The last Englishman to manage a team to a European Cup was Liverpool legend Joe Fagan in 1984.
Howard Wilkinson guided Leeds to a First Division title in 1992. No Englishman has won the top flight since it became the Premier League. Harry Redknapp won the FA Cup in 2008 and Steve McClaren won the League Cup in 2004. Even the last English manager to win the Championship was Sean Dyche in 2016.
The last time Manchester United had an English manager was Ron Atkinson in the 1980s. Arsenal had Don Howe in the 1980s, while Roy Hodgson lasted just a few months when he got the gig at Liverpool in 2010.
Manchester City haven’t looked at an English manager since they became funded by the petro-dollars of the Middle East. So let’s look at the St George’s Park coaching pathway.
There’s only Lee Carsley who has amounted to success with the England U21s. Well, Steve Cooper won the World Cup with the England U-17s. But he’s Welsh. Is it any wonder the FA have gone German?
The Premier League is full of foreign coaches and so is the Championship. England produces top players but it doesn’t produce top managers. Let’s face the facts.
If the Three Lions want to win something then they’ve had to go abroad. Eddie Howe is doing OK at Newcastle but he’s had plenty of money to spend and not ended their trophy drought yet.
Graham Potter has been out of work for 18 months and, with the caveat that Chelsea is a basket case of a club, he got sacked from his last job. So why shouldn’t England look for a foreign manager?
The claim that the national team should have a manager from that country? Why?
Liverpool don’t have a Liverpudlian managing them? They get the best manager they can. England don’t have to have an Englishman in charge by FIFA rules, so why would they?
The argument that it would be better if it was an Englishman and it would be sweeter if they win something with one of their own in charge doesn’t ring true, either.
Wouldn’t Liverpool love it if their 30-year league title wait was ended by Steven Gerrard as their manager? It would have been sweeter but ask a Scouser and they’ll tell you they couldn’t care less who was the manager once they won the thing.
Another argument is that England shouldn’t need to import a manager because they have the best league in the world. Yes, but it’s only the best league in the world because of the foreign managers who come here to manage the best foreign players.
England have got the best manager available to them. Will it guarantee success? Of course not but Thomas Tuchel gives them a real chance of winning the World Cup. And if he does not one person in this country will care what his passport says.
(Image: PA)
INEOS making bold decisions
Imagine if it was the Glazer family who cut Sir Alex Ferguson’s ambassadorial role?
There would be protests outside Old Trafford today when Manchester United host Brentford today at Old Trafford. INEOS are getting a free pass on it because they’re supposedly the good guys.
But anyways, why was an 82-year-old pocketing a £2.165m salary for an ambassadorial role when the club had to make 250 staff redundant in the summer? Surely Ferguson, a working-class man from Govan, could have put his hand up then and tried to save a few people from losing their jobs if he’d taken a pay cut?
Still, it is a decision that could still come back to bite INEOS in the future. Everything is still rosy for them despite the poor performances on the pitch.
But if success doesn’t start coming then decisions like cutting a club legend will come into sharp focus.
(Image: Ryan Hiscott/Getty Images)
ONSIDE
Craig Bellamy. Unbeaten start to life as Wales manager. Impressive.
OFFSIDE
Paul Pogba had his ban reduced but he was not cleared of doping. That’s crucial.