Bosses rely too much on their 'Wayne Rooneys' as much as the England football team does on the real thing, it was claimed yesterday.

The majority of smaller-to-medium-sized companies depend too heavily on a single star performer.

This is the finding of new research by corporate insolvency and restructuring specialists Begbies Traynor.

Begbies asked how the heads of 129 SMEs would cope in the event that they lost their main player.

A total of 53 per cent said it would be 'devastating' to their operation.

However, 78 per cent of the SME bosses actually claimed that they were the 'Wayne Rooney' of their own outfit.

And while 97 per cent agreed that team work is far more important than star talent, only 22 per cent preferred flair and creativity in their company's culture over solid dependability.

Interestingly, it seems most SME chiefs have less faith in youth than the England coach. Sven-Goran Eriksson added 17-year-old Arsenal prospect Theo Walcott to his World Cup squad, and many of us forget that Wayne Rooney is still only 20-years-old.

But 91 per cent of the polled SME heads said their ideal workforce should be dominated by older, experienced staff rather than raw, young talent.

That said, 56 per cent admitted they would consider stumping up a Premier League-style wage if they could attract a 'Wayne Rooney' to their business.

It's not all bad news for young people looking for their first job at an SME.

Sixty-nine per cent of SME chiefs think star-talent is made, rather than born, so it's possible some SMEs have a number of 'Wayne Rooneys' that just haven't made the first team yet.