By Mike Woitalla
@MikeWoitalla
A remarkable statistic this: Only four of the English Premier League’s 20 teams have English head coaches. No other major European leagueemploys so few coaches from its own nation. For example:
League (percentage of domestic head coaches)
Italian Serie A 95%
French Ligue 1 80%
Spanish La Liga 65%
German Bundesliga 60%
English Premier League 20%
None of thefour Englishmen at the helm of EPL clubs lead title contenders. They are the bosses of 10th-place Bournemouth, 13th-place Crystal Palace, 14th-place Burnley and 18th-place Hull City.
SinceLeeds United won the championship of the English First Division under Howard Wilkinson in 1991-92 before it morphed into the Premier League, no English coach has won the title.
Last season’s surprise EPL winner, Leicester City, is coached by Italian Claudio Ranieri. The major EPL coach hirings for the 2016-17 season were Manchester United bringingin Portuguese Jose Mourinho to replace Dutchman Louis van Gaal, Chelsea replacing Dutchman Guus Hiddink with Italian Antonio Conte,and Manchester City swapping Chilean Manuel Pelligrini with Spaniard Pep Guardiola.
Not one club in the big five European leagues besides the EPL employsan English head coach and none of this season’s 32 Champions League teams is led by an English coach.
Last April, The Telegraph reported on plight of English coaching upon GaryNeville getting fired by Valencia: “No English manager has ever won the Premier League; no Englishman has won the European Cup or UEFA Cup [Europa League] in 32 years; and only fiveEnglishmen have ever managed a team in the Champions League group stage.”
This year’s UEFA Champions League is unfolding well for English Premier League clubs.
On Tuesday,Arsenal, under Frenchman Arsene Wenger, qualified for the knockout stage. Guardiola guided Man City to a 3-1 win past his former club, Barcelona, leaving it one win away, with twogames left, of advancing.
Leicester, which won its first three group games, can seal a final 16 spot on Wednesday with a win over Copenhagen and a Porto loss or tie to Club Brugge. Tottenham,coached by Argentine Mauricio Pochettino, is second-place in Group E, one point behind Monaco, which it faces on Wednesday.
The odds of all four EPL teams advancing areexcellent. But the plight of the English coach continues.
Add in other British coaches, and there is still only 7 out of 20. Only 10 of 24 Championship teams have English managers. Compare: 15 of 20 MLS teams have US head coaches (no Englishmen, one from Wales). Not encouraging if you are an English coach.
All the English coaches have moved to the USA to coach Club and Academy teams… not a good sign for American youth development. For some reason we still think if a coach has an English accent he’s more knowledgeable and a better coach than an American. I think the modern game has passed by the typical English coach.
@jbapper – took the words right out of my mouth.
Late comment (Hawaii time, Mike): When Bradley was appointed, the ranters on 606 were outraged, but they interviewed Japp Stam and asked why so many Dutch players go on to be good, high-level managers in Europe. Stam said something like: they retire, do the courses, coach and then manage. After the interview, the 606ers went right back to complaining about the lack of English managers and why Giggs didn’t get the Swansea job. Bobby Robson (RIP) must be spinning in his grave!