Post by QPR Report on Sept 7, 2009 7:47:23 GMT
Interesting. Have to say that until I read this, my impression it was the other way.
Sportingo - Forget the Arsenal and Chelsea bosses, British managers are still first choice
With 15 Premier League clubs currently being run by Brits - including eight Englishmen - who says foreign football talent is supreme?
by Donna Gee on 06 September 2009
While the debate continues to rage as to whether the massive influx of overseas players is good or bad for the Premier League, the British flag is still fluttering loud and proud when it comes to management.
For while something like 60 per cent of players in the elite league now come from abroad, three-quarters of the men who oversee their working day are British.
All of which prompts the question: Why do club owners and chairmen look to the cream of Europe and Africa in particular for new players – yet more often than not opt for a manager from this particular green and pleasant land?
Clearly it’s not a matter of money. Any club that can afford £20m or £30m on a single player can afford to employ the best manager in the business – whatever his nationality.
Yet the only club that has done this consistently is Chelsea, whose succession of foreign bosses since the mid-90s has been bizarre.
Until 1996 the Blues had NEVER had a non-British manager – yet since Glenn Hoddle’s departure (seven years before Roman Abramovich’s buyout, by the way), the only homers to have had even the slightest look-in have been brief caretakers Ray Wilkins and Graham Rix.
Otherwise we’ve seen a succession of SEVEN big-name foreign bosses in and out of the door prior to the arrival of Carlo Ancelotti in the summer. Ruud Gullit, Gianluca Vialli, Claudio Ranieri, Jose Mourinho, Avram Grant and Luis Felipe Scolari, plus temporary custodian Guus Huddink have all come and gone.
And while most, if not all, of that impressive list of football luminaries have been pretty successful, satisfying the demands of Stamford Bridge’s Russian oligarch is seemingly beyond the realm of a mere mortal.
Few could argue with Arsene Wenger’s amazing achievements as Arsenal’s one and only non-British boss. Ironically, he arrived at Highbury just five months after Gullit became Chelsea’s first overseas incumbent 13 years ago – and has been weaving his magic ever since.
But take away Wenger, Ancelotti, Rafa Benitez, Gianfranco Zola and Roberto Martinez, and EVERY other manager in the Premier League today is British.
OK, Wolves boss Mick McCarthy chose to play for and later manage the Republic of Ireland, the land of his father, but he’s Yorkshire born and bred – and true Irishmen don’t speak with a Barnsley accent.
Bet your passport wasn’t issued in Dublin either, Mick!
So that makes EIGHT English managers – or 40 percent of the Premier League.
And let’s not forget the FOUR Scots (20 percent), headed by arguably the best of the lot in Sir Alex Ferguson, Welshmen Mark Hughes and Tony Pulis - and Northern Ireland’s Martin O’Neill.
Moved down the next flight and the domination is even more total. Just TWO of the 24 Championship clubs, West Brom (Roberto Di Matteo) and Swansea (Paolo Sousa), have non-British managers.
And to stir things up just a little more, you’d struggle to find more than a couple of foreign players in any of those teams, apart from perhaps the three sides relegated from the Premier League last season.
But that, as they say, is another story.
Premier League managers and their nationalities: English (8): Harry Redknapp (Spurs), Sam Allardyce (Blackburn), Paul Hart (Portsmouth), Gary Megson (Bolton), Mick McCarthy (Wolves), Steve Bruce (Sunderland), Phil Brown (Hull), Roy Hodgson (Fulham). Scottish (4): Sir Alex Ferguson (Man United), Owen Coyle (Burnley), Alex McLeish (Birmingham), David Moyes (Everton). Welsh (2): Mark Hughes (Man City), Tony Pulis (Stoke). Northern Irish (1): Martin O’Neill (Aston Villa). Spanish (2): Rafa Benitez (Liverpool), Roberto Martinez (Wigan). Italian (2): Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea), Gianfranco Zola (West Ham). French (1): Arsene Wenger (Arsenal).
www.sportingo.com/football/a12166_forget-arsenal-chelsea-bosses-british-managers-still-first-choice
Sportingo - Forget the Arsenal and Chelsea bosses, British managers are still first choice
With 15 Premier League clubs currently being run by Brits - including eight Englishmen - who says foreign football talent is supreme?
by Donna Gee on 06 September 2009
While the debate continues to rage as to whether the massive influx of overseas players is good or bad for the Premier League, the British flag is still fluttering loud and proud when it comes to management.
For while something like 60 per cent of players in the elite league now come from abroad, three-quarters of the men who oversee their working day are British.
All of which prompts the question: Why do club owners and chairmen look to the cream of Europe and Africa in particular for new players – yet more often than not opt for a manager from this particular green and pleasant land?
Clearly it’s not a matter of money. Any club that can afford £20m or £30m on a single player can afford to employ the best manager in the business – whatever his nationality.
Yet the only club that has done this consistently is Chelsea, whose succession of foreign bosses since the mid-90s has been bizarre.
Until 1996 the Blues had NEVER had a non-British manager – yet since Glenn Hoddle’s departure (seven years before Roman Abramovich’s buyout, by the way), the only homers to have had even the slightest look-in have been brief caretakers Ray Wilkins and Graham Rix.
Otherwise we’ve seen a succession of SEVEN big-name foreign bosses in and out of the door prior to the arrival of Carlo Ancelotti in the summer. Ruud Gullit, Gianluca Vialli, Claudio Ranieri, Jose Mourinho, Avram Grant and Luis Felipe Scolari, plus temporary custodian Guus Huddink have all come and gone.
And while most, if not all, of that impressive list of football luminaries have been pretty successful, satisfying the demands of Stamford Bridge’s Russian oligarch is seemingly beyond the realm of a mere mortal.
Few could argue with Arsene Wenger’s amazing achievements as Arsenal’s one and only non-British boss. Ironically, he arrived at Highbury just five months after Gullit became Chelsea’s first overseas incumbent 13 years ago – and has been weaving his magic ever since.
But take away Wenger, Ancelotti, Rafa Benitez, Gianfranco Zola and Roberto Martinez, and EVERY other manager in the Premier League today is British.
OK, Wolves boss Mick McCarthy chose to play for and later manage the Republic of Ireland, the land of his father, but he’s Yorkshire born and bred – and true Irishmen don’t speak with a Barnsley accent.
Bet your passport wasn’t issued in Dublin either, Mick!
So that makes EIGHT English managers – or 40 percent of the Premier League.
And let’s not forget the FOUR Scots (20 percent), headed by arguably the best of the lot in Sir Alex Ferguson, Welshmen Mark Hughes and Tony Pulis - and Northern Ireland’s Martin O’Neill.
Moved down the next flight and the domination is even more total. Just TWO of the 24 Championship clubs, West Brom (Roberto Di Matteo) and Swansea (Paolo Sousa), have non-British managers.
And to stir things up just a little more, you’d struggle to find more than a couple of foreign players in any of those teams, apart from perhaps the three sides relegated from the Premier League last season.
But that, as they say, is another story.
Premier League managers and their nationalities: English (8): Harry Redknapp (Spurs), Sam Allardyce (Blackburn), Paul Hart (Portsmouth), Gary Megson (Bolton), Mick McCarthy (Wolves), Steve Bruce (Sunderland), Phil Brown (Hull), Roy Hodgson (Fulham). Scottish (4): Sir Alex Ferguson (Man United), Owen Coyle (Burnley), Alex McLeish (Birmingham), David Moyes (Everton). Welsh (2): Mark Hughes (Man City), Tony Pulis (Stoke). Northern Irish (1): Martin O’Neill (Aston Villa). Spanish (2): Rafa Benitez (Liverpool), Roberto Martinez (Wigan). Italian (2): Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea), Gianfranco Zola (West Ham). French (1): Arsene Wenger (Arsenal).
www.sportingo.com/football/a12166_forget-arsenal-chelsea-bosses-british-managers-still-first-choice
