LUKE Shaw refuses to believe he must be playing Champions League football in order to feel totally comfortable on the world stage.

The 18-year-old became the youngest person at this year’s World Cup when he played the full 90 minutes of England’s dead rubber against Costa Rica on Tuesday.

Shaw returned to England with the rest of Roy Hodgson’s squad, and now faces continuing speculation over his future.

Manchester United are keen to sign him, lodging a £27m bid back in May.

In order to keep progressing, Shaw was asked by reporters before he left Brazil whether he felt he needed to be playing Champions League football.

That kind of experience would not come if he was to move to Manchester United this season - but was not something he deemed particularly important to being a success with England anyway.

“You can't really say that because you look at the other teams and they haven't all got Champions League players, have they?” Shaw said.

“I don't know. Obviously Champions League would help, playing against world-class players, but you can't just say that because you look at other teams that have gone through the groups and they haven't got all Champions League players.

“I don't know. I think we'll have a look at it and just to try and move on in the coming few months.”

What he is sure about, though, is that more clubs need to be like Saints.

Saints have long been associated with their focus on home-grown talent, with Shaw one of several academy graduates in the first-team last season like Adam Lallana, James Ward-Prowse and Calum Chambers.

“I think a lot of people have been talking about that,” he said.

“There is only way that that's going to happen and that is if people are playing week in, week out in the best league in the world.

“It has benefited me, the likes of Raheem Sterling and Ross Barkley, so why can't other clubs do that?”