The Lack of Black Managers in England Should be a Major Concern, Not Just the Appointment of a German Boss: John Barnes on the Thomas Tuchel Debate

Tuchel was recently appointed as the new manager of the England national football team. This comes after his successful stints with top clubs like Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, and Bayern Munich, where he won the Champions League and multiple domestic titles.

While a large number of people have been supportive of Tuchel’s appointment, there have been plenty also who have insisted that the England team should not have a German manager, and that English bosses aren’t getting enough opportunities to prove themselves at the top level.

England great John Barnes speaks out

John Barnes represented England on 79 occasions, before moving into management with Celtic, Jamaica and Tranmere Rovers.

The Liverpool and Three Lions great has long insisted that black managers do not get enough opportunities in English football, and are not given as much time to succeed when they are handed managerial jobs.

Assessing the debate over Tuchel’s appointment, he questions why there’s not the same energy spent discussing the lack of opportunities given to black managers.

“The situation is this: I don't believe that there's an English manager who's been given enough time or respect or an opportunity to manage at the highest level,” he said.

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“You would assume that the next England manager is someone who would have been successful at a top club.

“Gareth Southgate was an anomaly because he came from the under 21s impressed and got the job full-time. There wasn’t an outstanding candidate at the time and the FA gave him the job.

“During the recruitment process, you would have thought that the FA would have liked to have considered a successful English manager managing in the Premier League, but there weren’t any because there are no English managers who are given that opportunity.

“Are we saying that English managers aren’t good enough? Or are we saying that football isn't giving English managers an opportunity at the highest level for those managers to become good enough?

“There’s another demographic of managers who haven’t been given those opportunities, black managers. Why isn’t anybody asking those questions?

“Why are we asking the questions about the England manager and saying it’s a disgrace that English managers aren’t being given an opportunity, when there are lots of black managers who aren’t given opportunities?

“Why are no black managers being given an opportunity even lower down the football pyramid? Why are there no black managers being given a chance at any level?

“In League One and League Two, more than 90 per cent of the managers are English. They may not get opportunities to manage at the highest level, they may not even have been that successful in previous roles, but they’re getting the chance to show what they can do, whereas black managers don’t even get that opportunity.

“It seems to me that the lack of black managers isn’t a concern in this country, but the fact that England can appoint a German manager is a major concern.

“When white managers moan about the decision to appoint Tuchel, then that’s a problem, but black managers aren’t being given a chance at all.”

Damning statistics

Barnes is keen to clarify that he does support the suggestions that English managers aren’t being given enough opportunities, but he wants the debate to be wider than just that.

“The England manager situation has nothing to do with black managers – the complaints are about white English managers not getting opportunities, which is something that I agree with,” he said, speaking via Lucky Block.

“It’s a fact: English managers are not getting chances. That’s down to the perception that English managers are inferior to their foreign colleagues. The perception is the major problem here, but if we’re talking about that as a problem, then I want us to start talking about the perception of black managers because it’s a very similar situation.

“The perception of black managers is that they're not good enough. The perception of white English managers is that they're not good enough, but we seem to want to address that, and a lot of people are now talking about it. Everyone’s saying it's a disgrace. But this has been going on for how many years?

“In football, an industry where there are more than 45 per cent black players, how many black managers are there? I will really get involved in this conversation when we start to look at it in a fair manner that addresses the concerns of black managers too.

“People are only interested in it now because it’s affecting white English managers. They weren’t interested with a disenfranchised group who are being neglected, being marginalised. No-one cares about them, but now we have to care about these English managers?

“When you ask other people and other pundits, they'll say ‘Maybe they're not good enough.’

"When those same people say that about English managers or coaches, they then say ‘Let’s create an environment to make them better’, be it coaching in the FA, coming up with a coaching programme, and they get back on the management merry-go-round again.

“Ninety nine per cent of these guys are being given jobs in League One and League Two. If the black ones aren’t good enough, why not give them jobs in League One and League Two, just like the white English managers who aren’t good enough?

“We’re really not interested, and that’s the situation, so let’s not pretend. October, Black History Month, comes along, and every now and again they discuss black managers: ‘We’ll see what happens until next October and we’ll discuss it again’. Let's hope that the English managers don't have that problem.”