Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce believes the success of Fabio Capello and Giovanni Trapattoni have made Italian managers 'flavour of the month'. As a case in point Manchester City's recently appointed Roberto Mancini as manager.

Mancini's compatriots Capello and Trapattoni have impressed during their time in charge of the England and Republic of Ireland national teams respectively, and Allardyce thinks Italian managers are popular as a consequence.

"They are fanciable at the moment," Allardyce said.

"They are obviously the flavour of the month and that's probably because Capello has done so well with England and all of a sudden Trapattoni has done alright for Ireland.

"Everybody thinks Italians are the way forward again, but that is a trend, a fancy for our bosses - we are not in control of that."

"He is over here and he's going to test his skills in the Premier League for the first time," Allardyce said.

"He has a good record in Italy, but it appears that in Italy it is not quite as good as it used to be so everybody wants to come to the Premier League now, because everybody knows this is the best place to be."

Allardyce recently voiced concerns about the impact of foreign players upon England's domestic talent pool, and he also feels it is important with the growing influx of coaches from overseas that home-grown managers are given the chance to shine.

"Not only are all the players coming - all the coaches worldwide want to come," Allardyce said.

"We have a big challenge on our hands as Brits or English, to make sure we show them that we are just as good - and in most cases, if given the chance, we have managed to do the job just as good, if not better than them."