There are few other British bosses of any age in the Premier League at present – just six permanent bosses in total (far fewer than the number of ‘home’ managers in every other major league in Europe) – as well as Michael Carrick who is at Manchester United until the end of the season.
One of them, Eddie Howe, has proved at Newcastle without doubt that given, time and backing, British managers can be successful, and one day hopefully we will be applauding his appointment as the new England manager.
And not far from Stamford Bridge, another young homegrown manager is showing his worth. Ireland’s Keith Andrews was again not universally welcomed into the job at Brentford last summer, but just take a look at what he has achieved this season so far.
It is absolute necessary to our national game that, with the enormous amount of money spent, courses run and facilities produced, the young British or Irish coaches of today can relate to homegrown managers being successful at the top level, to give them the mentors to strive to follow and hopefully better.
The challenges today for coaches and players to do that are far greater, given that the Premier League is a world league.
This was never the case when I was growing up and then making my way as a manager. In the 1980s and 90s, English clubs were managed by British managers, Bob Paisley, Brian Clough, Alex Ferguson, Bobby Robson, Howard Kendall, Howard Wilkinson and George Graham. There were also great coaches like Don Howe and Dave Sexton too.
And then there were the over-achievers like Bobby Gould at Wimbledon, John Sillett at Coventry and Lawrie McMenemy at Southampton, who all won the FA Cup with so-called smaller clubs.
At the same time, Martin O’Neill, Alan Curbishley and Peter Reid were breaking through, while John Toshack, Bobby Robson and Terry Venables were making new waves abroad. I apologise to the many other successful managers I haven’t mentioned, but I only have so much room!
All these managers had different characters and approaches but what they have in common is that they were given the opportunity to prove their worth – something that is no longer the case for many British coaches and managers now.
