FORMER Saints academy coach Jason Dodd believes England star Luke Shaw is "sticking two fingers up to everyone and saying, 'I’m a bloody good player'."

The ex-Saints left-back is ripping up the Three Lions left-hand side and showing telepathic link-up with golden-boy Raheem Sterling, as the country reach a first men’s major final since 1966.

They take on Italy at Wembley on Sunday in the European Championship final, with Shaw set for an opportunity to add to his already impressive three assists while they target lifting the Henri Delaunay Trophy for a first time.

Dodd, who was Shaw’s academy coach during the latter stages of his development – from 16-years-old onwards – at Saints, has been lifted off his seat by the country’s performances.

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He told the Daily Echo: “It’s brilliant, they (Shaw and Sterling) haven’t had too long playing together in the England setup.

“And it’s not as if we’ve got one threat either, you’ve got Walker on the right who loves to bomb on. We’ve got threats all over the park, I’m loving it.”

After signing his first pro deal in the same cohort as James Ward-Prowse, Jack Stephens and Calum Chambers, Shaw played for Saints’ first team during the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons, with the latter resulting in a PFA Team of the Year position and Young Player of the Year nomination.

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The full-back saw improvements in involvement in the game in those seasons, increasing from 28.6 to 40.06 passes per match – and making 35 appearances in the latter season, despite being just 18.

However, after moving to Manchester United that summer, a leg-break and eventually a damaged relationship with boss Jose Mourinho hampered his development.

Dodd added: “At the latter stages of (Manchester) United under Mourinho was the first time his dad sort of pointed the finger, because he’d had a steady rise until then.

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“The last 18 months he’s stuck two fingers up to everyone and said 'look, I’m a bloody good player and these are the reasons why'. He’s been one of the standouts.

“At Saints we were very lucky, at the time we had some really good coaches. Me and Willo (Paul Williamson) had the easy bit, a lot of the technical work had been done, we really just had to polish the lads off.

“Of course there was areas on all these boys where we had to develop, but they had a lot of strengths. Lukey always relies on his pace as his positioning wasn’t always great.

“The problem was when he stepped up a level and went into the first team he had players who were quicker than him, so he had to learn quite quickly. But all the players had individual targets that we’d set and sit down with them to look at.”

Dodd recognised the potential when he saw it: “We wanted to Luke to get better, it wasn’t just about being good, I wanted him to be really good. We set him a lot of challenges around positional play, one v one defending, and he loved it, he loved a challenge.”

On Sunday, Shaw, manager Gareth Southgate and the entire squad have the opportunity to etch their names into English football history – but they will already be returning as a nation’s inspiration.