Albion head coach Hope Powell says the FA WSL is becoming a bigger attraction than ever.

And that increases the challenge for young English talent to emerge.

The Seagulls travel to Manchester City on Sunday, who have brought in Americans Rose Lavelle and Sam Mewis plus Lucy Bronze and Alex Greenwood from Lyon so far over the summer.

Albion themselves announced the loan signing of Republic of Ireland striker Denise O’Sullivan, until the end of 2020 from North Carolina Courage, subject to international clearance.

The 26-year-old has been capped more than 70 times for her country and has proven track record in the USA, Scotland and Australia.

Chelsea and Arsenal have also invested in players form Germany and Holland to strengthen their side, with Manchester United also set to bring it two American players.

Powell said: “This is no disrespect to the American league, but it has curtailed so those players want to come over and play.

“Then players in Europe are seeing those players come over, so they want to come over.

“All be it they are going to the top four clubs so that could be financial as much as anything else.

“People are raving about the league, the quality of the players coming in attracts more quality, doesn’t it?

“The only danger is that from my perspective, is there enough young English talent getting the opportunity to play when there are major tournaments not too far round the corner.”

Albion remain committed to developing young English talent. For example, Maya Le Tissier has worked her way into the team and become a regular under Powell over the last year.

They have also added Katie Robinson a young forward from Bristol City over the summer and Powell is hopeful clubs like City signing players from abroad will give them the opportunity to snatch some of the English talent.

She said: “Well it gives us the opportunity to sign that young English talent like Maya, who has signed her first full time professional contract recently, has played in the England youth team and is a big player for us, at only 18.

“We also signed Katie Robinson another young English player, so I am kind of hoping that perhaps young talent sees that they might get an opportunity to play and look at clubs who probably haven’t got as bigger brand or name, but they might get a good opportunity to play.

“If you flood the league with foreign players, it ends up being very much like what happened with the men is where is the young talent coming through.

“There is a homegrown player rule that comes in next season, which perhaps could help.”

Albion have added Rebekah Stott an experienced New Zealand international to the squad, to help bolster their defensive options.

They made the perfect start to their WSL campaign winning 2-0 against Birmingham last Sunday and Powell is pleased with the defensive options she has available to her.

She said: “We have got greater options I’d say.

“Maya can play centre half, right back I told her over the summer that is going to be her position where I’m looking at her more.

“I think her athleticism and her levels of fitness suit that role, but also gives us that extra option as a centre half.

“We have signed Rebekah Stott an international, who has 75 caps for New Zealand alongside Victoria (Williams) and Danique (Kerkdijk).

“I think we are definitely stronger this year than we were last year and we have options when players are used to playing in a couple of positions.”