Some interesting points have been raised by Everton boss David Moyes, perhaps still reflecting on his Five Years in charge of the club, as he ponders the seemingly one-way traffic of managers between the Premiership and the continent,
“I think British managers in the lower divisions deserve the opportunities I have had,” he said. “There are many good enough, but you have to work hard and earn your stripes.
“My first job was Preston and you know that if you do not do well at places like that, you find it hard to get back on the ladder.
“There are many foreign managers here, and at the biggest clubs, but my view is that they must have done well at the previous jobs to get that chance.
“Jose Mourinho did well at Porto without any money, Rafael Benitez did well at Valencia – they have all been successful. My job is to try to do as well as those managers and be successful here.
“Maybe those top jobs here are out of reach to people like me, but those jobs are not being done by people who have not been successful. If those managers are successful and over here, that’s fine.
“My big problem is that you don’t see our best managers being offered jobs abroad. We do not see British managers being offered jobs in Spain, Italy or Germany while we are happy to bring them into our game.
We understand what he’s getting at, but the facts don’t really fall in line.
Chelsea hiring Mourinho and Liverpool hiring Benitez gave them managers with qualifications that only Alex Ferguson could match out of all the British managers. So looking domestically didn’t really make sense. And currently only Tottenham have a foreign manager outside of the Big Four, so there’s hardly a mass influx of foreign managers taking all the jobs.
As for the “best” British managers being offered jobs in Spain, Italy, we can only assume he is speaking beyond Sir Alex and perhaps referring to the likes of himself, Harry Redknapp, Chris Coleman, Sam Allardyce and Martin O’Neill. Out of all of them, only O’Neill has won anything with the others’ major achievements being not getting relegated and finishing fourth once.
We’re pretty sure La Liga and Serie A have their own David Moyes’, Harry Redknapp’s, Chris Coleman’s, and Sam Allardyce’s who they could hire from the domestic pool of talent without worrying about a settling in period or language barrier. Just like most Premiership clubs do.