England Under 20s manager Keith Downing says the nation’s brightest young talents will learn to ‘grow up’ by moving abroad for opportunities.

Borussia Dortmund signed the jewel of Manchester City’s academy Jadon Sancho on deadline day, Arsenal lost top prospect Chris Willock to Benfica this summer and West Ham’s Reece Oxford leads a new raft of English youngsters on loan on foreign shores.

And Downing, who led England’s Under 19s to European Championship glory earlier this summer, says pathways abroad are ‘really useful’ to players’ personal development with opportunities limited in the Premier League.

Now in charge of the U20s, who beat Holland 3-0 with a man-of-the-match performance from Willock on Thursday, Downing is already seeing the difference playing abroad can make.

‘It’s interesting to speak to them about how they’re coping as adults, moving over to different countries; different languages,’ he told Sportsmail. ‘I think it’s really useful.

‘It gives them a great maturity when they come back here and play in England. You can see them growing up quite a bit even from a couple of months ago.

‘It can only benefit them because they’re playing with top players, in a different culture and different philosophies over there.

‘These boys are having to find different pathways, Chris is at Benfica, Isaac Buckley-Ricketts is at Twente (on loan from Manchester City), Kaylen Hinds is at Wolfsburg.

‘So it’s not just about playing in this country, they’re finding themselves playing over in European football and obviously that’s going to benefit them.’