The debate over foreign ownership has been reignited in recent times, so the Times' chief commentator Patrick Barclay has his say on Birmingham and Carseon Yeung.

''There are clearly limits to what the market should decide,'' he begins. ''While we are happy that pulp publishing, circuses, rock’n’roll radio and hot-dog stands, say, should be in private hands - anything else would seem ludicrous to all but the most hardcore socialist - a line would be drawn at the operational levels of our police or Armed Forces. Especially, I suppose, if they were sold to Americans, Russians, Chinese or Arabs. So where does football figure in the scale? Is it just a hot-dog stand?''

The Birmingham ''hot-dog stand'' has a new owner and Barclay is not convinced.

''Like Messrs Hicks and Gillett at Liverpool or the Glazers at Manchester United, whose debt-laden form of ownership is frowned upon in the United States, he could not have fulfilled his ambition at home,'' he says.

'Although Yeung and his fellow directors such as Peter Pannu, who was acquitted of taking a bribe, have passed the Premier League’s “fit and proper persons” test, there is a degree of embarrassment about this takeover equalling any of the recent past (except possibly over Thaksin Shinawatra’s purchase of Manchester City).''

Meanwhile, it's not just the owners who are foreign. It's players and managers too. But the Independent's Glenn Moore says that English coaching is way behind Europe's elite.

''With Fabio Capello having concluded a successful World Cup qualifying campaign, and the Premier League's big four looking to achieve qualification en masse for the Champions League knockout stages for the fourth successive year, much may seem rosy with the English game. However, behind these successes is a worrying situation. Only 10 of the 352 players who started the last round of group-stage matches were English. This weekend around a third of the Premier League's starters will be English. No wonder Capello's squad lacks depth.''

He highlights the differences between the English and abroad, claiming that the coaching structure is proving limiting.

''At a club like Ajax the pre-teen coach would be one of the better-paid. But coaching is more widely respected on the Continent. There are no dispensations for those who, like Paul Ince and Alan Shearer last season, are not fully qualified to coach in the top flight. Academy level coaches must have a B licence, not merely "be working towards it" as in England.''