Craig Levein ignores English accents in bid for World Cup glory

What price World Cup qualification? Scotland's absence from international football's biggest stages has been so prolonged that a sense of shock will engulf the nation if a place at Brazil 2014 is secured.

Craig Levein, Scotland's manager, gained infamy for the deployment of a 4-6-0 formation for an international fixture in the Czech Republic. It is another of Levein's tactics, though, which seems to grate with people on both sides of the border.

There were seven English-born players named in Levein's squad for this week's friendly match in Slovenia. That number has since been reduced due to injury but the manager's policy is clear; he sees no problem whatsoever with utilising Fifa legislation to call up any player who qualifies to play for the Scots.

The Football Association has made plain its displeasure over Levein's persistent moves. They regard it as underhand, with the matter highlighted once again by Scotland's apparent securing of the Blackpool forward Matt Phillips, a former England youth international. Others may follow, Liverpool's Jonjo Shelvey thought to be a Scottish target despite not having turned out for the country at any previous age level.

There is a far smaller chance of Josh McEachran and Steven Caulker, who also qualify to play for Scotland, answering favourably to any overtures from Levein. That duo have not unreasonable aspirations of moving swiftly into the full England set-up; a matter which, in itself, highlights that Scotland still cannot exactly poach the very best talent from under the FA's nose.

Levein is managing a football team, not a national army. The upcoming World Cup campaign is absolutely crucial to his managerial future. If Scotland make it to Brazil, their manager will rightly be hailed as the one who ended a 16-year gap while offering fresh hope to a starved generation of supporters. The impact on Scottish football as a whole would also be enormously positive.

The flipside is that if Scotland fail to emerge from what is a tough qualifying section, Levein is highly unlikely to extend his contract with the Scottish FA. It is as make-or-break as that, with the manager therefore perfectly open about a desire to work with the best possible resource which is available. Accents and places of birth, to him, are utterly irrelevant.

Levein also points to other, far more successful, national sides who have gone down this route long before now. The Republic of Ireland were laughed at in certain quarters for what was perceived as a multinational squad during Jack Charlton's tenure. When Irish fans were cavorting around at World Cups, did they stop and complain about the core nationality of the players they were cheering on?

Levein will also point to the basic talent level of the players he has recruited. James Morrison, Phil Bardsley and Craig Mackail-Smith have performed admirably when donning Scotland colours; the brutal reality is the nation isn't blessed with enough talent of its own that it need not widen the net.

Still, a sense of unease is apparent from some fans. Their gripe is this: that Scotland is being used by players not good enough to turn out for England to gain a foothold in international football. Can English-born players possibly have the same passion and commitment to the Scottish cause? Or is that completely irrelevant in professional sport, in any case?

The Scotland rugby team has been criticised for similar in the past but with one key difference – to fans who care about such things, New Zealanders and Australians aren't viewed with the same antipathy as the English. The rivalry which exists between Scotland and England is what triggers this feeling of resentment about "adopted" international players. Yet success can obviously douse dissenting voices, as shown by the Scotland career of Stuart McCall, born in Leeds, among others.

The irony is that Scotland have themselves been wounded by issues of player allegiance. Aiden McGeady and James McCarthy, two of the outstanding Scottish-born players of their generation, play their international football for Ireland. Levein's recent pursuit of McCarthy while a rethink from the midfielder was still an option illustrates that the manager isn't of a mind to ignore obvious international candidates to instead pursue those from further afield. It is also to the manager's credit that positive chat among players regarding the Scotland set-up means others are clearly keen to become a part of it.

This is a thorny subject if one, possibly, which the vast majority of the Tartan Army couldn't be less interested about. As part of football's rapidly changing landscape, Scotland's focus is on sealing that flight to Brazil, whatever it may take.