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.
