Sir Trevor Brooking has urged Premier League clubs to invest more money in youth coaching.
The FA's director of football development believes that the average salary for a youth coach is not enough and insists that is the reason for the lack of exciting prospects in English football.
Brooking said: "On the clubs we want them focusing on making the 16-year-old English players better than they have been.
"We believe you need full-time coaches. At the moment there is an issue in that those full-time places are being offered at pretty low salaries, around 15-16 grand, and they need to be recognised for the quality and getting £40,000 to £50,000.
"In the scheme of things that's not asking too much to invest in quality coaches in those age groups so that the 16-year-olds are going to be much better than they are at the moment."
Brooking has been in his role at the FA since 2003.