I feel like whenever there is a youth football tournament and England are competing in it, the same argument crops up time and time again: Why aren’t they taking their “strongest” team?

This summer is no different, with the Under-21 side, managed by Aidy Boothroyd, playing in the European Championships and some players being left at home for various reasons.

With the success of the U20 side a few weeks ago, the decision to omit certain players from the tournament in Poland irked plenty of fans, who wanted to see this batch of players succeed.

The fact that Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford was allowed to miss the tournament baffled plenty, who argued that he would dominate at this age group and with him in the team, England could do extremely well.

That argument gained more traction when Real Madrid’s Marco Asensio, who scored in the Champions League final, grabbed a hat-trick in Spain’s opener.

If Asensio is spending his summer with the U21 side, on the back of winning the Spanish title and Champions League, why can’t Rashford play with his age group?

Football analysis website Squawka recently produced an article which looked at the best possible XI Boothroyd could have selected had he been able to select his strongest squad.

The aforementioned Rashford started up front, with Tottenham’s Dele Alli and Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling behind him. 

Their argument for the striker is that: “There’s quite simply no excuse for Marcus Rashford to not be at this tournament. He’s England’s most exciting young forward and he didn’t exactly play all that much thanks to Jose Mourinho (nor will he play all that much next season once Mourinho signs his no 9) so he should be leading the line here. He showed at Euro 2016 (albeit briefly) that he has the mentality for big tournaments, so unleash him here.”

It is a valid point. Rashford featured a lot once Zlatan Ibrahimovic went down injured but he spent a lot of the time on the bench and a summer playing football could have benefited the young attacker.

That United are linked with a host of strikers for next season means that Squawka are right, he will probably have a limited role and if that is the case, he may not be chosen by Gareth Southgate for the 2018 World Cup, at which point the decision to leave him out 12 months earlier will look even dumber.

Also in the Squawka line-up, but not in Poland, were Spurs’ Eric Dier and City’s John Stones. Stones is another one who would have benefited greatly from a summer playing football, given how he spent the last few months in and out of the the City team.

Competitive football could have given him the confidence needed to start the new campaign on a high, gaining more tournament experience and working on his overall game.

Not to diminish the tournament, but it is the perfect place to learn and make mistakes. No-one is expecting the players there to be the finished article so there is less scrutiny on players when they do mess up.

It is better for Stones, Rashford etc to fluff their lines in Poland this summer than in Russia in 2018.

However, there are those who believe that once a player becomes a full international with the seniors, making the step back down is pointless and beneath them.

The whole point of the youth set-up is to get them prepared for seniors. However, it is entrenched in England’s DNA that the talented players skip the U21s entirely, hence why this argument keeps cropping up time and time again.

Spain, Germany and the other footballing nations that England aspire to rival routinely have players “drop down” in age groups once they make their senior debuts.

Even once they become first team regulars for their club side, they have no problem trotting out with the U21s.

Again, Squawka looked at the six favourites for the U21 Euros and their players’ top-flight experience. England came in fifth with 226 and it was noted that “that many players are getting 90 minutes week-in week-out in the Championship which has become an incredibly competitive league in recent years.”

It was no surprise to see Germany ranked third with 420 or Spain ranked first, with their squad having 540 first-team appearances between them. And this is a squad filled with players who have graced the top leagues around the world.

Part of the problem England have is that there is no clear plan or identity for how to blood youngsters into the first team and there doesn’t seem to be any hurry to fix this.

This has nothing to do with the idea that what works for other countries has to work for us because it doesn’t always work like that. If England were dominating the international scene then there would be no calls for a change.

But they aren’t and perhaps having players jump back and forth between the different age groups is needed.

Juan Mata won the 2010 World Cup with Spain, the U21 Euros the next year and in 2012 was back with the senior squad winning the Euros.

Including the 2009 Confederations Cup. That’s four years of no real summer breaks for the United midfielder. If managed correctly by club and country, there is no reason why England’s kids can’t do the same.

If we keep saying that youth players need more gametime and more tournament experience, why are we keeping them at home when it matters?

Yes, they may suffer burnout later in their career but that happens to players who skip international youth football.

Taking your best 25 players to a tournament has more ups than downs. It can breed a winning culture and prepare these players for what is down the line should they make the next jump in their careers.

You look at the Germany team that dispatched England in the 2009 Euro final and how six of those players lifted the World Cup five years later.

The U20 side has just won their age group’s World Cup and it would be great if that side stays together over the next few years, in the U21s and possibly the seniors.

They either fail as a team or win as one but it is time England changed their approach to international youth football, the current plan isn’t working.