True, Liverpool took a gamble on Rodgers, hiring the former Swansea boss in the hope he would quickly adapt to the elite club culture, with its high expectations, big-name players and complicated boardroom structure.

Yet - despite his sacking not being entirely all his fault - he failed, only once coming close to hitting the target set by his bosses.

It's doubtful Liverpool toyed with the idea of hiring another of the young dynamic British managers applying modern, attacking and watchable football before snapping up Juergen Klopp.

Following the failure of Rodgers and David Moyes, who was sacked last year after a miserable spell at Manchester United, you get the feeling there is not much faith in British managers and their ability to run a top-six club successfully.

Now the six most glamorous, prized jobs in English football belong to an Argentinian, a Chilean, a Dutchman, a Frenchman, a Portuguese and a German.

The League Managers Association was quick to praise Rodgers, declaring "without doubt he is one of the most talented and forward-thinking British managers in the game", assuring us that it will "not be too long before he finds a new challenge".

The LMA said the same sort of thing about Moyes 15 months ago. Glowing references are one thing, getting and keeping your dream job is another.

As good as he is, Rodgers will not be coaching a top-six club if he stays in England.

Like Moyes, Rodgers was soon found out because their previous mid-table clubs, Everton and Swansea respectively, failed to prepare them for the greater responsibility and nous required to manage big-thinking institutions.

Their inexperience was exposed by the tall orders set by their new bosses who invest millions and want immediate returns to keep and attract expensive players, and so keep the money machine printing.

Given another season or two Rodgers might have succeeded in bringing glory to Anfield. So too Moyes at Old Trafford. But time is a luxury only the likes of Southampton, Everton, Norwich, Swansea and West Ham can afford.

The lone British standard bearer in the top half of the EPL is Crystal Palace's Alan Pardew, riding unsustainably high in fourth.

Given the club's financial limitations, even this miracle worker is highly unlikely to add a splash of home-spun red, white and blue in the top-six berths by season's end.

Rodgers' departure from the top draw exposed the EPL's gaping managerial divide, a class division that must worry the LMA and the FA.

Flirting with a Europa spot, mid-table mediocrity and relegation scraps are, in the eyes of the super-rich clubs, a world away from the frontline combat experience required for a top-four finish.

Clubs placed anywhere below seventh may as well be playing in another league, such is their irrelevance.

Swansea's Garry Monk, Norwich's Alex Neil and Bournemouth's Eddie Howe are all excellent coaches. But the EPL's aristocracy does not entertain apprentices, which is how this crop of exciting English managers are viewed because they manage smaller, less well-off clubs.

They want seasoned, successful top-six pros at the helm and the British have none to offer.

So they draw from a bespoke human resource - the exotic pool of international managers, those who they believe have gained experience handling iconic European and South American super clubs and know a thing or two about the intricacies of upper-class governance.

To break into the elite, Britain's finest coaches might have to go abroad to get noticed. Either that or accept their lot as relegation escape artists or mid-table maestros.