Tottenham's American goalkeeper Brad Friedel admits he's surprised by the lack of English goalkeeping talent.

Friedel cannot put his finger on the reason for the void.

"When I first came over [in the mid-Nineties] every team seemed to have if not English then a top British or Irish goalkeeper," the American recalls to the Telegraph.

"I've never been involved in the development side of things over here so I don't know where it slipped but maybe it's because results became so important, people wanted results 'yesterday', or because the finances with foreign players were a little bit easier. There are a whole host of things.

"In saying that, Joe Hart is an outstanding goalkeeper, so is Ben Foster and Scott Carson. Chris Kirkland is very good but has played with injuries. David James too. But it's not like it was before when you could pick from 10 who could be in the England squad - the likes of Seaman and Flowers, Woods and Martyn and you could just go on down the list. Wales had Southall, Dibble. Ireland had Bonner, Alan Kelly, Shay Given. There just seemed to be more."