Joey Barton: 'The England national team are s***'

Queens Park Rangers midfielder Joey Barton has described the current England national team as "shit".

The debate over the development of the English game has been rumbling in recent weeks following Football Association chairman Greg Dyke's comments that the Premier League is overrun with foreign players.

This week it was announced that a commission would be set up by Dyke in a bid to boost the talent pool in England, who are yet to qualify for next year's World Cup.

"The English national team are shit at the minute," Barton said at the Leaders in Football conference, according to The Independent. "How bad it is? People go on about the golden generation but they haven't won anything so they are not the golden generation.

"We have good players who were given to good, mostly foreign, coaches who have become better. [Frank] Lampard with [Jose] Mourinho, [Steven] Gerrard with [Gerard] Houllier and [Rafael] Benitez, then we give them to mediocre coaches at England."

Barton has also claimed that former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson "couldn't put on a coaching session to save his life."