Thursday 12 November 2015 15:47, UK
Club-trained players in the Premier League have been given just 7.7 per cent of playing time this season, the lowest of Europe's top five leagues, a new study has revealed.
The Premier League ranks fourth-bottom of the 32 European leagues identified in the study, released by the CIES Football Observatory in Switzerland, while just 11.7 per cent of squads in the English top flight have club-trained players.
To be a 'club-trained' player, footballers must have been with their current club for at least three seasons between the ages of 15 and 21.
In comparison, La Liga's percentage of minutes given to club-trained players between July and October 2015 is 20.9 per cent, while Ligue 1 (15.7 per cent), Bundesliga (12.3 per cent), and Serie A (9 per cent) all rank above the Premier League (7.7 per cent).
Only Greece (5.8 per cent), Cyprus (5.1 per cent) and Turkey (5.1 per cent) rank below the Premier League, and before even analysing minutes played, the top flight ranks sixth-lowest when measuring the number of club-trained players.
At 11.7 per cent, the Premier League falls far short of the likes of La Liga (23.7 per cent) and Ligue 1 (19.4 per cent), though Serie A ranks second-lowest, with club-trained players making up just 8.6 per cent of their squads.
The study comes in the same week Spain manager Vicente Del Bosque claimed English football's authentic style has been consigned to history.
Del Bosque, who has won one World Cup a one European Championship with La Roja, told The Guardian: "There is no 'English football' anymore I don't think. No authentic style.
"Because of the mix of different styles, the arrival of players from abroad makes it impossible to maintain an 'English football'.
"Maybe I'm missing something but even with the national side, England has started to look like other sides on the continent."
As revealed in a Sky Sports study earlier this week, Bournemouth and Swansea have no club-trained players among their top-flight squad this season. In total, 33 teams across Europe's leading leagues have no club-trained players in their current squad.
The study also reveals the ratio of players in the squads of 460 European clubs that graduated from their academy has fallen to a record low of 19.7 per cent, down from 23.1 per cent in 2009, the fourth annual decline in five years.
