It is 16 years now since the Football Association had the temerity to appoint its first foreign England manager, namely Sven-Goran Eriksson, and it can be enlightening to look back at the coverage of the time and remind yourself how many people seemed to think it was the end of civilisation as we knew it.

The Daily Mail is a good place to start when it comes to the froth of moral indignation that greeted the Swede. “England’s humiliation knows no end. In their trendy eagerness to appoint a designer foreigner, did the FA pause for so much as a moment to consider the depth of this insult to our national pride? We sell our birthright down the fjord to a nation of seven million skiers and hammer-throwers who spend half their year living in total darkness.”

Look through the cuttings and you will find Gordon Taylor, that bastion of forward thinking at the Professional Footballers’ Association, accusing the FA of “betraying their heritage” and John Barnwell, of the League Managers Association, describing the appointment as “an insult” to his members. “The nation which gave the game of football to the world has been forced to put a foreign coach in charge of its national team for the first time,” the editorial in the Sun began. “What a climbdown. What a humiliation. What a terrible, pathetic, self-inflicted indictment. What an awful mess.”

On Eriksson’s first day in charge, he arrived at the FA’s then headquarters in Soho Square to be greeted by an ex-policeman in a John Bull outfit carrying a placard which read: “Hang your head in shame. We all wanted Terry Venables.”

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What you won’t find is too many people pointing out that when Sweden appointed an English manager, George Raynor, he led them to the 1958 World Cup final. Raynor was also in charge when Sweden won gold at the 1948 Olympics, bronze four years later and finished third at the 1950 World Cup. He ended up receiving a knighthood from the king of Sweden. Yet Raynor would never have had the job if the Swedish FA went by the same criteria that its English counterpart has put in place for its latest headhunting operation. He had never managed in the country before, he did not know the players, and if that applied to the search for Sam Allardyce’s successor the chances are his application would find its way into the nearest shredder.

It smacks of shortsightedness and you would hope the relevant people might know better given that, four years ago, the FA was informed Pep Guardiola might be open to the idea of taking England to that summer’s European Championship and was not, perhaps, as worn down by his experiences at Barcelona as claimed. Guardiola had decided to leave the Camp Nou but the FA preferred to go with an Englishman rather than the man credited with assembling possibly the most beautifully constructed club side in history.

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Roy Hodgson was 10th in the Premier League with West Bromwich Albion and, given what we know now, the FA’s lack of curiosity is staggering. The initial contact from Guardiola’s camp did not even merit a follow-up conversation and England plodded on: Joe Hart gurning at Andrea Pirlo, a six-day World Cup, three cuddly lions named Kit, Leo and Cee and a manager who thought his tallest striker should take corners, rather than try to head them.

True, in an ideal world the FA would take its pick from the various English candidates or, failing that, one of the managers who are considered “naturalised”, effectively meaning Arsène Wenger or Brendan Rodgers, in that they have spent so long working in the country.

The point, though, is that the FA should not be handcuffed to such an arrangement. “We want someone who has an understanding of English football,” Greg Clarke, the chairman, says. “If you haven’t managed in the Premier League, you really don’t know your players.” But what happens, say, if the FA finds out this will be Diego Simeone’s last season at Atlético Madrid and something could be arranged next summer? There is no rush and it would surely be a lot easier getting someone at the end of the season.

In which case, should the FA not broaden its horizons? Luis Enrique, the man who won the treble at Barcelona, is out of contract next summer (though his club intend to address that early next year). Is Thomas Tuchel, Jürgen Klopp’s successor at Borussia Dortmund, not one to keep an eye on? Why, in the year 2016, narrow down the options to exclude foreign appointments, when nobody can be sure who might become available over the coming months?

Not everyone will like the suggestion but the list of English candidates feels pretty mundane and, when it comes to Wenger, it is probably worth bearing in mind John Cross’s biography of the Arsenal manager has a chapter named “Flirting” because of his habit of fluttering his eyelashes in the direction of potential employers. Invariably, it ends up going nowhere.

Eddie Howe, perhaps the best of the English options, has many qualities but it would be some leap from Bournemouth, especially when his team could conceivably be pulled into the relegation quicksands in the coming months. Gareth Southgate has four games to put down a marker as caretaker manager, but is he really the man to remove England’s insecurities and stop the players turning up at World Cups and European Championships with the startled appearance of a first-time driver on Hardknott Pass?

Southgate admitted only three weeks ago: “It wasn’t something I think I’ve got the experience for,” and if there was a genuinely compelling case for Steve Bruce, the only other manager interviewed before Sam Allardyce’s appointment, he would already have been offered the job. There is, in short, no outstanding English candidate; if there was, Allardyce would never have been appointed in the first place.

That is not to ignore the fact the FA probably feels a sense of duty to promote its own coaches but it wasn’t exactly a rip-roaring success with Allardyce and Hodgson and, if something better comes along from elsewhere, does anyone seriously imagine the players, operating under Guardiola, Klopp, José Mourinho, Claudio Ranieri et al at club level, would call a mutiny?

It is coming up to a year since England’s starting lineup featured a player, Jonjo Shelvey, whose club manager at the time, Garry Monk of Swansea, was English. Before that, it was Jack Butland in August 2012, during Lee Clark’s tenure at Birmingham City. It hasn’t happened in a tournament since Jermain Defoe (Tottenham) and David James (Portsmouth) were part of the England team overwhelmed by Germany in the 2010 World Cup – and in James’s case, Steve Cotterill had been appointed at Fratton Park only 10 days earlier. The culture of the Premier League means England’s players are far more accustomed to dealing with overseas managers than ones from their own country.

Several England players tried to make that point when they were consulted in the last selection process and they could probably be forgiven for wondering whether it was a waste of time given that, ultimately, they were ignored.

None nominated, or talked up, Allardyce for the job. They did not oppose the idea, either, but pointed out they would actively prefer an overseas manager, which was the politest way possible of making it clear they were unenthused, to say the least, about the English names on the betting-shop chalkboards. Lars Lagerback was put forward as one option because of his ability to do something that has been beyond a succession of England managers: coax the most out of his players. Yet if the FA could not be bothered to pick up the telephone to Guardiola there was absolutely no chance the manager of Iceland was getting a call.

He probably won’t this time, either, and the reports about Ralf Rangnick, currently sporting director of RB Leipzig, seem strange given that Clarke has made it clear he does not want to hire a foreign manager unless it is someone who already knows the players.

Perhaps he remembers Eriksson’s first press conference and the Swede being asked if he could name Leicester’s goalkeeper or Sunderland’s left-back and failing on both counts. Then again, Roberto Mancini was also asked to identify Stoke’s right-back when he took over at Manchester City, new to the country, and nailed it. The best managers learn quickly and, as Eriksson used to say, if you are the England manager and don’t win games you will always be crucified, no matter where you are from.

Roof not falling in on our game yet

It has been a difficult week, to say the least, for the image of English football but with all due respect to my colleagues at the Daily Telegraph there has not actually been anything to convince me the game is in the kind of disrepair that some people would like us to believe.

That isn’t to trivialise the situation but the time to worry the roof might be falling in will come if anyone finds widespread evidence of match-fixing, players betting on themselves to lose (then making sure that happens) or referees who might just award a penalty, or disallow an opposition goal, if the money is right.

Nobody should be complacent and the BBC’s Inside Out documentary last week, recounting the story of Anderlecht paying a Spanish referee to ensure they beat Nottingham Forest in the 1984 Uefa Cup semi-final, does make you wonder how many cases have been undetected since.

My mind also goes back to an audience with one former England manager and listening to him complaining that one of the world’s leading referees was as crooked as they come.

Never, though, can I recall any rumours about the referees in England, and after the last week I suppose that is one thing to be grateful about in comparison to, say, the various scandals in Italy. You might remember that little sketch involving Hugh Dennis on Mock the Week. “And for those who missed them earlier, here are next week’s Italian football results.”.

Stiff price to pay for 67 days’ work

One last thing about the man currently topping up his tan at Big Sam’s Villa in Costa Blanca: Sam Allardyce cost £2m in compensation from Sunderland (they wanted £10m) when he became England manager on 22 July and pocketed an undisclosed figure, thought to be around £1m, in one of those payoffs that do not seem to make any sense whatsoever.

Throw in wages and that’s a serious hit the FA has taken in his 67 days in the job: around £3.55m in total, or £53,000 a day.

You might remember a previous article in this column about the FA bumping up its £125,000 annual funding of Kick it Out with an extra £40,000 for costs. All very welcome but it puts everything in context when the most ignominious reign of any England manager, not even taking in a single Wembley match, can amount to 21 years of what goes towards keeping the sport’s most prominent anti‑racism group ticking over.

@DTguardian