In their desperation, football chairmen have been willing to appoint bung-takers, nepotists and alcoholics in return for decent results. They would recruit a two-headed Martian if they thought he could lift their team up the table while helping to peddle shirts in the Far East.

Which is why it has always been worth questioning whether institutional racism does exist in football, as Paul Ince, among others, has implied, and whether it is the cause of the scarcity of black managers. It would be naive in the extreme to think that there are not pockets of prejudice in boardrooms, but would most clubs turn away a black candidate if they thought he would be successful? Is it the clubs who have been racist or have the black candidates simply assumed that they are and therefore not applied in any significant numbers, or with any confidence?

All of these issues will be asked of the new Blackburn Rovers manager when he is presented at Ewood Park today in what has variously been described as historic, ground-breaking and “a seminal moment for football in this country”. But the danger in concentrating on his colour is that we will miss other significant areas for discussion, such as he is English, the question of whether he is good enough and his lack of qualifications, in a formal sense at least.

We have had black managers in the top flight before, which makes you wonder how historic it is to have a first black Briton, but successful Englishmen are more rare than worthy successors to Fred Perry. Harry Redknapp and Alan Curbishley were the only English managers to finish in the top ten of the Barclays Premier League last season and neither can be regarded as the future. So if Ince is trying to break ground for any minority, perhaps it is on behalf of the up-and-coming English coach who is not used to being put in charge of a thriving Premier League club - and is light years away from being given the keys to a top-four machine.

Times Archive, 1982: Black is bountiful for young England

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Understanding the reasons for the failure to produce good coaches raises all sorts of difficult questions, which is why the football authorities - the FA, the Premier League and the League Managers Association (LMA) - would prefer everyone to concentrate on the feel-good aspect of Ince's appointment. They are less keen to draw attention to the notion that his advance goes against everything that they have been trying to set in place to improve standards.

Principal among those new rules has been the insistence on a Uefa Pro Licence to manage in the Premier League - a regulation that should be taken out and thrown in the rubbish along with the fit-and-proper persons test for club owners. Anything Goes is not just a Cole Porter musical, but a way of life in the Premier League.

Ince not only lacks all qualifications, but has shown little interest in taking them. He started the B licence course, the lowest rung for former professional players, but did not finish it. He also started the LMA's Certificate of Applied Management for Football, but left Warwick Business School for a golf course in Portugal. He was expected to observe a course in Wales last week, but was not seen there, either.

Now he has been given two years to start his Pro Licence, by which time he will either have proved to be a successful Blackburn manager or not, in which case the qualifications may be irrelevant. Which is about how he seems to regard them, in any case. And, you may ask, why should he bother going back to the classroom when he has had successful spells at Macclesfield Town and Milton Keynes Dons? Why should bureaucracy stand in his way if he is willing to get his hands dirty?

It is an argument that may make sense case by case, but not when set against the big picture, which shows that England is the only leading European country that does not take these qualifications seriously and also happens to be the only leading European country that does not come close to punching its weight in producing coaches. No one with a brain thinks that is a coincidence.

It is, as Andy Roxburgh, Uefa's technical director, explained yesterday, a question of culture rather than paperwork. “We are trying to build an image of the coaching profession like it is in other countries,” he said. “Historically, in England, it is not viewed as a profession.” We are, as Fabio Capello once observed, a country in which learners are thrown the keys to the Ferrari.

On the Continent, standing on the touchline is something to aspire to, even at youth level. In England, it is something that an old pro falls into when his knees have packed up, complete with sheepskin coat. We call him a manager, in Europe they call him a coach. It is a significant distinction.

We throw managers in at the deep end and see if they sink or swim and, having been picked ahead of better-qualified candidates, Ince must stay afloat. His success in keeping Macclesfield in the Football League and then winning the Coca-Cola League Two title with MK Dons suggests undoubted promise, but the Premier League is a massive jump up, even for a man with his colossal self-belief.

If it turns out that he has been overpromoted, we will not be talking about an historic moment or Ince as the first black Briton to manage in the Premier League. He will just be another Englishman who could not cut it. And we have seen plenty.

A mountain of cash and Wesley Sneijder is a sum that Manchester United may be willing to accept for Cristiano Ronaldo. Given the Dutchman’s spirited performances at Euro 2008, it may not prove a bad deal, but Ronaldo’s departure will still be a blow to all our egos.

We think we have the best league in the world and by many measures we do, but how often do we see one of the world’s best attackers at their peak in the Premier League?

Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Zidane, Messi, Kaká — perhaps only Dennis Bergkamp in his 1998 pomp and Thierry Henry have been in that league of the showmen’s elite. The best, commonly South Americans, prefer Italy or Spain. It is reminding us of that weakness that is so irritating about Ronaldo’s desire to flee. He is not only sticking two fingers up at United, but the whole league.