IT STRUCK me watching the Champions League final how little experience the respective coaches had.

Didier Deschamps has been at Monaco just three and a half years while the much-heralded Jose Mourinho of European champions Porto actually started out as an interpreter at Barcelona, Porto and Sporting Lisbon for Bobby Robson after a background in teaching.

But he has coached for only four years and while he won championships with Porto, Portugal doesn't exactly boast the strongest league in Europe.

After starting out in the Champions League with a price of about 40-1 and then going on to win it, he has got to be respected, but I wonder if Jose realises what he has in store when he arrives in England.

If he couldn't smile after winning that game the other night, it doesn't augur too well for how he'll react to the kind of press conference he'll have to attend from August onwards.

If, in fact, he has already been appointed at Chelsea, his task will be simple. Move up the league one place from your sacked predecessor and go one more round in the European Cup. In other words, win the Premiership and the European Cup.

We all know his Russian employer will provide the funds, but the most important part of any club is the dressing room and while bringing in someone like 32-year-old Roberto Carlos on over £100,000 a week might make the Carlos family very happy, I'm not sure what it would do for Wayne Bridge, the best left-back in England at present.

This kind of predicament will crop up throughout the other positions in the team the more stockpiling they do.

In spite of all the glitz and glamour they have brought in from around Europe, in my opinion the strength of Chelsea more recently has been the Englishmen John Terry, Frank Lampard, Bridge, Joe Cole, Scott Parker and Glen Johnson.

Liverpool surprise me by being linked with another foreign coach in Rafael Benitez.

My gut feeling is that their history, their geographical position and the nature of their supporters would make the managerial situation more suited to a British manager.

However, it seems to be that winning something in Europe is the most important credential and Benitez has just won the UEFA Cup with Valencia as well as the Spanish League.

But if three of the four or five clubs capable of winning the Premiership go for foreign coaches, what hope is there for up and coming British managers? Lord knows what Shankly and Paisley must be making of it up there in heaven.

Still, it all makes it more interesting I suppose, with more people expecting to see the foreigners fail rather than succeed, which can't be right.

It is far more interesting for the media but, regardless of all that, August 14 will be here soon enough with England by then hopefully installed as European Nations Cup winners and our manager probably being touted for a knighthood.