Talking Point: Sam Allardyce should renew his calls for a Rooney-type rule to help English managers

Bournemouth at the bottom, Crystal Palace next-to-bottom.

South Coast rivals and arch enemies propping up the rest. Good news eh?

Not really, not if you swap the parochial for the bigger picture.

It's bad news, very bad news indeed as English football sleepwalks towards a nightmare scenario - not a single English manager in the Premier League.

It could happen if Eddie Howe's Bournemouth, Alan Pardew's Crystal Palace and and Sean Dyche's Burnley go down.

They are currently the only permanent English managers left in the top flight (Mike Phelan at Hull is caretaker).

It gets worse. Albion, in Chris Hughton, have the only English manager among the top seven clubs in the Championship.

Maybe it's not coincidence. Perhaps Englishmen are not in charge of leading clubs because they are not good enough, or at least not as good as foreign counterparts.

Or maybe they are just not being given enough of a chance.

Howe and Dyche are both punching well above their weight with their teams.

Dyche made some interesting observations recently about the perception of foreign coaches. They are regarded, he said, as being a "bit more snazzy".

Claudio Ranieri plays 4-4-2 at Leicester and is hailed as a genius. He introduces pizza rewards for wins, Pep Guardiola bans them at Manchester City.

It makes headlines, enhancing Guardiola's reputation as a master innovator.

The likes of Dyche and Sam Allardyce have been working this way for years. Clubs are crammed with dieticians, sports scientists, analysts, every conceivable area of expertise that might give them an edge.

Remember the subs warming up on bikes when 'Big Sam' was Bolton manager? He was ahead of his time in the concept of player conditioning.

Our domestic game should not become too Brexit-like. Foreign managers, coaches and players have enriched it enormously but there needs to be balance.

It would be a sorry state of affairs if we end up without one English manager in the Premier League.

The way to redress the balance is for them to at least be given a chance to be successful.

Allardyce can lead the crusade now that he has landed the top job.

He should use his power and influence as England boss to renew a call he made at the end of last year while in charge of Sunderland.

Allardyce wanted an adaptation of the NFL's 'Rooney Rule' in America, which ensures at least one black or ethnic minority candidate is interviewed for every head coaching vacancy.

He said: "We need to protect the position of our own highly qualified coaches who are not even getting an interview now".

Requiring clubs to consider an English contender for every position, not just British as Allardyce suggested, would at least give them an opportunity to state their case and change the perceptions Dyche spoke about.

The short cut is for English managers already in jobs to be successful.

For Howe's Bournemouth and Pardew's Palace to climb, Dyche's Burnley to build on their eyecatching win over Liverpool.

For Hughton's Albion to be promoted and, most of all, Allardyce's England to thrive in tournaments.

If Big Sam fails it will give club owners even more ammunition to look abroad for their next appointment.