England manager Roy Hodgson said yesterday that he is concerned that Premier League clubs are turning to foreign stars instead of giving young English players a chance.

With a record breaking £835 million being spent by sides across England, over half of that money went to clubs outside Britain.

It is more damning proof that managers are looking abroad for players instead of promoting from their youth squads.

Danny Welbeck was a casualty of this ever-increasing trend, the England striker deemed surplus to requirements at Manchester United and shipped off to Arsenal for £17m while United brought in Colombian Radamel Falcao despite the latter being five years older and coming off the back off a serious knee injury which sidelined the striker for six months.

England failed miserably at the World Cup a few months back and part of the problem is Hodgson is having to pick players who don’t get enough game time at club level.

And while the former Fulham manager stayed clear of blaming specific clubs, he did voice his opinion about the number of players blocking the path of up-and-coming English stars.

“The major problem is the pathway,” he said.

“Our academies are doing some good work. There are some good players going through those academies, and the bulk of those are English.

“My fear is we’ve seen players come through in the past and they’re very good at breaking into the under-21s, and getting a sniff at the first team, but then a vacancy in the first team comes along, through a player being sold or injured, they’ve been given a chance.

“But now, with the money the clubs have at their disposal, they are always going to be tempted to not take the chance they would have done in the past if a player was out for a month or two when they had ‘a kid called Wayne Rooney or David Beckham, he looks pretty useful, let’s stick him in.’

“I fear they’ll say: ‘Let’s keep him back a bit longer and buy a top-class foreign player’.”