Gary Neville has claimed that the English national team will benefit from the number of foreign players that have played in the Premier League.
The former Manchester United defender was a part of the coaching team during England's Euro 2012 campaign and believes that the team's fans should be more realistic after Roy Hodgson's men exited the competition to Italy at the quarter-final stage.
Neville told The Independent: "We would like to be in the top one but in reality we are in the top eight."
The 37-year-old insists that young players are beginning to learn from foreign players despite critics claiming that too many are in the Premier League.
"I think we are now seeing the effects of the Dennis Bergkamps, [Gianfranco] Zolas, [Eric] Cantonas coming into Premier League football," Neville added.
"I think the younger kids now are seeing a different type of player and I see them trying to copy them.
"We weren't watching these players in the '70s and '80s so now I think the education of a player is different and you'll start to see a different technical level of payer coming through in the next five to 10 years because they've been brought up through a different actual era of football."
Neville recently revealed that he is not interested in a career in management.
Callum Mulvihill
