Gareth Southgate praises Dan Ashworth for helping to put England back among world's leading football nations

The former West Brom technical director has ended his five-year spell with the governing body

Gareth Southgate believes England has earned its place among football's leading nations again thanks to successes at age-group level and the Three Lions' run to the last four in Russia this summer.

But the England boss thinks much of the credit for that should go to Dan Ashworth, who has decided to leave the Football Association to become Brighton's first technical director.

The pair, who have worked together at the FA since 2012, attended Fifa and Uefa technical conferences on Sunday and Monday, when the world's leading international coaches gathered in London to review Russia 2018.

One of the highlights was a presentation by Brazil's 1994 World Cup-winning coach Carlos Alberto Parreira and FIFA technical director Marco Van Basten that praised England's set-piece work in Russia, with Van Basten also noting England's pipeline of emerging talent.

"I told Dan [Ashworth] as we walked in that he should feel really proud," Southgate told reporters.

"The last time we came to one of these it was in St Petersburg three years ago but this time we walked in as world champions at U17 and U20 and we've been to a seniors' semi-final, so we deserve our place at the table.

"That is a great credit to everyone involved, the backing the FA has given us in building St George's Park and investing in the teams, to the work being done in youth development and to Dan in particular for putting those plans in place, which we have seen pay off for Spain, Germany and France.

England reached the semi-finals of the World Cup last summer (Getty)

"It's up to us now to continue the work that's been started."

Prior to getting the England senior job, Southgate spent 18 months as the FA's director of elite development and then three years as the U21s coach, so he is fully signed up to the increased emphasis on success at youth level, developing a consistent playing style and bridging the gap between the age groups and senior football.

The latter, of course, is England's biggest challenge, as a glance at the Premier League's playing squads will demonstrate, but Southgate believes he has "said enough about that" and it is time to focus on the players he does have at his disposal.

"In 50, 60 years, we've won [one World Cup] and been to the semi-finals twice, so I think we should talk about the players we have and what they've achieved," he added.

"My job is to get the best out of them and help them continue to improve. I'm incredibly proud to work with them. They changed the perceptions of English football.

"It's nice that when videos are shown here we're in them. Four years ago in Brazil when they were showing videos of World Cup history, we weren't in them, at least not when they were in colour, so that's a huge credit to the players."