AC Milan's Seedorf: Nothing wrong with Premiership academies

AC Milan star Clarence Seedorf believes there's nothing wrong with the talent being produced by Premiership academies.

Seedorf says the quality of England's national team is proof that talk of a crisis at youth level is wide of the mark.

He told TalkSport: “I cannot really judge the English youth division because I don’t know them too well but if I look at the national team, I don’t think the guys have a lack of talent so I think England in this moment is one of the favourites to win the World Cup.

"Also that is generations come and go and some are very good, some are excellent and some are just not good enough to compete at the highest level. Look at Spain, look what happened with Barcelona. They had years where they didn’t win anything and now, all of a sudden, a group of their youth players came up and they are winning everything.”

On England’s best players, Seedorf added: “I think not only those four guys (Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, David Beckham) because then we have the captain John Terry also. I think that he is very important for this squad, (Rio) Ferdinand is also very important. I think the whole team has great qualities, they have a great coach so they are one of the favourites (for the World Cup) and it’s about the team at the end.”