We need more British bosses, says Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho

Portuguese hits out at high number of foreign managers in Premier League

Mourinho has questioned the number of foreign managers in the UK, admitting he was part of the problem

Jose Mourinho has criticised the current trend for appointing foreign managers in the Premier League and called for British coaches to be given more opportunities.

The Chelsea manager voiced his opinion just a few days after Cardiff City's appointment of the Norwegian, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, brought the number of top-division managers born outside Britain or Ireland up to nine.

While Mourinho was not specifically speaking about Solskjaer and acknowledged the statement also applies to himself, the Portuguese does not think those managers coming in are necessarily superior to British coaches.

West Bromwich could be the next Premier League club to appoint a foreign manager with Spaniard Jose Luis Mendilibar among those under consideration to succeed the Scot Steve Clarke, who was sacked last month following a defeat at Cardiff which left the club two points off the relegation zone.

Mourinho said: "In this moment in the Premier League – and I'm speaking against myself – I disagree with so many foreign coaches in this country. I don't see a reason for that because I don't feel the English managers are in any point behind the foreign ones.

"I have to say, the ones that are coming, and I can analyse one by one, and all of them are good coaches and good people and they try to do good jobs for them and for their clubs. So I'm not saying these people are not top people or people that don't deserve to be here the same way I deserve to be here.

''I just feel sorry that a football country like England that is the country of so many managers, they're not getting enough jobs in this country. At the end of the day, influence from abroad is good, you can learn the differences from other cultures, but I think the main culture has to be always the English or in this case the British culture."

Mourinho does feel that more British coaches should go abroad to develop in such circumstances, and praised Steve McClaren for that. Chelsea travel to the former England manager's Derby County in the FA Cup third round today.

"If you ask me, the first thing that comes to my memory about Steve is not being the England manager but being a champion in Holland. So I think he did well... I think in this country people shouldn't be afraid to be a bit adventurous like other coaches from other nationalities are. Football is the same everywhere: 11 against 11; one ball; two goals."