Don Hutchison may be a proud Scot through his father, but has admitted he would not mind seeing England go on and do well at the FIFA World Cup.
The Gateshead-born former Hammer was capped 26 times by Scotland and memorably scored a Wembley winner against England in a UEFA Euro 2000 play-off.
He said Robert Green and Matthew Upson, as well as the club's other representatives at the finals, would be relishing the experience.
"It is a different mentality. It is tough when you go away to play for your country," confirmed Hutchison, who scored Scotland's winner in a 1-0 friendly victory in Germany in April 1999 as a West Ham player.
"I had fantastic memories playing with Scotland going to Germany and beating them 1-0 and obviously I am still living on the England game, so I try and throw that in every now and again!
"International football is all part of learning. You have to set yourself targets. When you are playing, you want to be in the first team and when you are in the first team you want to play for your country and I was lucky enough to do that on 25-odd occasions. I was a lucky man."
Fans should not be thinking that Hutchison would have taken too much delight in the Three Lions' 1-1 draw with the United States over the weekend. That said, he has had a little bit of fun at wishing anyone but England well to his mates from south of the border.
"It is all tongue in cheek stuff," he told WHUTV. "I have a lot of friends involved like Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard. If England won the World Cup I would be more than happy for them.
"I just want Brazil or Spain to win because I like the beautiful game! I am only joking there, I do hope England go on and win it. Hopefully we will see the beautiful game here at West Ham next season. I think it could be exciting times and I will be watching as a fan with interest."