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Are English managers rubbish? Last year, before the season ended, I looked at who was likely to lose their job as manager, and included Sean Dyche, Mauricio Pochettino, and Roy Hodgson among those likely to get fired before the start of the season. They were. Since then Erik Ten Hag, Steve Cooper, Russell Martin, Julien Lopetegui and Gary O’Neil have also bit the bullet. Which means there are only two English managers in the Premier League, Eddie Howe and Graham Potter. The straightforward argument is that English managers must be rubbish, in fact UK managers must be rubbish as there are few of them either but the Scots have had their successes, but even that seems to be well in the past. Will we see Chris Wilder back in the Premier League? Today I will look at the English ones as, with the quirk of history determining, uniquely throughout the world, that four teams play from the UK and the English league is by far the best of those. Next season, if Sheffield United get through the playoffs, (and they have never won a playoff before) two English managers are likely to come up, Chris Wilder with Sheffield and Scott Parker with Burnley. Providing, of course, that the owners don’t decide they need new managers for the Premier League. Leaving a possible four out of twenty. Three English managers to go? Probably Burnley and Sheffield United will struggle and Graham Potter has not exactly pulled up trees with West Ham meaning that all three of them may go before the end of next season. Eddie Howe also, but only if he leaves the Premier League to go abroad, a scenario that seems unlikely given the standing of English managers. Or if Newcastle have a disastrous run of points lost. Graham Potter - a candidate for the sack? And that seems to be the logical choice. You will win nothing with English managers. Not the Premier League or the Champions League since they were both inaugurated in the 90’s. Even the FA Cup or League Cup have been dominated, since the Premier League era, by non-English managers. It is surely a damning statistic that while English players are near the top of the tree, English managers are near the bottom. Off the top of my head, only Graham Potter and Frank Lampard has had a chance at a top English team in recent years, but neither was given very long, nor were they successful. Just two top managers? We have four Spanish, Guardiola, Iraola, Emery and our own Arteta. Four Portuguese, Amorim, Silva, De Santo and Periera. 3 German, Farke of Leeds, Glasner and Hurzelar. Maresca, Italian , Frank, Denmark, Postecoglou, Australia, Slot, Dutch, and David Moyes a Scottish outlier. And a good evening to you, Unai Emery Only Guardiola and Emery could be regarded as true top managers at this juncture, having garnered many trophies apiece. That is the Premier League as we head into 2025/26. Will any of the above list be gone before next season or soon after? Postecoglou and Amorim seem to be under the most pressure with even winning the Europa League no guarantee of safety but neither are English. Only two sort of top English managers? What does that leave us with? Only Eddie Howe and Gareth Southgate can be rated in any way highly. Top English players have fared disastrously, mostly, as managers in recent years, the Nevilles, Gerrard, Rooney, and Lampard all tried and failed. Michael Carrick is midtable with Middlesbrough in the Championship and I can’t see a top team snapping him up. It all looks disastrous for emerging English talent. Gareth Southgate is the best England manager of recent times Is it perhaps really down to one factor, that the English are terrible at learning languages? With a multi-language squad to navigate, can barking at players in English be effective? Roy Hodgson famously learned many languages and managed across several countries but the only other top ones in fairly recent times, Bobby Robson and Terry Venables didn’t really speak anything other than English. All successful Premier League managers seem to have mastered English sufficiently to be able to handle most tasks without interpreters eventually. At least the foreign managers try to learn English Fun was made of Unai Emery when at Arsenal but his English has improved, and, to his credit, he always went into interviews alone and bravely tried to comprehend the English interviewers often highly idiomatic questions. He has done wonders at Villa after Gerrard nearly brought them to relegation. Eddie Howe - the only English Premier League manager of any substance? We are left with Eddie Howe, in truth. He is the only benchmark we have for English managers. As far as I can find out, he only speaks English, so he relies on his players speaking English or using them or a dedicated interpreter when a player arrives without English. Would he get a chance at a top club? I would say no. I can’t imagine Arsenal fans would be terribly happy if he got the Arsenal job. Tottenham, Man Utd or Chelsea? I am not sure but I expect the owners would prefer a proven winner. Which means he has to do it at Newcastle. I don’t think he will. That may be a step too far. The last time he got in the Champions League Newcastle went backwards. And none coming through? It seems that the dearth of English managers will continue. They first need to be given a chance, and if they get that chance, they must succeed and quickly. Our last English manager was Bruce Rioch who was widely regarded as a disaster although he didn’t do too badly. I can’t see an English manager coming to the Emirates any time soon mostly because I cannot think of a contender. Unless Scott Parker burns the opposition at Burnley To sum up, there are almost no English managers at the top level. There are no obvious contenders coming through. Ergo, we will not see a return to most Premier League managers being English. We may not see another Aussie if Mr Postecoglou gets the boot. Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Italian, Scandinavian and French, yes. English? Sorry we don’t want you. And that is a sad state of affairs, that there are few English role models to aspire to. It has been a downward spiral that doesn’t seem to be stopping. English managers may not really be rubbish but we have no way of finding out one way or the other. Unless someone out there has the answer.