Former AC Milan boss Alberto Zaccheroni says it's time for Italian football to go back to basics.

Zacc says a greater focus on youth development is needed.

"If there is no money, we must start again from the local pitches, from the day-to-day work, cultivating our youth properly," he told the Gazzetta dello Sport.

"We must buy less - and with greater carefulness - from abroad.

"We take up a massive load of foreigners without familiarising ourselves with them, without following them first, without knowing what their qualities or their personalities are.

"The first-class foreigners, those who need no introduction, are beyond our economical means now."