PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor has backed Trevor Brooking's claims that the invasion of foreign players is to blame for the current shortage in young English talent.

There is growing concern over where the next generation of young England stars are going to come from.

The lack of depth in the international squad has prompted key figures in the English game such as Taylor, head of the players' union, and Brooking, the Football Association's director of football development, to point the finger at the clubs.

"I'm hoping we can do something to encourage clubs to start thinking more about bringing some more home-produced talent through," said Taylor.

"I think one of the very reasons we have the likes of David Beckham, the Neville brothers and Paul Scholes is because at the time Manchester United had a youth policy whereby they relied on academy products to fuel their first team.

"The fact is we are a honeypot country and we are attractive to every top footballer and for that reason no manager is going to take the time and the patience to introduce a young unknown when they can go out there and get a ready-made international.

"As a result these lads, if they don't get the chance because no-one is prepared to gamble with them, they're not going to be coming through and then the see-saw is going very much in favour of clubs and against international football.

"And it's a terribly unfair reflection on our love of football that we've only ever won the World Cup once."

Taylor's comments are not unfounded. Only 233, i.e. 39%, of the 596 players registered in the 20 Barclays Premier League squads this season were English and last week Brooking revealed his concern.

He said: "If you look at Italy when they won the last World Cup, I think they had over 70% of their league made up of domestic players. Spain, France, Holland, they're all up there in the 60%s"

Taylor added: "If you look at Spain then you realise that they have started to win a lot of world youth tournaments and their bigger teams such as Madrid and Barcelona are looking to introduce a lot more Spanish players.

"One perfect example is Italy where not only do their clubs continue to do well in the Champions League but they're also World Cup winners and if they can do it, then why can't we?"

There are also increasing numbers of foreigners in the Championship. Saints, for example, boast 11 overseas players in their first team ranks.