Who is to blame for the lack of elite English managers? | OneFootball

Replacing Thomas Tuchel with a homegrown candidate will be no easy task gives paucity of options

Thomas Tuchel started as England head coach with a visit to Tottenham last weekend to witness another encouraging result for a manager many would have preferred to land the job.

Eddie Howe, whose Newcastle side beat Spurs, was the best-placed English candidate to succeed Gareth Southgate before Tuchel was named as the third foreign coach in England’s history ­— though Howe has said he was not among the 10 allegedly interviewed by the Football Association (FA).

Howe has never won a trophy but he is doing a fine job at a leading club, has a wealth of experience in the Premier League and is among only five English coaches still working to have taken charge of a Champions League match.

For an Englishman, that makes the 47-year-old an impressive outlier. Tuchel, though, is considerably more decorated and, for the duration of his 18-month contract, promises to be a very visible reminder of the sorry state of English managers.

When Tuchel was appointed in October, Howe was one of four English managers in the Premier League but their total was halved in a single weekend with the sackings of Southampton’s Russell Martin and Gary O’Neil by Wolves in December, leaving the number at an all-time low.

In the Premier League’s first season, 1992-93, there was only one non-British manager in Irishman Joe Kinnear. The steep decline has not been entirely linear — six English coaches, including caretakers, managed in the top-flight in 2011-12 compared to 15 in 2022-23 — but the direction of travel has been obvious for years.

Reap what you sow

In justifying Tuchel’s appointment, the FA insisted that more English managers need opportunities in the Premier League and Championship, but leading clubs could reasonably point out the glaring absence of elite native coaches coming through the system.

Howard Wilkinson, 81, remains the last English manager to win the top-flight, with Leeds in 1991-92, while Steven Gerrard — currently sliding into obscurity in Saudi Arabia — and Jamaica boss Steve McClaren are the only Englishmen still working who can claim to have won a major league title.

Of the handful of other Englishmen working overseas, only Liam Rosenior (Strasbourg) and Belgian-born Will Still (Lens) are managing in a top European league.

Harry Redknapp, 77, still stands as the last Englishman to win a major trophy in this country — the 2008 FA Cup with Portsmouth — and is one of two to win the competition in the Premier League era, along with Everton’s Joe Royle in 1995. In the same period, just four English coaches have won the League Cup: McClaren with Middlesbrough in 2004 and Ron Atkinson, Roy Evans and Brian Little, 1994-1996.

This dearth of silverware is not entirely for the want of opportunities, either. Since 1992, English managers have lost 25 domestic cup finals, most recently Howe’s defeat to Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United in the 2023 League Cup, suggesting they struggle on the biggest occasions.

There is no shortage of blame to go around, starting with the FA, who are responsible for providing pathways for English coaches. There is a compelling argument that the FA should reap what they have, at least in part, sown by only considering English managers for England. Undeniably, though, turning to a foreigner to lead England is much more logical today than it was in the past, given the paucity of options.

In 2001, Sven-Göran Eriksson was picked ahead of the 16 Englishmen who managed in the Premier League that season, the same number as in 2007-08, the campaign during which Fabio Capello landed the job. Beyond Howe, the English competition with Tuchel was basically non-existent.