Saints have been bucking the Premier League trend by giving English players a chance – and club legend Lawrie McMenemy wants to see more clubs follow suit.
Along with many others Big Lawrie has been warning of the consequence of playing too many foreign players at the cost of our home-grown talent.
They are now being proved correct as the full side struggle to qualify for the World Cup while the under-21s totally flopped at the European Championships, failing to even get a single point from their three group games.
In the Premier League last season Saints led the way with 52% of the players used being English. The worst was Wigan and a lot of good it did them playing with fewer home grown players.
Writing exclusively in his Daily Echo column, he said: “Look no further than the fact that more and more foreign players are taking up the places in the Premier League.
The England U21 side failed miserably in the European finals and Lauwrie says that a lot of that is due entirely to a lack of playing time in really important competitive matches.
Saints Academy may help them keep a regular supply of English talent at their disposal and if it does maybe other clubs will see the light and follow their example.
I for one hope so as I find it utterly depressing having to watch our national teams stuttering their way out of the important competitions without any real sign of fight or skill.
Click Here to read the full column.
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