Gareth Southgate was talking from a position of strength when he revisited a familiar lament.
The England manager led his country to their best World Cup finals performance for 28 years during the summer. The country is warmly disposed to its national football team in a way anybody too young to remember 1996 would not recognise.
For Southgate, though, the nuts and bolts of his job remain stubbornly fixed. He discovered this much when he selected his first squad following the Three Lions’ progress to the semi-finals in Russia.
Southgate is selecting from a shallow pool – and he is concerned the current trend will leave him scraping the surface for players.