Why are there so few black managers in football?
There is an element of misty-eyed romance about the prospect of Chris Hughton getting the Fulham job, a day after he was at St George’s Park watching a giant statue being unveiled of Arthur Wharton – the first black professional footballer.
But in reality it would not disguise that in the 125 years since Wharton signed that first contract, when it comes to opening up the games’ top jobs to all, football has a shameful record.
Read: Most Premier League boardrooms a no-go area for ethnic minorities
If Hughton does become the new boss at Craven Cottage that will increase the number of non-white managers in the entire Football League from two to three. That’s across four divisions and 92 clubs.
None of those managers is employed in the Premier League, a league where during the last round of games, 32% of players who started matches were black or minority ethnic.
What’s more, 15 of the 20 Premier League clubs don’t have a black or ethnic minority member on its board of directors. And of the 5 that do, well, four of them have non-white owners.
John Barnes, the former England player, believes the issue is not confined to football and is actually buried in the national psyche.
He says other industries - the media for example, even government - fare just as badly and, in his opinion, the problem lies with the general perception that black people are intellectually inferior.
Until that misconception is altered, he says, non-white ex-footballers are less likely to get opportunities in the dugout or in the board room - however many of them run out onto the pitch every Saturday afternoon.
Read: Statue honours world's first black professional footballer
If he iss right, it is quite an indictment, although there are very few big industries where the workforce is more than a third black. So surely football does have a specific problem and with that a greater responsibility?
Paul Davis, the former Arsenal player, now spends his time coaching coaches. He believes the reasons lie elsewhere.
He says, in what he calls football’s vicious cycle, that a lot of ex-pros decide not to go down the coaching path because they don’t believe at the end of it all football will give them a chance.
The few that do, Davis points out, usually then miss out on jobs because, although they have the badges, they don’t have the experience to go with them.
He believes that is why, whenever a manager’s job comes up, the same old names are considered and the same old faces are usually successful.
The ex-England striker Les Ferdinand points to another obstacle – club owners.
How do you tell a man who’s got billions in the bank how to run his club or who to employ? Well he’s right – you can’t, unless you persuade English football to adopt a scheme similar to American Football’s Rooney rule.
With the rule, a club is obliged to interview at least one black applicant when a job becomes available. On the face of it, it has contributed to progress in the States, where many more of the top NFL coaches are now black.
Critics of its adoption here point out, among other obstacles, that it would be illegal - though that does not rule out a voluntary code.
Also, an interview process rarely takes place in English football; an owner or chairman will often have secretly shaken hands with his next manager before he’s even sacked the current one.
It’s becoming a never-ending dialogue and despite all the initiatives, the bare facts haven’t changed. They will, of course – eventually - but history will rightly judge football very critically.
It's 125 years since Arthur Wharton first tipped one over the bar and we're still having this conversation.