Use quotas to help our kids thrive

IF I was starting out as a player now, I would not have enjoyed the same career. I broke into the Norwich team when I was 18. There were fewer foreign players then. At 22, I was a Premier League winner. If I was that age in the game now, I would probably be sent out on loan. When I played for the England U21s in 1992, it felt like a genuine pathway to the senior team. I won the Toulon Tournament in 1993 alongside Darren Anderton, Jamie Redknapp and Garry Flitcroft, all Premier League regulars. Of last summer’s England U20 world champions, only Dominic Calvert-Lewin has played regularly in the top flight this season. It may take a quota system in the Premier League for England’s brightest young stars to benefit from the same opportunities I enjoyed at their age.