Brooking hails English effort

Trevor Brooking believes the fact that there were eight English players in the Professional Footballers’ Association team of the season shows the future is bright for the English team.

Despite the increasing number of foreign players in the Barclays Premiership, John Terry was named player of the year and included in the top 11 along with Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Andrew Johnson.

Brooking, director of football development for the Football Association, said: “It’s a reflection of the consistency of both the individuals and the clubs they play for.

“While we do have more foreign players playing in the Premier League these days this is confirmation that the quality of our English players is improving all the time.”

He told www.TheFA.com: “These are all young players with great ability and from an England point of view demonstrate the strength in depth that we are looking to build.”