Paul Ince has always enjoyed being a trailblazer. In his teens he was the first of his mates in the West Ham United youth team to make it into the first team. Later, having joined Manchester United, he was the first black player to captain England. Now, having worked his way up from Macclesfield Town and Milton Keynes Dons to Blackburn Rovers, he becomes the first black Briton to manage in the Premier League. But it is not only the black community that will be hoping he can succeed in breaking down barriers.

For the managers of the 72 clubs outside the Premier League, the top division must seem like a foreign land from which they are barred entry. A small number make it by steering their teams to promotion from the CocaCola Championship — and congratulations to last season’s successful trio of Tony Mowbray, Tony Pulis and Phil Brown — but for so many others, even producing miracles on a shoestring budget is unlikely to catch the eye of a Premier League chairman.

Ince, by virtue of his name and playing pedigree, may have had a headstart, but if he can prove that the jump from the lower divisions to the top flight is not quite as great as perceived, he could succeed in opening doors for others.

The problem for Ince — and indeed the managers he leaves behind in the Coca-Cola League — is that the challenge he has taken on at Blackburn is a daunting one. Mark Hughes did a remarkable job at Ewood Park, taking over a struggling team and guiding them to top-half finishes in each of his three full seasons at the helm, but, while the foundations he built remain in place, the former Wales manager left because he felt he had taken the club as far as he could in an increasingly competitive league where other clubs — not just the big four, but also his new club, Manchester City, as well as Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United — have far greater financial resources.

Ince will have to learn on the job and manage as Hughes did, working to a tight budget and unearthing gems such as Christopher Samba, Ryan Nelsen, David Bentley, Roque Santa Cruz and Benni McCarthy, who were signed for a combined total of less than £10 million. Pound for pound, no manager in the Premier League has bought as well as Hughes did over the past four years. Does Ince have the knowledge or the contacts to perform in the same way?

And does Ince have the ability to handle big-name players, such as Bentley, Santa Cruz and McCarthy, all of whom are restless at Blackburn? Kevin Gallen, who played for him at MK Dons last season, has described Ince as a manager who “commands respect and can get a stern message across when he wants to”, but the challenges of man-management in the Premier League are different to those he faced in Milton Keynes. He will need to prove very quickly — not just to his players but to Blackburn’s supporters and to the media — that he is not out of his depth, in the same way that David Moyes did on his arrival at Everton from Preston North End.

Alan Shearer, the former Blackburn forward, decided after some deliberation that this was not a job that would entice him from the pundit’s chair. But perhaps it says everything about their respective managerial ambitions and qualities that while Shearer has spent the past two years looking increasingly cosy in a television studio, waiting to be offered the Newcastle United job, Ince, his former England team-mate, has been working his way up from what was, at the time he took over at Macclesfield, literally the bottom rung of the Football League ladder.

On taking the reins at Macclesfield, Ince said that others would think he was mad, but that this was “a chance to manage a football club, a chance to get on the ladder, and if I do well here, other clubs might look at me”. He proceeded to say that he was the first black England captain and that he hoped to be the first black Englishman to manage in the Premier League. Now he has done that, the hard work will really start. Those managers he leaves behind in the Coca-Cola League will be wishing him all the best.

Times of prosperity

May 2001 Blackburn return to the top flight under Graeme Souness

Feb 2002 Win the League Cup by beating Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 in the final at the Millennium Stadium

Sept 2004 Souness leaves to take charge of Newcastle United and is replaced by Mark Hughes. Blackburn punch above their weight and finish fifteenth, sixth, tenth and seventh in the top flight before Hughes leaves for Manchester City

June 2008 Paul Ince appointed manager