"An English midfielder with passing vision? Not before time given that we haven?t seen the like since the decline of Paul Gascoigne."

After some ridiculous early season plaudits at least we can now start glossing over Paul Scholes completely...

Never mind "poor little Canada" Hargreaves had represented Wales at various levels and was all set to win his first cap before England pinched him!

Holtby can still play for England. Also might be worth getting the quote as to why, despite this exciting game the German manager watched, Holtby didn't make it into the squad. Mainz are brilliantly drilled by their manager, as individual players they are not so good and Low probably realises that Holtby will struggle in a new style.

I realise it's not convenient for the self-critical bent of the article, but the reason these players are not choosing Scotland or England is because they've lived most (or all) their lives in America and Germany. That's it. Some you win, some you lose.

What's of more concern to Scots is losing McCarthy and McGeady to Ireland, both lads who were born and raised entirely in Scotland, but I'm sure we're all by now sick of going over that old one...

'Instead of being alert to the rise of Holtby, England managed to pry the injury-wracked legs of Owen Hargreaves from the grasp of poor little Canada.'

Come on, Hargreaves was picked up by England nearly 10 years ago (and he wasn't crocked then). At that time Holtby would have been a child.

Hargreaves was courted by Wales for a number of years, Jimmy Shoulder did most of the work here but he never played in a game that would have tied him to Wales. He was not pinched by Englan as such but of the four countries he could have opted for England was the one with the weakest link to him, born in Canada, football learnt in Germany and junior international football with Wales. England popped on the scene with a World Cup ticket and he took that.

Holden was born in Aberdeen to Scottish parents and moved to the US when he was 10 - long enough to develop an affiliation for his homeland, and more than half his life before he was capped for the US youth teams. No one in Scotland made any effort to follow up on the tip. The US system nurtured him and so perhaps deserves him (if we were going to be moralistic about it), but at a time when the Scottish system is producing so few decent players, they should have fewer scruples about chasing up good players who qualify by birthright. Every other country does it. Though long term, a revolution in the methodology of Scottish youth football would be more welcome.

Lincoln - I imagine the reason Loew didn't pick Holtby just yet is because he doesn't necessarily need to. Germany's packed with midfield talent, and Holtby's already stated his preference, so he doesn't need to 'rush-cap' him.

Very true on the midfield front but Holtby has kept a British passport so that he might play for England one day. If Capello called him, who knows what could happen?

Hargreaves was an excellent player for a number of seasons for Bayern and England, before the injuries took hold. Going for him wasn't an irrational thing to do at all, even if his career he has been prematurely ended.

To summarise, England miss out on dual-nationality players, except when they don't.

Except, in the case of Hargreaves, he's not an exceptional player - and by that, I mean he's a very English player. Hard-working, but not an opener of quality defences. It wouldn't have made a huge difference to England's modest achievements whether he'd played or not.

Is it a defensive midfielder's job to open a defence? Hargreaves was voted player of the tournament for England a few years back.

{takes deep breath) No, I'm saying that the dual-nationality players England may attract or make more of an effort to recruit are generally of the kind they already have. Thus, in the original piece (it seems so long ago), I suggest Holtby would prefer Germany over England (because Germany suits his style), while England would make less of an effort to chase him because he's not seen as one of the hard-working, fight-for-yer-country blah blah lads that they typically stack their midfield with.