Friday 4 August 2017 16:05, UK
England manager Gareth Southgate has hailed an "incredible summer", but admits young players face an uphill battle to succeed at their clubs.
England have enjoyed tremendous success across all levels over the past few months, led by the U20's World Cup win in South Korea in June - the nation's biggest international title since 1966.
They were joined by the England U19 setup who lifted the European Championship trophy in July, while the U21 and U17 teams both reached their respective European semi-finals before losing on penalties.
Mark Sampson's England Women are fresh off of a run to the last four in the Euros, a feat which will only increase the popularity of the women's game.
And Southgate, who will take the senior England team to Russia for the 2018 World Cup next year, has welcomed their achievements but now wants to see the players excel at club-level, too.
"It has been an incredible summer, we may never get another summer like it again where every team does so well," Southgate said.
"From a senior perspective it is impossible to pick players if they are not playing regular first team football.
"That is the challenge for those boys - they now have to go back to their clubs and force their way into their senior teams."
A UEFA report issued in January showed the Premier League has the most foreign players of any across Europe, with 69.2 per cent of squads made up from imports.
As a result, Southgate believes it may benefit English players by opting to move abroad in order to mature both on and off of the pitch, and develop into full England internationals.
"I think we are seeing players go abroad on loan a bit more and on permanent deals and I think that is positive," he added.
"You want your players to be playing regularly at the highest possible level and if that means they are playing in one of the European leagues then great.
"We've seen it with Joe Hart and with the young players I have worked with.
"They have all benefited from the spells they have had abroad and if you spoke to any of them they would all say it helped them mature, that the life experiences were good and they saw a bigger picture of things, so hopefully it starts to become a more regular occurrence."
