How do you solve a problem like the England U21s?

Amongst all the nostalgia of celebrating Italia 90’s 25^th anniversary, it’s worth remembering that England’s under-21 side have either failed to qualify, or been eliminated in the group stages, of 11 from 13 European Championships. Sunday’s 1-0 win against Sweden was deemed lucky and there’s a strong chance that England will head home early again. Boasting the world’s richest, most well-known domestic league, why are England’s youngsters underachieving?

Well, the league itself is a huge part of the problem. There’s so much money at stake that clubs abandon the bedding-in process of youth products for the short-term fix of survival. With so much attention, as soon as an English youngster does show promise, he’s overhyped and overpriced accordingly, so that only the elite can afford them. These clubs have home-grown rotas to fill, so they buy them, bench them and eventually fire out damaged goods like Jack Rodwell, Scott Sinclair and Victor Moses.

Remember Shaun Wright-Phillips?

These huge fees limit other clubs to shopping abroad, who soon outnumber the English lads. Only the very best local talents find a way through this, at which point they get overhyped and once again go to Manchester City or Chelsea. Occasionally, these moves pay off but the depth of quality players is nowhere near good enough.

Look around and you’ll notice that the Portuguese U21 squad is full of top-flight and European experience – Ruben Neves, Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes, Bruma, Marcos Lopes. Germany have Champions League-winning goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen alongside Max Meyer, Bernd Leno, Matthias Ginter, Robin Knoche, Emre Can and Kevin Volland. Gareth Southgate, meanwhile, has to field the likes of Nathaniel Chalobah, Will Hughes, Liam Moore, Luke Garbutt and Jesse Lingard.

Sunday’s line-up averaged just 18 Premier League appearances each, containing two players who have never played there and another who has only played once.  It may sound hypocritical to suggest they need to be on a greater stage, yet complain that big clubs buy them too soon. However, these players should be affordable for ambitious mid-table Premier League clubs who can give them a platform to excel.

Yet John Stones, James Ward-Prowse and Harry Kane are on the right track, whilst Mauricio Pochettino and Tim Sherwood often put faith in youngsters. Kane, Ryan Mason and Jack Grealish have all been loaned out to League One clubs and learnt to play the hard way. But how long is it until these get bought for an expensive bench? Stones has already been linked with Chelsea, Kane with Manchester United. For the sake of their careers, they need to remain where they are.

Elsewhere, what happens next with Saido Berahino and Dele Alli? Jose Mourinho has said positive things about Ruben Loftus-Cheek but the 52-year-old has a poor record with promoting youth. There’s also a danger that modern-day academies are perfect and privileged trainees get too spoilt, too soon. Some clubs try to manufacture fake obstacles, such as telling players to make their own way to a match. A seemingly small issue, it forces them to think differently, show determination and reveal a desire to reach the top.

So how does this cycle break? One positive move can create a domino effect. Firstly, spread all Premier League prize money equally. Everyone’s already rich, so let’s give the lower clubs more money to buy and therefore play young English talent. Secondly, enforce a rule for a mandatory number of English players in match squads. Just like Kane, Mason and Grealish, more players should be loaned out to lower league teams, rather than play in an uncompetitive U21 league.

Also, Gareth Southgate needs to be allowed to take the absolute best England U21 squad to tournaments. This summer, he is without Raheem Sterling, Luke Shaw, Ross Barkley, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jack Wilshere, for reasons of tiredness or being part of senior squad plans. Other nations take their strongest squad. Six starters from Germany’s victorious 2009 U21 Final went to last summer’s senior World Cup (Manuel Neuer, Benedikt Howedes, Mats Hummels, Jerome Boateng, Sami Khedira, Mesut Ozil). If it wasn’t for Khedira’s warm-up injury, all six would have started the Final.

Taking a strong squad can lead to victory and a winning mentality which filters through to the senior side. There’s few promising English youngsters right now, but Southgate should have been given free reign over them. After that, it’s time to start from scratch like the Germans did after their disastrous Euro 2000. But the Premier League is extremely detrimental to our production of youth.