For purely selfish reasons and a bit of dreaming, I am going to name Marcos Senna as the best player at Euro 2008 and hope that Gordon Strachan reads this, demands money from Dermot Desmond and signs the midfielder who I believe has got the lot.

The 31-year-old Brazilian has had a rather strange career, winning two major trophies separated by eight years. While playing for Corinthians in 2000 he helped the team win the FIFA World Club Championship and was, in my opinion, the main component of Spain’s glorious triumph at Euro 2008.

After four years with Villarreal in Spain, Senna gained full Spanish citizenship and was included in the national squad for the 2006 World Cup. With only nine caps to his name before the Euro finals, Senna was not truly a stalwart of the side, but it was noticeable that the side were not as effective when he was missing from the engine room.

Spain have always had talented and mercurial players in their midfield but the main problem has been a physical presence, a man capable of patrolling the centre of the park whilst protecting the more lightweight players who, quite frankly, were not up to a bustling physical challenge.

The Spaniards are battlers, yes, but when it came down to battling with the likes of the Germans, Italians and Eastern Europeans it was a struggle.

Luis Aragones was chopping and changing his first-choice side for months in the lead-up to the tournament and the Spanish press were constantly publishing the two starting XIs they felt would have the best chance of success. Senna was in one of the line-ups but the other was a far more attacking midfield that would have left many gaps for others to exploit.

It was a team that always looked capable of scoring more goals than the opposition, but if that team without Senna had faced the Italians or Germans I firmly believe that Spain would not be champions of Europe right now.

One man does not win you a tournament, but the slightest changes to formation and player selection, as we all know, can change the course of not just a game but the destiny of the eventual winners.

Aragones’s decision to include Senna as the anchorman in his midfield was seen as a bit of a gamble by many. What they didn’t realise was that Senna was not a one-trick pony who would sit deep, content to do the mopping up.

What Spain got was the ultimate midfield machine, similar in style to Patrick Vieira at his peak. A man with a supreme talent who was able to come up with the right game at the right time. Senna could build from the back, he could break up attacks, he had a rasping shot and he could get from box to box with effortless ease - the ultimate midfielder.

So why did it take so long for football to recognise this talent? There’s no rational explanation. If Sir Alex Ferguson had gone through with the signing of Senna a couple of years ago Manchester United would not have shelled out what they did for Owen Hargreaves. It’s a funny old game but Senna is the one laughing now.

Oh, and any hope of Celtic getting him was a joke, okay?