For the last 20 years, Sky Sports have incessantly claimed that the Premier League is without question the best league in the world.

Sky argue that the combined might of Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Spurs make the Premier League peerless among Europe’s leading competition.

However, in reality, it’s simply the financial means at the disposal of the above clubs that allows them compete with Europe’s top sides, not their ability to consistently produce players.

Every year the number of overseas players plying their trade in England increases, which has obvious knock-on effects for the national team.

England consistently fail to meet expectations at major tournaments, leading to countless managers being sacked but little done to address the underlying problems.

In fact, this current England team looks to be the weakest for some time, all the while the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea plunder the squads of financially weaker European teams.

However, while Premier League sides have become slaves to wage inflation, European teams have been forced to invest and develop indigenous talent.

This is of course is a point that has been made time and again, but has once more been illustrated by UEFA, who didn’t include one Premier League player on their Champions League breakthrough team of 2016.

Goalkeeper: Alphonse Aréola (Paris Saint-Germain)

Defender: Sergi Roberto (Barcelona)
Defender: Samuel Umtiti (Barcelona)
Defender: Victor Lindelöf (Benfica)

Midfielder: Thomas Lemar (Monaco)
Midfielder: Joshua Kimmich (Bayern München)
Midfielder: Renato Sanches (Bayern München)
Midfielder: Raphaël Guerriero (Borussia Dortmund)

Forward: Christian Pulišić (Borussia Dortmund)
Forward: André Silva (Porto)
Forward: Ousmane Dembélé (Borussia Dortmund)

Coach: Zinédine Zidane (Real Madrid)