Northern Irish managers are new Scotia Nostra

SO prominent and influential were Scottish managers in England that Sir Alex Ferguson referred to them as the Scotia Nostra. Since its inception in 1992, the Premier League always had at least one Scot in its managerial ranks. In 2011, there were seven. The days of the tartan managerial Mafioso, though, are long gone south of the border. But a similar trend is emerging in Scotland with the rise of Northern Irishmen. For the second time in eight days, Hibernian boss Neil Lennon will look to the opposite technical area and see a former international team-mate staring back at him. Last week it was St Johnstone’s Tommy Wright in a 1-1 draw at McDiarmid Park. This afternoon at Easter Road it will be Motherwell’s Stephen Robinson. Add Celtic’s Brendan Rodgers into the mix and they make up 25 per cent of Scottish Premiership bosses. Lennon sees parallels in the hunger and work ethic that once drove Scottish bosses to positions of influence in England before foreign investment limited opportunities for home-grown talent. ‘It’s strange that a quarter of topflight managers in Scotland are from Northern Ireland,’ he said. ‘But they get well schooled by the IFA, who have great coaching courses under Nigel Best. ‘We’ve also got Michael O’Neill who’s doing wonderful things with

the national team. As footballers growing up in Northern Ireland, Scotland and England were where you wanted to be but they seemed a million miles away. ‘But we are hungry. We all want to do well. The Northern Ireland boys are, I suppose, a little bit of a throwback to the way the Scottish boys have been over the last 20 or 30 years. There is that real worth ethic about us. ‘Jobs are at a premium in England but the Scottish clubs have picked good managers. Brendan Rodgers has been a revelation, so has Tommy Wright. ‘I’ve had my bit and now Stephen Robinson is cutting his teeth at Motherwell. I think there will be a few more coming through as well. Stephen was a very good footballer,’ added Lennon ahead of today’s clash with an in-form Motherwell side who sit a point above Hibernian. ‘We were in a lot of Northern Ireland squads together and he was an intelligent and technical player. I’m not surprised he’s gone into coaching. ‘He did very well with Northern Ireland Under-21s then had a tough time at Oldham. But they had problems behind the scenes, so you can understand that. ‘Now he’s reinvigorated Motherwell. It wasn’t a great start but they’ve recovered well with three wins at home. ‘He’s a very conscientious boy and I’m very pleased for him.’