Andrew Cole told ‘The 32’ that young English players can’t blame foreigners for a lack of opportunties at club level.

The last 20 years have seen Premier League clubs buy more and more players from overseas, leading to less gametime for homegrown talent and, subsequently, less players for the national side to pick from.

Whilst appearing as a guest on Yahoo Sport’s daily World Cup show, Cole said he thinks that is an easy excuse for young footballers who are not good enough.

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“I think that’s too easy. I look at it this way – if you’re good enough as an English player, a homegrown talent, you’re going to get through,” he said.

“Because everyone wants the homegrown players to go through the system. It’s not just the case of that.

“Some of them aren’t good enough so they bring a few foreign boys who are better.”

He added: “Sometimes you have to work with what you’ve got, instead of chasing talent abroad.

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“Sometimes the talent that is brought is no better than what we’ve got. But the perception is they are from wherever, Portugal, Spain, SA, but they’re not actually better.

“There is a lot of homegrown talent around the country, so we have to find that.”