After an FA Cup campaign notable for its upsets, Tony Mowbray was espousing Corinthian values before his team's semi-final against Portsmouth. The West Bromwich Albion manager not only suggested that his team, who are seeking their 100th goal of the season at Wembley Stadium today, could take on the last surviving Barclays Premier League side in an expansive game, but also believes that clubs promoted to the top flight need not expect relegation.

Mowbray argues that good management could blow open the monopoly of the “Big Four” in England and that it is time that English managers “rubbed noses with the foreign managers”.

It was like stepping back 40 years. Outside in the corridors of The Hawthorns, a giant picture showed the late Jeff Astle celebrating his FA Cup Final winner against Everton in May 1968, with straw from the Horse of the Year Show strewn on the Wembley pitch.

Joe Royle, who went on to win the trophy as a manager with Everton in 1995, played on the losing team that day. Three of this weekend's semi-finalists are managed by Englishmen; the other, Simon Davey, of Barnsley, hails from Swansea. “Joe's a good friend and he's the last English manager to win the Cup,” Mowbray said. “It's just too long. It's bad for the English game. I'd never knock a foreign manager who's come in because they've done fantastically well.

“We all enjoyed the José Mourinho era, Arsène Wenger is just a genius at what he does, and Rafa Benítez, love him or hate him, sticks his own style on Liverpool. But I think the English game needs English managers to be competing for silverware. Hopefully there'll be a natural progression to the England manager's job. I think it's important that English managers rub noses with the foreign managers and say, ‘We're coming, we're going to produce good teams, we're going to be competing.'”

It would be easy to knock Mowbray as an idealist who has submitted to FA Cup fever as Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool have fallen by the wayside. But West Brom play an open game. “The points are important, but I want to be a successful football team that entertains and scores goals,” he said. “We're at our best when we've got the ball. I think the best teams are those that play with flair and expand the pitch.”

It would be fascinating to see Mowbray's style of play tested in the Premier League; certainly, on a given day, West Brom are capable of top-grade football. “If you believe some of the stuff you read, none of the promoted teams have got a chance in the Premier League, so what right should we have to think we can compete against a team sixth in the Premier League?” he said. “I'm looking forward to the challenge because I believe this team is better equipped to play in the Premier League than in the Championship. Hopefully we can show that.”