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Sean Dyche thinks that English football managers get a hard time.

He says that if he was foreign he'd be hailed as a genius. Now I am actually a fan of Dyche, I like the values he instills into his teams, I like what he has done on a fairly limited budget but I don't know many foreign coaches who have been called a genius who's sole title is the Championship (having got relegated the season before).

I may not be willing to say
 this to his face though...

He says he was criticised for playing a four four two formation with Burnley in the Premier League only for Claudio Ranieri to be lauded for his approach with the same system just a year later.

But here is a thought for Sean Dyche. His Burnley side that year were relegation favourites, just like Leicester the season after. Burnley were relegated, Leicester won the league by ten points. Dyche was unable to find a system that got the results needed to survive, while Ranieri was able to extract incredible performances from previously limited footballers to create history. Ranieri was also able to adapt their strategy as Leicester became harder to beat as the season went on. So there is certainly more to it than Dyche claims, don't you think?

When I read interviews with English coaches who have spent time abroad, I often see the same thing said. The other nations think we are arrogant! And this from a young English manager does little to dispel the myth.

When you look at the current crop of young coaches coming through it's no wonder there is a majority of foreign coaches at the top level of English football. There was a real struggle to find viable English candidates for the national team manager's job. Eddie Howe has done an excellent job, producing excellent football with Bournemouth but who else is there that really strikes you as a potential world class manager? Lower down the divisions, there are promising young coaches, but it is up to them to prove themselves.

Ajax's 'De Toekomst' which means 'The Future'.
An open access facility.

Something that has summed it up is the recent ventures abroad from British coaches ending in failure. Both Moyes (who also performed miserably when given arguably the biggest job in football) and Gary Neville were both sacked within a year of being appointed at Real Sociedad and Valencia. The Premier League is hyped up as the most challenging league in the world but when tested abroad the last English manager to have any success is the late Sir Bobby Robson nearly twenty years ago. We have to do more to raise our standards.

It is however positive to see coaches taking the plunge and working abroad in many different roles. For English coaches to become more rounded and adaptable it is vital that they pick up these experiences. Hopefully it can become the norm rather than simply an exception.

I know that one of my ambitions is to work abroad, whether that be in senior football or developing
young players. In fact, next month I am fortunate enough to be visiting one of the best youth systems in the world at De Toekomst, Ajax's famous academy set up. You can expect a blog on that trip!

The open nature of academies across Europe is in stark contrast to academies in England. Everything is top secret. You have to have some form of identification or permission to get in to places. Rather than share ideas, you get the feeling that clubs are more worried about other clubs gaining an edge on them. While you can understand it to a certain degree, particularly from a financial view, it is still disappointing that this is the attitude we have.

This may be the next step for us as a nation in terms of developing better players and coaches! We have been going in the right direction (Youth Award, change in structure of coach education, England DNA) but this would enhance what is already a positive process.