Fabio Capello may have garnered the support of two of England’s leading football managers as he homes in on the job of England head coach, but support from the political hierarchy yesterday was no more than lukewarm.

The deep suspicion that the English game is hopelessly flawed despite its riches bubbled to the surface as the League Managers Association (LMA) and Gerry Sutcliffe, the Sports Minister, expressed disappointment that the FA had been forced to turn to its first Italian to coach the national team.

Arsène Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson have endorsed Capello’s appointment, but Sutcliffe, who has spoken out against the massive influx of foreign players into the Barclays Premier League, is unconvinced. He said that the choice had to be left to Brian Barwick, the FA chief executive, but added yesterday: “We need to understand what is happening in the game of football in England today. What was sad for me was the number of English managers who withdrew even before they were asked. Whatever their reasons were, it is very disappointing.”

Sutcliffe will embark on a series of ambitious meetings next year with FA and Premier League executives to mount a thorough investigation of the way the sport is run to find solutions to the shortage of English players and now a national head coach.

But the LMA is convinced that there is something “deeply wrong” in English football. John Barnwell, the association’s chief executive, gave warning that appointing an Italian as Steve McClaren’s successor underlined the urgent need to help young English managers to develop.

“If he is chosen, then we would offer our support to Fabio Capello, but we would prefer for an Englishman to manage the England team,” Barnwell said. “Football is a worldwide game and internationals are about putting the best of your country against the best of another country. That includes players and coaches. If you have to go and hire someone from another country, that devalues what you have done.

“If we are saying there is no English coach able to do the job then that is an indictment on our game. It shows there must be something deeply wrong, and the development of our young coaches is a major concern.”

Sutcliffe’s disappointment that English managers were not interested in the job was probably outweighed by the shortage of names available. Sam Allardyce, the Newcastle United manager, was never in contention after being named in football’s bungs scandal, although he strenuously denies his involvement. Harry Redknapp said that he saw his hopes evaporate as soon as police arrived at his home in another strand of the fraud investigations enveloping football. He, too, denies wrongdoing, but he knows that he has little or no chance of fulfilling his ambition of managing his country.

Alan Curbishley, of West Ham United, was not interested, which left Martin O’Neill, a Northern Irishman with honorary credentials as an Englishman, as the main home contender.

But the shortlist is short, which is why Barnwell wants his concerns about the sheer weight of numbers of foreigners involved in the English game addressed. “A lot of people in the game are going on about the number of foreign players in the Premier League having an adverse effect on England and now it’s looking as though we are going to appoint a foreign manager. It doesn’t make sense,” he said.

“If it is not to be an Englishman then we would support as a next-best option having a domestic-based manager who understands our game – and I would include Arsène Wenger in that because he has been here now for more than a decade. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look as though that is going to be the case, either.”

If Capello takes the job, the national team will be added to a roster of top jobs filled by foreign coaches, with Wenger at Arsenal, Avram Grant at Chelsea and Rafael BenÍtez at Liverpool, a list to make hearts sink at the LMA’s headquarters.

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