Even before Sven became England manager the clubs had already seen the positive impact the likes of Wenger and to a lesser extent Houllier had brought to the domestic club game. The Wenger effect had a much bigger impact than anything the FA could have done. Even when you look at this graph it doesn’t even highlight the issue. For instance, when we are hovering around the 50% English mark we are still talking about coaches like Gary Megson, Sam Allardyce, Alan Curbishley, Steve Bruce, Peter Reid, Alan Pardew, Stuart Pearce, Aidy Boothroyd, Steve McClaren etc. They are mostly seasoned respected managers but they aren’t elite coaches. Same way people hark back to higher percentages of English players being in the top flight but the vast chunk of that percentage will have been pretty much worthless on the highest international stage.
It always gets somewhat ignored when we focus on the manager as a figurehead. Greater scrutiny probably needs to be taken into the wider context of a coaching set up around this manager. What is needed in the roles and individual career direction for those suited. I’m not saying Steven Gerrard was a great manager but he seemed more competent working alongside Michael Beale and vice versa. We’ve discussed before about some of these famous ex-players and whether they do much coaching? If any at all? A lot of the younger foreign successful managers just seems far more ‘hands on’ with their coaching approaches (maybe me speculating). We seem to create high quality individual coaches who work at top teams but not options that are figure head leader types. You could make an argument that Southgate was a good leader but he likely wasn’t doing a great deal of the coaching.
Wayne Rooney is fighting for his future as Plymouth Argyle manager after a nightmare run of results and is now facing two potentially pivotal home matches against Oxford and Swansea. (Daily Telegraph)
The 1996/1997 season was the big change. Wegner joined Arsenal that season and then Gullit become the first non British manager to win the FA Cup.
Not every single sector but nepotism and elitism is rife in Britain. It's a domino effect from the way the state is run. The British state doesn't build or innovate compared to other countries and it's just filled with privately educated elites who have a very limited view of the country at large. You can draw comparisons to that between sport, entertainment (of late), the media etc etc in Britain.
Presumably by British state you mean government run institutions, because Britain is one of the most innovative countries in the world, and regularly top 3-5 in the World in innovation Indexes and also entrepreneurship rankings.
Furthermore most of the countries that do well in football are behind us. UK tech companies attract the same amount of venture capital funding as Germany, France and Italy combined. In Fintech nearly 50% of Europe’s VC capital comes to the UK! UK has created more unicorns than France and Germany combined. The UK has the same number of AI startups per capita as the US. Germany is well behind on that count whilst the Southern European countries are not really in the conversation. I don’t think any other European country can claim a tech company as important as the aforementioned DeepMind, which is now Googles AI division. Probably Spotify is the biggest but that’s just streaming music. It seems a lot of people think because the UK now does very little manufacturing at scale, in contrast to Germany, that we don’t innovate. I bet few Brits even know that Oxford is home to one of the world’s leading automotive engineering sectors that the big German car manufacturers use to design components for its vehicles. Perhaps the FA is a different case, its history certainly contains periods of the old top down class system and maybe that still resonates today.
Former Brighton and Chelsea manager Graham Potter is of interest to West Ham. (Times - subscription required)
Former Chelsea and Brighton manager Graham Potter has been sounded out by both Wolves and West Ham. (Talksport) Former West Ham boss David Moyes is among the contenders for the Wolves job should Gary O'Neil be sacked but Luton boss Rob Edwards is an outsider, having been well thought of at Molineux where he spent four years as a player. (Telegraph - subscription required), external Robbie Savage is in the frame for the vacant Northampton job. (The Sun)
Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna is Tottenham's first-choice target if Spurs decide to sack current manager Ange Postecoglou. (Football Transfers)
If Pep Guardiola and Russell Martin had swapped jobs at the start of the season, where do you think Man City and Southampton would finish in the table?
West Ham would consider Middlesbrough boss Michael Carrick should they sack current manager Julen Lopetegui. (Mirror), external Former Chelsea and Brighton boss Graham Potter is also on West Ham's radar, but may be in line for the manager's job at RB Leipzig, should current head coach Marco Rose get the sack. (Sun)
Graham Potter is willing to take the West Ham job initially until the end of the season, if they sack Julen Lopetegui. (Talksport), external
Gary O'Neil will remain in charge for Wolves' match against Ipswich on Saturday, with the club determined to give him a chance to turn things around. (The Guardian)
Graham Potter was the leading contender to replace West Ham head coach Julen Lopetegui this week if they had lost to Wolves. (Daily Mail)
Gary O'Neil has Saturday's match against Ipswich Town to save his job as Wolves manager. (Football Insider) Everton manager Sean Dyche is not expected to be dismissed immediately following the Friedkin Group's takeover. (Football Insider) Wayne Rooney gives no thought to a potential sacking by Plymouth and insists he is focusing on improving the squad in January. (Daily Mail)
Wolves manager Gary O'Neil admitted he is getting closer to the sack as his side conceded in injury time at a toxic Molineux. (Mail on Sunday)
Southampton literally let Russell Martin shape the entire club. Their whole recruitment process was tailored around his possession obsessed brand of football, and the entire academy philosophy has been rebranded in the shape of that style of play too. What now?
Former Brighton and Chelsea manager Graham Potter rebuffed interest from Wolves last month as the Midlands club looked into options to replace Gary O'Neil, who has now been sacked. (Guardian)
So we go from 4 to 2 English managers in the Prem in less than 24 hours. I doubt that the FA care though since they are happy for the England manager to be foreign...