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After the World Cup, being an English footballer is hardly something to brag about. For many critics the term ‘English footballer’ is a by-word for over-paid and over-rated.

However, those critics will be dismayed by the new UEFA home-grown rule which has come into effect this season. Dismayed because it has increased the worth and value of English born players who, whisper it quietly, perhaps don’t deserve it.

The rule states at every club must have least eight “home-grown” players in a squad of 25. To you and me, home-grown may well evoke images of student flats window sills crowded with lush, green, smoke-able plants. But in football terminology ‘home grown’ is a player who has to be registered for at least three seasons at an English or Welsh club between the ages of 16 and 21.