1 foreigner in our squad.
What do other bouncers think of this

[Colr]

Originally Posted by James.g

Read a report in the paper today about Walter Smiths interest in Wigan defender Fitz Hall.
The guy has a scottish rent though he knows about the scottish interest he was still loath to make the decision to play for us.

Could this be because the guy is english and prob harbours ambitions to play for engurland?
I cant understand why walter is still interested the guy obviously doesnt want to have any thing to do with us and who could blame him, i really cant see why anyone would want to play for another country, i can see the pull of being involved in internationals but would you no feel a bit phony? ken i would but it does happen and too much if you ask me,i would rather someone felt scottish before they got to play for us.
We are starting to get our act together at international level again and its looking good for the future, but if it was'nt i'd rather we played with 11 scots and were shit that have even 1 foreigner in our squad.
What do other bouncers think of this

Its a career move - put you on a bigger stage. Michael Owen elected to play for England rather than Wales as it would get him seen in the World Cup. Hall will probably take the same attitude. He'll play for Scotland if he doesn't think he will get called up by England.

[James.g]

Michael Owen is English he was born in england and his parents, are they not
Anyway its not cause he's english is that he's not scottish, i honestly think that it
makes a joke of our national team for to express an interest in someone who could'nt give
a toss about our country

[Jamesie]

Its the boys who turn out for Scotland having been schoolboys etc for England that really turn my stomach. They should never be allowed to pull on a dark blue jersey.

[Colr]

Originally Posted by James.g

Michael Owen is English he was born in england and his parents, are they not
Anyway its not cause he's english is that he's not scottish, i honestly think that it
makes a joke of our national team for to express an interest in someone who could'nt give
a toss about our country

Michael Owen was raised in Wales - he was born in England because the nearest hospital was just over the border. (or so I was told by a Welsh bloke).

[James.g]

Yeah these guys aint Scottish just because somewhere down the line a rent
hailed from here,its embarrasing there english in every way they dont regard themselves
as scottish and its wrong.

[James.g]

He regards himself as english mate and he was born in chester, but even if he was born in
the valleys he still regards himself as english

[beefy]

He has got a crackin nickname though..............One Size

[Stu]

As regards the subject of qualification in isolation I'd go as far as either birthright or parentage. No further. The rules were relaxed enough when they included parentage back in the seventies.

It would be nice to think that any player representing Scotland actually had a feeling for the place and the dark blue jersey too. I realise that's a bit of a naive view in the heavily commercial world of football these days though.

Bruce Rioch (amongst others) benefited by qualifiying to play for Scotland in the mid-seventies through the relaxing of the rules (a source of some grief to England in time by my reckoning!) Not sure how one 'measures' patriotism but Bruce in those days used to fly a huge Saltire on a flagpole in his garden in those days!

[Colr]

Blue jersey was adopted because in the first international (Scotland v England) the Scottish team was made up entirely of Queen's Park players and that was their strip at the time.