By Steve Wilson and agencies (Telegraph.co.uk)

(31/12/2009) With Arsenal and Portsmouth failing to field a single Englishman in their starting line-ups at Fratton Park, Sam Allardyce and Steve Bruce see a bleak future for the national team. But with England cruising to the World Cup are their fears misguided?

Wednesday’s match, in which Arsenal comfortably beat Portsmouth 4-1, featured players from 15 countries among the 22 starters, with seven French players on the field.

There were two Algerians and one player each from Bosnia, Ireland, Israel, Iceland, South Africa, Scotland, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Wales, Cameroon, Croatia and Russia.

There were four English players among the 14 substitutes but only one came on – Arsenal youngster Craig Eastmond who replaced Arsenal’s French striker Sami Nasri five minutes from time.

“For the national team in the future it is looking very, very bleak,” Allardyce said.

“The Premier League and the FA really need to get together and start immediately on how they are going to address this situation."

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has long campaigned for the “Six plus Five rule” which would limit the number of foreign players a team can field, but that rule contravenes European laws and is some way from being implemented.

The landmark match came almost exactly 10 years after Chelsea became the first English team to field an entirely foreign starting line-up against Southampton on Dec 26 1999.

Bruce echoed Allardyce’s thoughts as the average proportion of foreign players in first team squads across the 20 Premier League teams stands at a fraction short of 45 per cent.

“We are not producing players like we used to, for whatever reason. As managers if we can get better value for money in the big wide world then you have to go and try and find them," said Bruce.

“We would all love to have an English-based team – every manager would like that if he possibly could, but unfortunately we have not got the quality to do it.”

However, a look back to the turn of the century shows that since that time the proportion of foreign players in the Premier League has actually fallen. In 1999/00 49.6 per cent of registered players in this country were from overseas.

England’s impressive qualification process on route to South Africa – under the guidance of another foreigner, Italian Fabio Capello - hints that the doom mongers are perhaps wide of the mark.

England’s first choice eleven, whose technical ability is enhanced by playing with some of the world’s best players at their clubs and under the enlightened tutelage of foreign managers, is as strong as all bar the leading nations of Brazil and Spain.

But it is the lack of strength in depth and an over reliance on key players that perhaps backs up Allardyce’s concerns, with England desperately short of alternatives playing regularly for top level clubs to call on in the case of emergency.

Not everyone, however, is concerned about the lack of English players at Fratton Park.

Irishman Roy Keane, Ipswich Town’s manager, said: “It might be a concern for Fabio Capello, the England manager, maybe, but it doesn’t keep me awake at night.”