AS you also were, no doubt, I was aghast this week that my opinion wasn’t sought by the Scottish Football Association as they had the media weigh in on the debate over the five greatest Scotland international players of all time.

Fear not, for despite no one asking for my tuppence worth, you shall have it anyway.

The SFA are in fact looking for the wider public to vote for their 50 greatest ever Scotland players. Hey, why not? Wallowing in nostalgia for the days when we would at least get to tournaments before the wheels came off is a Scottish pastime.

Of course, these lists are always highly subjective, and much depends on the criteria. Is it the greatest players in terms of technical ability, or those who made the biggest impact for Scotland? Those with the most caps or the most talent?

It is also highly dependant on your age. Anyone with a passing interest in Scottish football will know that King Kenny Dalglish and Denis Law are the greatest players this country have ever produced, but grainy video footage and tales passed down by half-cut older relatives are all the evidence those of my own generation have of the fact.

Hence why more than a few of the members of the media who were asked to come up with their own top five have James McFadden near the top of their lists, and at the very top in some cases.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I loved watching Faddy in the dark blue as much as anyone. He fulfilled every cliched quality of the throwback footballer, a ‘maverick’ who ‘played off the cuff’ and ‘got bums off seats’.

And while his gallus attitude was a ray of light in what seems like one long, dark period for the national side since we last qualified for a tournament in 1998, there was substance too behind the swagger. The goals against The Netherlands and France are genuinely historic Scottish football moments.

Of the many lamentable outcomes of Craig Levein’s tenure in charge of the national side, his fall-out with McFadden which contributed to the attacker missing out on the Hall of Fame by just two caps sits just a little way beneath the infamous 4-6-0 on his Scotland epitaph in my book.

In modern times, there is no doubt that the ‘cheeky boy’ is justifiably a Tartan Army hero, but the greatest Scotland player ever? I doubt even the man himself would lay claim to such a title.

The SFA’s criteria for the vote though only stipulate that to qualify, a player must have at least 20 caps for either the men’s or women’s A teams.

If we are to go for the indisputable all-time greats, then my own list wouldn’t differ too much from current Scotland men’s manager Steve Clarke, who plumps for Sir Kenny Dalglish, Denis Law, Jim Baxter, Billy Bremner and Joe Jordan in that order. You can’t really argue with that.

Women’s boss Shelley Kerr couldn’t argue with the top two either, though she plumped for Graeme Souness in third place and then two players she has worked with – Julie Fleeting MBE and Kim Little in fourth and fifth place respectively.

From my own time watching Scotland, the likes of Souness and even Davie Cooper, who earned a call-up to the international squad in the twilight of his career at Motherwell just as I was worshipping him from the terraces as a young lad, only miss out on account of their international careers ending before I had really seen them in the dark blue.

There have been some world-class Scotland players since the end of the 80s though, despite what some of the time-served Tartan Army members would tell you, and it is from that point until today that I will choose my favourites from the players I’ve witnessed.

Faddy makes it in at number one (stressing this list is solely players I’ve watched for Scotland), then would come Gary McAllister, Ally McCoist, Paul McStay and Colin Hendry. Honourable mentions for John Collins, Barry Ferguson (Boozegate doesn’t detract from how good he was in his prime), Jim Leighton, Darren Fletcher, Craig Gordon, Andy Goram, Paul Lambert, Gordon Strachan and Andy Robertson.

To be fair, these could change from day to day. In actual fact, when you look back over even the last 30 years, there have been some real top-drawer players turning out for Scotland at times, and it begs the question; why as a group haven’t they achieved more?

You can level that accusation at the ridiculously gifted player pools even further in the past too, perhaps more so, with their achievements on the international stage modest as compared to their individual talent.

Hopefully one or two of the current crop and the emerging talent beneath can trouble these lists in the not too distant future. The likes of Billy Gilmour give us all that hope.

For now, if you are trying as desperately to fill the hours without competitive football as I have been to fill this column, give your own Scotland top five a go.

All suggestions – and abuse – to the usual address.