Albion lead the way when it comes to recruitment from overseas on a budget.

Fans love the way they pick up talents from around the world and develop them.

So do the media - some of whom cannot wait to then try to sell them on to richer clubs.

Which makes it perhaps all the more notable that no team had more English players in their starting XI in their most recent Premier League match than the Seagulls.

There were six Englishmen in the XI which kicked off - and then ran up a 4-0 lead inside an hour - before Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate at Wolves.

The most anyone else fielded on Saturday was four.

Everton matched Albion the following day with six English players in their XI at Aston Villa.

Chelsea had five in their side at West Ham and both Crystal Palace and Arsenal kicked off with five English players on Monday evening.

Of course, Albion’s English representation could have been fewer than six.

The fact they had so many in front of Southgate was partly coincidence.

Evan Ferguson might have started up front rather than Danny Welbeck, for example.

The master plan for the season might not involve James Milner at right-back on a sustained basis.

But, with all due respect and all that, Welbeck and Milner are probably not the relevant names when thinking about who Southgate might have been watching with a view to forthcoming squads.

“I’ve been tipped the wink - Gareth’s here today,” one of the national radio men told colleagues in the front row of the Molineux press box at about 1.30pm.

Naturally, the discussion started as to who he was there to see.

The first name mentioned by the locals was Wolves centre-back Max Kilman.

Kilman is obviously a big player for the Wanderers and there was a piece in the programme about him assuming a leadership role.

But he looked like he might have been auditioning for Steve Borthwick’s England squad, not Southgate’s, with his vain attempt to stop Kaoru Mitoma.

As the locals were then quick to realise, Lewis Dunk was named in Southgate’s most recent squad.

So were Harry Maguire, who is not currently playing, and Tyrone Mings and John Stones, who are injured.

Clearly Levi Colwill is expected to step up from the under-21s soon and this might be the time.

But Southgate will have been very interested both in Dunk and Adam Webster on Saturday.

Roberto De Zerbi has spoken of his ambition to get Jason Steele into the England squad.

He did his cause no harm at Molineux.

A call-up would be sensational for Steele who, don’t forget, has played for England at all levels from under-16 to 21, where his head coach was Stuart Pearce.

At the same time, Steele’s re-emergence under De Zerbi owes a lot to how their brave styles of play suit each other.

While Southgate likes to construct his football from deep, is he brave enough to play like De Zerbi and therefore full utilise Steele’s qualities?

But Solly March was the Englishman to grab the headlines in front of Southgate.

With his finishes, of course, but also with general play and tracking back.

As luck would have it, De Zerbi spoke about March in relation to England recognition in his press conference on Friday lunchtime before setting off for the Black Country.

None of us really picked up on it at the time because it did it really move on a story we had done when March was flying last season.

We were more intereted in him talking about Joao Pedro and Brazil.

What did move it on was March’s two-goal performance and Southgate’s presence the following afternoon.

De Zerbi said on Friday: “I think he has to be focussed only on his physical condition,.

“I think he can target the national team.

“I think it’s very hard because the is a lot of great players in the winger position but why not?

“If he scores more goals than last season and he plays with the same quality of last season, why not?

“He can reach the national team.”

March started wide on the right for Southgate with England under-21s eight years ago now.

He was praised by the same manager last season when asked about a potential call-up.

At that stage, Southgate pointed out the level of competition March faced on that flank in the form of Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka.

Those players are still around but Foden has been shifted infield at Manchester City and has impressed so one wonders whether that translates to the national team.

For those watching from the outside and waiting very patiently for the Three Lions to have genuine success, maybe it is great that the squad is so strong that players as good as March and Webster cannot get in.

But De Zerbi believes Webster, Dunk, March and Steele are all worthy of England call-ups.

They were obviously not burdened by any extra pressure to that end on Saturday.

“I didn’t have a clue,” March told BBC Radio Sussex when asked whether he knew about Southgate’s presence at Molineux ahead of the game.

“I’ve just to keep playing well and do what I can. Who knows?”

ENGLISH PLAYERS IN MOST RECENT STARTING XI’S

6: Albion, Everton.

5: Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Arsenal.

4: Sheffield United, Bournemouth, Manchester United, Newcastle.

3: Manchester City, Luton*.

2: Nottingham Forest, Wolves, West Ham.

1: Fulham, Brentford, Liverpool, Tottenham, Aston Villa, Burnley*.

* Asterisk donates starting XIs on opening weekend of the season after their meeting in the second round of fixtures was postponed.