In your more contemplative moments, during the afternoons that have been spent watching Gianfranco Zola clips on YouTube, do you ever find yourself wondering why Italians no longer succeed in English football?

Do you secretly pine for a return to the days when Juventus, Internazionale and Milan players happily joined Middlesbrough, Sheffield Wednesday and Derby County? If the answer to those questions is yes, stay calm. You are not alone.

As England prepare to face Italy on Tuesday , it is noticeable how unfamiliar the current crop of Italians are with domestic English football, a curious development given how prominent Italian players were when the internationalisation of the Premier League took off in the 90s.

The league has only become more cosmopolitan since then – a little too cosmopolitan if you ask some people – and of course players from across the globe have done well in England in recent years, yet the Italians who have come to this country have tended to struggle. The one with the highest profile is Mario Balotelli and although it was his assist that led to Sergio Agüero scoring the goal that won Manchester City the title in 2012, his future at Liverpool is uncertain, while Southampton’s Graziano Pellè has tailed off in front of goal after showing such promise at the start of the season.

Supporters of Nottingham Forest are unlikely to appreciate a mention of the first Italian to play in the Premier League. No list of foreign flops is complete without the inclusion of Andrea Silenzi, the striker who scored a grand total of two goals for Forest after joining them from Torino for £1.8m in 1995. Twenty ignominious appearances and 14 months later, he was back in Italy.

Yet it was a time when English clubs, infused with television cash, were starting to make their presence felt in the transfer market and tempt players from abroad. Eric Cantona was the best player in the league, Peter Schmeichel arguably the best goalkeeper in the world. Chelsea had done wonders for the wig trade in west London by signing Ruud Gullit from Sampdoria and Tony Yeboah was showing Elland Road how it can be beneficial to replace your right foot with a bazooka. Arsenal signed Dennis Bergkamp from Inter for £7.5m in the summer of 1995 and there was major excitement a few months later when Middlesbrough signed the pint-sized Brazilian genius, Juninho.

The trickle grew into a steady stream after Euro 96. Manchester United bought Jordi Cruyff, Ronnie Johnsen, Karel Poborsky and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Liverpool bought the Czech Republic winger, Patrick Berger, from Borussia Dortmund. Arsenal, who were soon to be managed by some French chap from who had just spent a few years in Japan, signed Patrick Vieira from Milan. Even West Ham were able to sign Florin Raducioiu, a star of the 1994 World Cup with Romania, from Espanyol and the Portuguese winger, Paulo Futre, from Milan.

Many of those players were journeymen or relatively unknown youngsters, though, and what really grabbed people’s attention was the arrival of a few Italian stars from Serie A, the most powerful league in Europe and one that had been on our screens every Sunday afternoon thanks to Channel 4’s Football Italia.

Ruud Gullit, who had replaced Glenn Hoddle as Chelsea’s player-manager, brought Juventus’s Gianluca Vialli and Lazio’s Roberto Di Matteo to Stamford Bridge, while the Premier League’s increased financial power was emphasised by Middlesbrough, who had only been in the top flight for a season, signing Fabrizio Ravanelli from Juventus. Middlesbrough fans have fond memories of Ravanelli’s debut hat-trick in a 3-3 draw with title-challenging Liverpool on the opening day of the 1996-97 season, his famous shirt-over-the-head celebration proving an instant hit with a lovestruck Riverside crowd.

And so it went on. Zola arrived at Chelsea from Parma in November 1996 and helped them win the FA Cup, scoring a mesmeric goal in their 3-0 victory over Wimbledon in the semi-final.

That was just one of many pieces of Zola magic that season. He twisted and then untwisted and then retwisted Julian Dicks’s blood on the way to scoring a superb goal against West Ham, he danced past Denis Irwin and embarrassed Schmeichel at his near post during a game against United and he stuck one in the top corner from the edge of the area as Chelsea fought back from 2-0 down to knock Liverpool out of the FA Cup.

Around the same time as Zola’s arrival, the skilful but temperamental Benito Carbone swapped San Siro for Hillsborough, joining Sheffield Wednesday from Inter. Paolo Di Canio left Milan for Celtic and soon linked up with Carbone at Wednesday for a season, before moving to West Ham. In the summer of 1997, Crystal Palace signed Attilio Lombardo from Juventus and Derby bought Milan’s Stefano Eranio and Fiorentina’s Francesco Baiano. Midway through the 1997-98 season, Tottenham signed Nicola Berti from Inter. Players were leaving top Italian sides for mid-ranking English ones.

Not everyone was a success. Marco Materazzi had one forgettable season at Everton, Massimo Taibi did not cover himself in glory at United and Blackburn blundered when they signed Corrado Grabbi in 2001, while Pierluigi Casiraghi’s time at Chelsea was cruelly cut short when he was forced into an early retirement after suffering a sickening knee injury during a game against West Ham in November 1998. Christian Panucci is also unlikely to trouble Chelsea’s Hall of Fame any time soon.

Otherwise, though, the Italian players were popular. Vialli won the FA Cup, the League Cup and the Cup Winners’ Cup and almost won the league during a two-and-a-half year spell as Chelsea’s manager, while Di Matteo scored after only 42 seconds in their FA Cup final win over Middlesbrough in 1997 and caretaker-managed them to Champions League glory in 2012. Eranio spent four good years at Derby and although Carbone was not exactly a team player, he was a joy to watch when he was in the mood. Ravanelli was relegated in his one season with Middlesbrough, but he scored freely for them.

Yet since Zola left Chelsea in 2003 and Di Canio followed him back to Italy in 2004, Italians in England have been underwhelming. Vincenzo Montella and Nicola Ventola performed adequately in brief cameos at Fulham and Crystal Palace respectively, while Newcastle fans enjoyed Davide Santon (the full-back is back at Inter now), yet the likes of Balotelli, David Di Michele, Alberto Aquilani, Alessandro Diamanti, Rolando Bianchi, Fabio Borini, Andrea Dossena, Dani Osvaldo, Massimo Maccarone, Emanuele Giaccherini, Marco Borriello and Antonio Nocerino have failed to get anywhere near their predecessors’ exploits, more frozen supermarket pizza than a fresh offering from the local Italian down the road.

What happened? Why did the better Italians stop coming to England? Top African, South American, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Dutch players have travelled well, but the flow from Italy has dried up.

Perspective is one possible explanation. The Premier League is tougher and more intense now than it was in the late 90s and early 00s, which could mean that it was not difficult for forward players to leave the strongest league in Europe and run rings around slower English defenders who had not been exposed to dealing with that level of technique, movement and tactical awareness on a regular basis.

One theory is that modern English sides, with the emphasis on pace and power, would not be able to accommodate the Italian playmakers who succeeded here when the Premier League was in its formative years. Di Canio, Zola and Carbone had teams built around them, were given the freedom to be individual and played through the middle, but at Chelsea, José Mourinho’s finest creative talent, Eden Hazard, plays on the left and the player he uses in the No10 role, Oscar, is used there because he has defensive and attacking qualities.

Juan Mata has recently found a place in the Manchester United side as Louis van Gaal’s false right winger, David Silva and Samir Nasri are used in floating wide roles by Manchester City and Mesut Özil has not always started through the middle for Arsenal. These players have had to adapt and there is a strong chance that the Zola we knew would not have fitted into the structured template that Mourinho first introduced at Chelsea in 2004. This is not to say that someone as gifted as Francesco Totti would not have had the talent to flourish in England – or that he ever should have left his beloved Roma – but would he have been able to play his natural game?

The counter-argument is that a player with Zola’s ability would have found a way to cope, that his natural skill would have demanded his inclusion in any side, while it is worth pointing out that Di Canio was never a luxury player. He was individualistic, but the solo goals were accompanied by tap-ins and headers.

Maybe what happened is that the Premier League grew up. Consider the ages of the first wave of Italians when they came to England: Zola was 30, Di Canio 28, Ravanelli 27, Vialli 32, Baiano 29, Eranio 30, Di Matteo 26, Casiraghi 29, Lombardo 30, Berti 30, Carbone 25. Ravanelli was surprisingly young when he left Turin for Teesside, despite his silver hair, and Di Matteo and Carbone were in their mid-20s, but mostly these were players who were approaching the twilight years of their career, who had fallen out of favour in Italy and had come to England to take advantage of the Premier League’s growing riches. The pace of the Premier League makes it harder for older foreigners to adapt now and clubs are mostly no longer in a position where they need to hand out one last pay packet.

Had he been nearing the end of his career 15 years ago, Alessandro Del Piero might have come to England, yet when he left Juventus in 2012, it was for Sydney FC. Now one of the great European strikers of the past 20 years plays for Delhi Dynamos and for less established leagues, someone of Del Piero’s prestige generates interest.

The perception that leaving Serie A harmed careers with the national side did not help either. Andrea Pirlo went close to signing for Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea a few years ago, but Balotelli stands out as the established Italian international in England.

Italy had great strength in depth at the time, but Zola’s experience may have served as a warning. Although Di Matteo went to the World Cup in 1998, Zola was left out by Cesare Maldini and the Italy squad that reached the final of Euro 2000 did not contain a single player from outside Serie A. They had great strength in depth, but Zola was still performing to a high standard, even though his crucial penalty miss against Germany at Euro 96 was held against him.

Gradually that is changing and players are starting to explore outside of Serie A again. PSG have Marco Verratti, Salvatore Sirigu and Thiago Motta, while Ciro Immobile, Balotelli and Alessio Cerci joined Dortmund, Liverpool and Atlético Madrid respectively last summer. Small steps, though – Balotelli remains erratic and Cerci joined Milan as part of the Fernando Torres deal in January.

Perhaps more will follow. Hopefully. Italians have provided English football with some moments to cherish down the years - Zola’s winner for Chelsea in the Cup Winners’ Cup final in 1998, Di Canio’s goal of the season volley against Wimbledon in 2000, Di Matteo’s record-breaking goal in the Cup final – and a resumption of the relationship would be most welcome.