Darren Bent looking like he's heading to Fulham.

Remember that Villa paid £24million for him and it's not easy to see why people grumble about a premium for English players.

British football clubs have spent something like (rough maths) £339 million on foreign imports this summer, one bookmaker is predicting that only 30% of the players who kick off this weekend's new Premier League season will be English.

Spreadex forecasts from the 220 players who will start for top-flight clubs this weekend only a maximum of 69 will be English – the lowest number since the Premier League began.

When the league was formed 23 years ago only 13 non-British players featured in the opening fixtures. But by 2011-12 only 84 of the starters were English and last season just 76.

This season there are expected to be 67 different nationalities playing in the Premier League and Southampton’s capture of Kenyan Victor Wanyama means there will have been 100 different countries – besides the four home nations – represented in the English top flight since its inception.

No wonder the national team's getting worse.