The former England defender believes the attitude of parents is key to how young players develop, and is adamant that the emphasis must be on skills development and not playing the percentages among the youngest players of the game.

Southgate told BBC Radio 5 Live: "One of the biggest challenges we have is a cultural shift in our youth football, that we encourage parents to encourage their kids to develop their skills rather than focus on winning at the very earliest age.

"A small scenario was put to me - a centre-back who gets the ball from his goalkeeper and attempts to play or dribble out of defence loses the ball and is hammered by everybody watching the game, or he gets the ball on the edge of his box and just clears it as far as he can and gets a round of applause. What is he most likely to do the next time he gets the ball?

"That encapsulates for me some of the attitudes that exist within this country, and we have to realise as parents the impact we have on our kids. They want to please us, so there is a huge responsibility."

Southgate, speaking in the context of a programme focusing on what lessons could be learned from England's failure at the World Cup in South Africa a year ago, said: "The objective is to produce technically-gifted players who can make decisions, and a bigger pool than we have.

"We have always been able to produce some technically-gifted players - Paul Scholes is a classic example - but we need more of them and we need more quality coaches to come through the system as well."

While winning is not the be-all and end-all as players develop in Southgate's view, he does admit it would help to build confidence among the England senior side if the players were used to competing in - and winning - youth tournaments in the national shirt.

He added: "(Tournament football) is an intense environment and we've got to deal with that. We've got to try in the midst of developing players, if we can create some success at those junior levels I think that breeds an environment where the players will want to come and it also will give them confidence when they go on and play in the seniors."