If British players are overpriced, then British managers are overlooked. Aston Villa’s sacking of Tim Sherwood and hiring of Remi Garde as his replacement brings the number of British or Irish bosses in the Premier League down to eight, less than half, and follows Liverpool’s decision to replace Brendan Rodgers with Jurgen Klopp. It’s not a new trend, but it’s one that shows no sign of abating.

Managers, like players, shouldn’t be judged on their nationality, and perhaps the real question is why more than half of the highest level of English football feels the need to look elsewhere when hiring. But it’s surely disheartening to British former players or lower league managers, who see their path to the country’s biggest clubs blocked by more fashionable names from foreign climbs.

It may be an inevitable step as more Premier League clubs fall under foreign ownership, or, if not foreign ownership, then a new type of owner who wants greater control over their investment. Are owners from abroad more naturally inclined to look abroad, given that they themselves have no geographic ties to the club they own? Does the generation of owners removed from the old prototype, the local-boy, fan-of-the-club-made-good best evidenced today by Bill Kenwright at Everton, see a structure more commonplace on the continent but largely viewed with suspicion in Britain – a head coach and a director of football – as a way of obtaining the influence they desire, or at least protecting their resources from wasteful spending?

Both Villa and Liverpool are under American ownership, John W. Henry and Randy Lerner approaching the world of sport and business in an entirely different way from what was usually the case in English football. Not necessarily better, or worse, just different. For Henry and Lerner, and the underlings who run the club day-to-day in accordance with the structure implemented by the owner, what has gone before, the manner in which their predecessors operated, matters little. Indeed, if their way worked, the clubs wouldn’t have been up for sale in the first place.

Klopp was immediately linked with the Liverpool vacancy when Rodgers was sacked in October, and indeed a number of supporters hoped he’d replace Rodgers the moment it was confirmed he was leaving Borussia Dortmund. Other names appeared on the bookmakers’ shortlist, but they were long, long odds compared to the German. It may never be known to whom Liverpool would have turned if they couldn’t get Klopp; perhaps they’d been burned on British managers by their experiences with Rodgers. Perhaps they’d have surprised us all and turned to a Garry Monk or an Eddie Howe.

Villa decided against a British manager, Monk, Howe or even David Moyes, at Real Sociedad. There’s been no return for Alan Curbishley, little involvement for Glenn Hoddle. Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher prefer commentary to coaching. If Sunderland had been unable to hire Sam Allardyce, would they have gone British to replace Dick Advocaat – Sean Dyche for example, or Steve Clarke?

We’ll never know, but it seems certain that if Jose Mourinho does get the push at Chelsea, his successor will be non-British or Irish. There are no credible candidates from the Home Nations, and that’s another issue that needs addressing. But as seen in Huddersfield’s pick of David Wagner, a former United States international who worked with Klopp at Dortmund, to replace Chris Powell, the trend is creeping into the Championship and beyond. Where next for the British or Irish manager?