Newcastle legend Alan Shearer admits he has mixed feelings over the Premiership's foreign invasion.

Speaking at a press conference to launch the Professional Footballers' Association's attempt to raise £1 million to build a children's hospital, Shearer said: "In an ideal world we would like to see a team full of Englishmen sitting at the top. But you are simply not going to see that any more. You can do very little about that.

"Inevitably England will suffer because of the number of foreign players in our league. But how are we going to change that? The Government makes the rules and we can't restrict freedom of movement. You would find it very difficult to deny someone the right to come here because they are not English."

Shearer certainly has no issue with Arsenal's young imports.

"We all want to see Arsenal and Manchester United because they are the best teams and they play the best football," he said. "If you said to any neutral fan on the street: 'Here's £40, who do you want to go and watch?', a lot of them would say Arsenal. It just so happens that Arsenal have got more foreigners than any other team.

"I'm all for bringing great foreign players into our game but there are a lot of poor foreign players who are not even playing and if you are not playing, that is going to stunt the growth of the kids. They are blocking the system up."