Even a blind man can see England is in trouble

When a football manager states, quite brazenly, that he is a “firm believer that if the opposition scores one goal, you must score two to win”, you know he is well clued up on what he is talking about. Which is why English football fans should be alarmed by Howard Wilkinson’s current assessment of the national game in the Sun newspaper...

"The figures show a worrying trend for anyone who cares about the England national team and believes it still matters,” he said, in response to the fact that 79 percent of Premier League signings made this summer have not been English.

"Even a blind man can see that it will inevitably have major consequences for the England team. It doesn't surprise me because this is the way it has been going - but it does concern me that it's so high.

"The pool of players we are going to have to pick from in four years' time is going to be smaller than it was this time and in the last couple of World Cups.

"If you want to do well in international football, the pool of players needs to be big enough. Secondly, it needs to have the necessary experience of playing at the top level. I'm talking about the top leagues in Europe.

"Our young players will not get that in the Premier League if clubs keep signing foreign players at this rate.

"We genuinely identified this group between 1998 and 2000 as the group that could go on to achieve success in 2006 - maybe semi-finals - and be serious contenders in 2010. I don't see us bringing together players of this quality in the same numbers.

"Undoubtedly, the pool of players from whom we will be choosing in four years will be smaller than the pool now, and that will continue."