THERE has been some criticism over the arrival of so many foreign players in this country, taking places of young players coming through.

The argument can be put forward that at the very top level, with international players coming across, they have improved English players.

Despite the last two England performances - it was a win against Wales after all following a very poor display against Denmark - we have probably never had such a crop of talented younger players like Gerrard, Lampard and Rooney.

The influence of foreign players has added something to the English game and it has now filtered down into the lower leagues and even into the Conference.

We have our mixed bag of an Australian, a Frenchman and a French-Cameroonian, but during the close season we may well have added several more.

Two Croatian players, one a full international, were due to come to us for a period of training, as much for them to look at us as for us to look at them.

But the big disappointment during the close season was a German player that we had got lined up by the name of Dirk Lehmann, who had been very prominent in Kevin Keegan's promotion-winning side that took Fulham to the Premiership.

It was something that we had worked on for a couple of weeks with an agent and as far as we were concerned it was a done deal. Then suddenly the phone calls went dead, there was no arrival into Birmingham Airport as arranged and it was another fruitless fortnight's work.

People probably don't realise the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to sign players in the close season and the length of time it can take a player, or an agent, to make their mind up.

I try to keep any potential moves close to my chest and never ever divulge who we would like to sign, who we are talking to, or when. It's an invitation to other clubs to move in and I learned that lesson when I was at Aston Villa.

I had a player called Neil Webb come up to Villa but before he had actually put pen to paper he had done interviews and been seen on the pitch at Villa Park by the press and the TV companies. He had been due to come back the following Monday to sign but I had a phone call to say he was at Nottingham Forest and signing there. From that I realised that you never divulge anything until the ink is dry.