Sir Trevor Brooking, the Football Association's director of development, told the BBC this trend is depriving English youngsters of first-team opportunities and has led to an alarming lack of depth in key areas, particularly up front.

BBC: SPORT | Football | Foreign trend to continue - Gold

Meanwhile, with boards preoccupied with risk, many CEOs lack the depth and breadth of advice they formerly received.

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Then, with the Rangers on the periphery of the conference's playoff picture in early April and Tortorella bemoaning the team's lack of depth, Sather sent forward Marian Gaborik to the Blue Jackets for three players.

WSJ: New York Rangers: Rangers Fire Tortorella

And the lack of strength-in-depth of the women's game suggests she could return to that level if her confidence picks up.

BBC: Kournikova blows big chance

Gatland believes that open-side flanker is one of the positions that Wales lack strength in depth and Williams' u-turn is a huge boost to the national side.

BBC: Williams makes shock Wales return

Google and Amazon Web Services, he says, can certainly provide a platform, but lack the same depth of experience serving the enterprise.

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Today's electronic forms of communication may lack that emotional depth but they do enable us to connect more speedily and efficiently than I at least could manage with pen and ink.

BBC: A Point of View: Mourning the loss of the written word