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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Angela Chilling" data-source="post: 423977" data-attributes="member: 33">Until Arsenal appointed Arsene Wenger, foreign managers were generally unsuccessful in the Premier League. The first one I can recall, in what was then the First Division, was Jozef Venglos at Aston Villa and who remembers him now? Then there was Ossie Ardilles at Spurs whose managerial career was unremarkable and also forgotten. The general view at the time was that English football was particularly unique in our style of play so foreign managers would always fail. That was English exceptionalist nonsense but was a widely held view in the 1980s. Against that backdrop, it was inconceivable that Manchester United would appoint a manager from outside of the British Isles.Also, in the 1980s the Football League limited the number of foreign players who could play for a club. Initially, I think it was to just 3 players so any foreign manager would have had to succeed with using English players which would have made it a less attractive prospect for them.</blockquote>