It's not the first time it's happened and it certainly won't be the last/ But this change can even be described as historic, since Spain will have the most coaches of any other country at the start of the world's most glamorous league.

Thus, apart from Iraola at Bournemouth, City (Guardiola), Arsenal (Arteta), Aston Villa (Emery) and Wolves (Lopetegui) have Spanish coaches. It has been 20 years since English teams began to turn their attention to Spanish technicians. Both the important results of the specific coaching school and the change in the administrative form of the English teams played a role in this. Since now the bosses were not only British, as the top clubs of the Island passed into the hands of large funds from the USA, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

It is typical that in every season of the Premier League, from 2004-05 onwards, there has been a Spanish manager. The beginning was made with the hiring of Rafael Benitez in Liverpool, who even managed to lead the "reds" to win the UEFA Champions League, in the unforgettable final against Milan, in Istanbul, which at one point reached 7, in a total of 20 teams in last season.

Benitez started by laying the first successful Spanish stone, followed by Pep Guardiola, Mikel Arteta and Unai Emery, who in their own way led (in different time frames and levels of achievement) to a competitive renaissance in Manchester City, Arsenal and Aston Villa, respectively.

Of course not all the presence of Spanish technicians on the English benches were successful. Our acquaintances from their time with Greek teams, Ruben Seles and Javi Gracia, did not make it at Southampton and Leeds, respectively, who were relegated. Also, in the recent past, the tenures of Juande Ramos at Tottenham, Pepe Mel at West Bromwich Albion and Cisco Muñoz at Watford could be described as unfortunate to say the least.

The 2004-05 season, which brought Benitez to England, was a watershed moment as the Premier League welcomed managers from ten or more countries for the first time. Also, with the arrival of Jose Mourinho at Chelsea, it included the first Portuguese manager. He is one of 6 who worked in Premier League teams, the most recent being Fulham coach Marcos Silva, who had also worked at Olympiakos. Martin Jol gave Tottenham a Dutch flavor that season, while Croatia were represented for the first time since "our own" Velimir Zajec's temporary spell on the Portsmouth bench.

All this was a far cry from the Premier League that began in 1992-93. Until 1995-96, the league was still home to managers representing just three countries: England, Scotland and Ireland, in contrast to the previous season where managers from 14 different countries worked in the division: Austria, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Ireland, Scotland, Spain, USA and Wales.

Only in 2014-15 (16) and 2018-19 (15) was there a higher number of different countries represented. Here it is worth noting that, in the next championship, our country will also be included in this list, as Angelos Postecoglou will become the first Greek (although on the official website of the organization he is presented as Australian) to work in the Premier League, as he will he is on the Tottenham bench.

Wenger paved the way

Long before Benitez, who paved the way for the Spanish invasion of England, Arsene Wenger had managed to break the barrier, as in 1996-97 he became the first non-British manager in the Premier League, taking over Arsenal.

The French reformer of the "cannons" stayed on their bench for a full 22 years. Alsatian  was followed by seven of his compatriots, including  Gérard  Houllier to Liverpool and Aston Villa. However, none of them proved to be so successful.

The only Frenchman last season was Patrick Vieira, who was sacked by Crystal Palace in March and so the Premier League will be without a French manager for the third season out of six since Wenger left Arsenal.

The next campaign will begin with Englishmen accounting for 20% of Premier League managerial jobs (assuming Crystal Palace's continued partnership with Roy Hodgson is announced), the lowest percentage share since 1992. Also last season 2022-23 we had the highest number of managers  in a Premier League season: 39.

Nine managed to complete the entire 38-match league. Newcastle's Eddie Howe was the only Englishman to survive to the final, even leading the miners into the UEFA Champions League groups at a time when English managers' tenures averaged just 13 games.

As for Scotland, its sole representative last year was David Moyes, who took West Ham to the Conference League title. The record, of course, belongs to Sir Alex Ferguson, who had 1,500 games as Manchester United manager from the inception of the Premier League until May 2013.

Thus, a few weeks before the start of this year's championship, 12 countries are represented in it. As mentioned above, Spain has five coaches, England has four (Sean Dyche - Everton, Eddie Howe - Newcastle, Paul Heckingbottom - Sheffield, Roy Hodgson - Crystal Palace), Wales has two (Rob Edwards - Luton, Steve Cooper - Nottingham). and from one Scotland (David Moyes - West Ham), Greece (Angelos Postecoglou - Tottenham), Belgium (Vincent Kompany - Burnley), Germany (Jurgen Klopp - Liverpool), Italy (Roberto de Zerbi - Brighton), Argentina (Maurizio Pochettino – Chelsea), Denmark (Thomas Frank – Brentford), the Netherlands (Erik ten Haag – Manchester United) and Portugal (Marco Silva – Fulham).