Jason Burt: The rise and rise of the homegrown manager

Days of the big-name appointment seem numbered as cash-conscious clubs are forced into looking on their own doorstep

Call it the Vialli factor. Or, more optimistically, the Moyes effect. But, whatever label is applied to the recent trend, the era of the "personality appointment" to manage a football club appears to be ending. Ruud Gullit may want to take over at Fulham when Jean Tigana departs this summer, but the likelihood is that the job will go to someone like Alan Pardew, George Burley or, most probably, Mick McCarthy.

The financial chill has undoubtedly played its part. As a result, perhaps, there is an acknowledgement among chairmen that they need to show more patience or – as Tottenham Hotspur's director of football, David Pleat, puts it – "take the count-to-10-before-you-make-a-decision approach". Indeed, this season has seen far fewer sackings than ever before – just one in the Premiership, Peter Reid at Sunderland, compared to eight the previous year, and the total across the divisions is down 54 per cent.

Contrast the fortunes of Watford and Everton. Gianluca Vialli took over at the former to provide a quick fix back to the top, and his tenure was a disaster for which the First Division club are paying a heavy price. Reaching for the stars in such a reckless manner means they are facing a writ for £2m. Sacked with two years left on his contract, Vialli wants £1.6m in unpaid salary plus damages for the loss of opportunity to earn huge bonuses. The contract also reveals a range of lavish benefits, from a £1,000-a-month rental allowance to free petrol.

Compare this with the experience at Everton of David Moyes, a manager brought in from Preston North End. Bill Kenwright, Everton's deputy chairman, is effusive in his praise and is clear in his belief that Moyes is unique. "When the crunch came to appoint a new manager it was not a case of 'Shall we go for a big-time manager or a lower-division manager?' but who was the right man," Kenwright says. "With David there is a certainty that everything matters. The first time we met he said the word 'win' seven times in his first sentence."

However, Kenwright adds: "The way football is evolving, maybe there is a need to look more at youth and the lower divisions. I think there are other managers out there like David." Micky Adams at Leicester City, Gary Megson at West Bromwich Albion, Ian Dowie at Oldham Athletic and Paul Jewell at Wigan Athletic are names he reels off.

"There do seem to be more unsung heroes around. The one thing these guys all have in common is that there is a real gratitude that they are part of this great game. They have all paid their dues." Now the type of manager in the ascendancy is Steve McClaren, Gordon Strachan and, of course, Charlton's Alan Curbishley.

It is a view that Pleat concurs with. Having started his own career at Nuneaton Borough, he says: "I get most annoyed when managers think they can manage just because they worked with a good manager. They trade on the stamp that they played under good managers.

"If you look at Arsène Wenger, Gérard Houllier, Alex Ferguson, none of them were top players. The only common thread is that they are all intelligent people." The inference being, of course, that a generation of Fergusons have, in recent years, been shouldered aside.

"People got on the roundabout and were thrown off before it had made one revolution," Pleat says. "The big change was that clubs started to be run by chairmen who were brought in for monetary reasons, and felt they had to make big-name appointments. The days of the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker being the chairmen, local men, have gone, but what they did have was a greater affinity with the club, and that helped the manager."

Now things have changed again, although Pleat claims this has more to do with clubs taking a realistic approach rather than any financial constraints. "They are being more circumspect before they change managers, asking the question: 'Is there anyone better out there than the guy we have got?' " he contends.

Over at the League Managers' Association, the chief executive, John Barnwell, agrees that finally there is patience. "Part of the positive from the financial situation is that clubs are giving young managers a chance," he says. "We are 54 per cent down in terms of managers being sacked. That's the lowest percentage ever. Contracts are better and clubs are giving the managers longer, and that must improve the game."

Barnwell wants to see more appointments like Moyes, and agrees with Pleat that football has, for years, suffered from "chairmen with different agendas and share prices to protect" who felt they had to appoint a big name. "Historically, managers became managers," Barnwell says. "They finished their playing careers, went into the lower leagues and worked their way up through trial and error."

For him, the best examples of this are Pleat, Ron Atkinson at Kettering Town, Jim Smith at Colchester United and Howard Wilkinson at Boston United. He contrasts their careers with the lack of success endured by John Barnes at Celtic, Chris Waddle at Burnley and Mark Hateley at Hull City, though he says: "What happened to them does not mean they did not have the potential to be good managers."

The appointment of Sven Goran Eriksson as England's coach spurred his organisation into action. "When Adam Crozier [the former chief executive of the Football Association] made that remark when he appointed a foreign coach, that there was no one capable in this country, that was an insult," Barnwell says. "We embrace the foreign managers. Arsène Wenger and Gérard Houllier are top- drawer and would be great managers wherever they worked. But the national team is different. International football is about pitting your best against another country's best, and that includes managers as well as players."

So the LMA, with the Professional Footballers' Association, devised a course, run at the Warwick Business School, to provide training and support. "I am not against foreign sportsmen coming, or foreign managers. But a lot of the imports are not good enough." Among the course's first intake are Mark Hughes, Brian Laws and Stuart Gray. "We cannot dictate to clubs who they can employ but we can identify the gifted ones," Barnwell says.

Howard Wilkinson, when he was the FA's technical director, said he wanted to see British managers at Barcelona and Milan. That may never happen but, for the first time in years, it is not just a pipe dream.