Help me do proper squats with restricted flex

I've received advice from numerous sources that I should be doing squats as part of my strength routines.  Never having done them before I did a bit of research into them and tried them out, and discovered something - I can squat down on my right leg a reasonable distance/angle, but my left barely goes down at all.

It appears that I have very limited flexibility between my knee and my ankle.  I'm quite able to do full bending of my hip and knee joints, so it's something to do with my calf/achillies/ankle.

I have been running for quite some time ( a couple of years on and off, up to 100km/month) and am back up to doing regular 6 to 10km runs 3-4 times a week.  I also do a bit of cycling (50km each Sunday).

I remember that as a boy, I was unable to squat down while on my ice skates even though the rest of the hockey team had no problem.  I simply couldn't lean forward enough to keep my balance while still keeping my heels on the ice - I'd end up on the points of my skates.  The only way I could do it was to have my feet/skates pointing outwards, which ain't no good for hockey!  So clearly I've had limited flexibility for years.

I also seem to have feet that point outwards when my knees are pointing straight ahead.  So I probably run on the instep a bit as this is where I tend to get blisters/calluses.  However, I don't have fallen arches so I don't think it's too extreme.

When I try to do squats with my feet pointing forward, I barely go down at all.  If I do them one foot at a time, I can go down approximately twice as far on my right compared to my left.  If I allow my feet to point their natural direction (about 22 degrees from straight forward), I can squat down futher still on both.  Pretty far, actually.

So I guess the limitation is most evident if I have my left foot pointing straight ahead.


So there's a number of questions:
- should I try to ensure my feet are pointing straight ahead while squatting to reinforce correct stretching of my lower leg muscles, tendons, etc., as well as develop a corrected foot direction for things like running?

- is there any exercises that I can do to improve the flexibility of my (lower) left leg, remembering that it's been that way for at least 30 years?

Or can I ignore it, do pidgeon-toed squats with weights, and not try to limber up my left leg to be similar to my right?