Stoke City boss Tony Pulis has branded the Premiership's academy system as "bulls***".

"I've never believed in the academy system," he told the Daily Mail. "It's a glossy name and a load of bulls***. I think we're giving young footballers too much too soon and when we ask them to give something back they are not capable of doing it.

"We need to go back to basics. Remember what we are about as a football nation. Young lads come in and we give them everything. More and more. At 16 we would play against men and if you didn't move quick enough you got kicked. That was how we learned.

"We need to start working with the kids again and keep them hungry. We need hungry fighters. Everything is done for them and they're not being made to work hard enough to get there. Here, the academy is much closer to the first team now.

"Anyone doing well in the academy comes and trains with us for a couple of days a week. A lot of football clubs have the academy on one side of the room and the professionals on the other and that's not the way it should be.

"I'm 50 now and I realise I probably sound a bit old-fashioned. I still think a form of National Service would be good for a lot of young lads who leave school without a focus. But I also embrace the modern methods. We've just had a fantastic new gym put in here. We have a fitness coach and all that stuff."