A quartet of Hammers could be in for a shock international call-up - for Gibraltar.

The European minnows have made an audacious bid to strengthen their international squad by granting citizenship to the Irons' snubbed English contingent of Mark Noble, Aaron Cresswell, Carl Jenkinson and James Tomkins.In a move that is sure to anger neighbours Spain, UEFA's newest member is seeking to take advantage of the right of Gibraltarians to British Citizenship and vice versa in a bid to boost the strength of their squad as they move into the second half of their first ever European Championship qualifying campaign.The territory has been under dispute ever since it was ceded to Britain as part of the 1713 Treaty Of Utrecht and Spain blocked a number of previous attempts by the Gibraltar FA to join UEFA, full membership finally being granted in 2013 after a trip to the Court Of Arbitration For Sport.Speaking in the News Of The Rock, the Gibraltar FA president Michael Llamas explained the move. "In terms of catching up with the rest of Europe, Scotland were our initial target," he explained."However Sunday's match suggests that we're not that far behind them. In fact, having beaten Malta 1-0 not that long ago arguably we're on a level with or even ahead of them in ability - it's just a matter of fitness"."Initially we thought about looking at players in League's 2 & 3, which would see us bring in players of a standard sufficient to bring us on a level with the Scots. However, having seen them at the weekend we thought we'd just go for it and aim higher"."We thought we'd start with Noble, Tomkins, Cresswell and Jenkinson - since they don't play for a so-called 'big' club, or Spurs, they won't be on Roy Hodgson's radar, especially now he's started picking average centre halves in midfield. So we thought that they might appreciate playing for a country that appreciates their talents.""Also we're hoping to move to a new stadium next year as well so they'll be used to the idea of moving to a new home."Llamas added: "If the scheme works we'll grant automatic citizenship to any uncapped British or Northern Irish player who wants it."We'll have reaction from the players later on today.