Gareth Southgate says England's youth success inspires seniors

Gareth Southgate says his England side should be inspired by the summer glory of the country's young players, claiming the sheer volume of international success "might never happen again."

England U20s' tremendous World Cup win in South Korea saw the team claim the nation's biggest international title since 1966 in June, before the U19 team lifted the European Championship trophy one month later.

The U21 and U17 sides narrowly missed out on tournament triumph, each reaching their respective European semi-finals.

Reflecting on the country's success, Southgate told Sky Sports News: "It's been lovely to watch. I don't think we could have expected as much success as we have had, in terms of the tournaments that have been won.

"That might never happen again, to win so many, but we have wanted to be competitive in all those tournaments and get to the semi-finals on a consistent basis.

"It's great experience for our young players, so for them to experience winning as well is an important part of their journey from an international perspective."

The 46-year-old feels impressive displays demonstrated by England's young talent consequently contributes to competition for senior positions.

"We want competition coming through. We want our young players to experience success that then, for our senior team, inspires them," he said.

"We sat as a group and watched the U20 World Cup final, so it means the whole pathway is joined up and it means that our senior players can be inspired by the younger ones as well."

Turning his attention towards next month's World Cup Qualifiers, the England boss is confident his men can turn a home advantage into victories when they come up against Malta and Slovakia.

"If we get six points from the next two games we are in a great position," he added.

"We have two key games in the group, in terms of our greatest rivals, and they are both at home. That is a huge advantage for us so we have got to make sure that we make that count.

"It is difficult to know which exactly will be the closest rival - we've just got to focus on ourselves.

"We know if we can get six points in these next two games then that leaves us in a really good position."

Southgate is relishing the 2017/18 Premier League campaign which gets underway when Arsenal and Leicester meet on Friday night, live on Sky Sports Premier League.

"Every year, it is an incredibly exciting time because this stage in the year everybody has hopes and dreams and that is kind of what sport is about," he added.

"There are so many different narratives around the season with all the different managers and clubs and new signings.

"It is at this moment when every club is looking forward to it and looking forward to the challenge and the supporters will be the same."

The former Aston Villa and Middlesbrough player believes the race for the title will be a close one and says there is "no knowing who might emerge."

"I think you can see what happened last year and, when you add the amount of money that has been spent across the board to that, it is increasingly competitive so everybody has to keep looking to improve," he said.

"Everybody will be looking at what happened to Leicester a couple years ago and feel they have hope.

"You always focus on the top five or six clubs but there really is no knowing who might emerge as the season progresses."