The conversation on the failures of English managers is one that will never go away until one manager is able to lift that burden. Having zero English managers win the biggest prize their is on offer in the country, the Premier League. To add more salt in the wound, no Englishman has won the FA cup since Harry Redknapp led Portsmouth to glory in 2008. Regarding the League Cup, the time ticks on to twenty years now since Steve McLaren won the cup with Middlesbrough. The man who captained Middlesbrough on that day was none other then the man who can change the future perspective on England managers, Gareth Southgate.
It does not take anything special to understand the chokehold managers born from outside England have had on the Premier league since the inaugural season. From Sir Alex Ferguson, to Arsene Wenger to now Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola. The sheer dominance managers from outside the country have had on the league only adds pressure to any English managers who are thrown into the hot seat of any of England's biggest sides. Since 2010 only 4 different English Managers have been appointed head coach of a team inside the Premier League's traditional big six. When adding in the ruthlessness of owners at the top level these days and constant managerial turnover, this is a damming fact. More damming is that none of the four managers appointed achieved any real sort of success, with the closest being Frank Lampard achieving a top four finish with Chelsea in the 2019/20 season, off the back of a transfer embargo the summer before. Meaning the ex-midfielder had to rely heavily on his highly talented group of youngsters.
At the time of writing only 4 English managers apply their trade in the Premier League. With two of them, Chris Wilder and Sean Dyche making up a third of the bottom 6.
However, looking to get one step further from three years ago Gareth Southgate will be looking to win it all when England step into enemy lines in Germany, hoping to get all the way and have Harry Kane lift the trophy in Berlin on the 14th July.
Throughout the country, one phrase that sweeps the nation rapidly once an international tournament is on the horizon is,
"it's coming home"
A phrase repeated from an anthem to a now sarcastic like joke.
For many an Englishmen and Women, Gareth Southgate is at the centre of this lack of confidence. Even still, after leading England pass the heartbreak of his predecessors through the trials and tribulations of major tournaments and new UEFA inventions.
Southgate has far exceed all expectations that were shone on him when making the step up to the senior team in 2016 and now is held as the nations most successful manager since world cup winning coach Sir Alf Ramsey.
However the persistent calls for him to get the sack, or resign will never league the timelines on social media, with the rumour mill always flooded with managers supposedly interested in the job. The criticism stems from Southgate being "too boring", a common critique for English managers.
With this, people have been calling for the likes of Thomas Tuchel, Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola, as potential and reasonable candidates to replace Southgate, however no coach who has managed a different nationality to their own has won the world cup.
The issue comes with the lack of options, if England are set on appointing an English manager, as is most likely who is realistically a good option? More Chilean managers than English managers have won the Premier League, and the most recent English winner of major European competitions was back in 1984 with Liverpool and Spurs.
"Learning and innovating with ideas from abroad will undoubtedly strengthen the quality of English management."
This isolationism has seemingly spread to the quantity of football managers within England and abroad. There are just over a thousand coaches in England, compared to 7,000 German managers and 15,000 Spanish coaches. This indicates, that not only are they lessons to be learned from abroad, in terms of in-game tactics, but also in development off the pitch.
On top of the FA reforming its coaching instructions and teaching, management in England may need to adapt. While England has retained an almost elitist stance in regard to its footballing system, managers may need to follow the example of players, such as Bellingham, Sancho and develop abroad.
Learning and innovating with ideas from abroad will undoubtedly strengthen the quality of English management and could potentially be what ‘brings it home’ if Southgate doesn’t in Germany.
The help then may be needed from the FA. First of all it has been heavily debated about the fees required to complete all of your coaching badges, which are needed to coach at the elite level. It is not outrageous to suggest that there is players in the lower leagues who earn enough to pay their bills and feed their families and not much more who would make great managers, but the option to do so isn't open to them.
Who ever is the predecessor to Southgate does not have to be world class or anything, just the right fit for the group, with Southgate being the prime example of this theory but he must be English, because hiring a foreign manager will send out the wrong message to the foundations. Greg Dyke devoted a lot of time and effort to improve the infrastructure of the game and he did a great job and he always said, "The coach must be English."
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