Arsene Wenger’s pursuit of FA Cup record reminds us of the impact made by foreign coaches

Ahead of Arsenal's tie with Middlesbrough on Sunday, Richard Jolly looks at the influence of Arsene Wenger on the English game as the Frenchman chases a record sixth FA Cup trophy.

Arsene Wenger, right, hoists the FA Cup trophy after Arsenal defeated Hull City on May 17, 2014. It was the fifth time Wenger had won the trophy. Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP Photo

Some names of managerial greats echo through the ages, while others fade from memory.

Arsene Wenger’s five FA Cup wins is sometimes described as a joint record shared with his old adversary Sir Alex Ferguson, but it is not.

If Wenger is to top this particular table, he will need to win the trophy again because George Ramsay was an FA Cup winner six times between 1887 and 1920 as manager of Aston Villa.

There are reasons why Ramsay’s achievements are overlooked, not just that this year marks the 80th anniversary of his death and the 160th of his birth.

Perhaps, more pertinently, was the fact he did not pick the team. A committee did that while Ramsay – as an old-style secretary-manager – ran the team and also took charge of administrative affairs.

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There are similarities and differences with Wenger, whose reluctance to delegate means he has also been accused of taking on too many responsibilities but who definitely does select the side.

Ramsay, a Scot who moved to Birmingham to take a job as a clerk, apparently astonished the Villa players with his ball control in a practice match.

Some 139 years on from a chance meeting that helped to propel Villa to prominence, Wenger, a manager with an enduring fondness for technicians, could join Ramsay at the top of the leaderboard in the most historic tournament of all.

It would be an extraordinary achievement for an import. It would highlight how England’s national game has been colonised and improved by foreigners in the past two decades.

Wenger was at the forefront of a revolution and, like many an innovator, he then found himself dismissed as yesterday’s man.

The FA Cup final win over Hull City last year secured his first trophy in nine years and with many a favourite having fallen by the wayside in this year’s competition, his chances of making it two in two have ­improved.

On Sunday his Arsenal host Middlesbrough, the Championship pacesetters who beat Premier League champions Manchester City in the fourth round.

Their manager, Aitor Karanka, is Jose Mourinho’s former assistant at Real Madrid and has benefited from his patronage – four of Boro’s players have been borrowed from Chelsea.

Without foreign pioneer Wenger, though, Middlesbrough might not have appointed the first foreign manager in their long history.

Karanka’s technically proficient and tactically astute side are a sign that an influence from overseas is seeping down the ­divisions.

“We won’t be surprised by them,” said the Arsenal manager. “We don’t have the excuse to be surprised as they beat Manchester City.”

But as Wenger seeks to avoid joining Manuel Pellegrini among Boro’s scalps in this competition, he faces the sort of decisions that Ramsay never had to confront.

Alexis Sanchez’s huge workload in the first half of the season seems to have belatedly taken its toll.

The Chilean was troubled by an ankle problem in Tuesday’s 2-1 win over Leicester and his appearances may need to be rationed.

Deprived of the sidelined Aaron Ramsey, plus Mikel Arteta and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Wenger is short of specialist central midfielders.

Although back in training, Jack Wilshere is unlikely to figure but another player who has courted controversy with his fondness for smoking, Wojciech Szczesny, will return in goal.

There should be a debut for Gabriel Paulista, the £11 million (Dh62m) centre-back who was Wenger’s one January ­signing.

The Frenchman has argued that his reluctance to select squad players for FA Cup ties has cost Arsenal in the past.

He pointed to the fact that no team has won the cup more often than his in the past 18 years to indicate just how seriously the club takes the competition.

“Sometimes so seriously we suffered in the Champions League,” Wenger said.

The FA Cup has changed not just since heyday of Ramsay at Villa, when it was the most prestigious trophy of all, but since Wenger’s first taste of it in 1997.

Now it represents a test of strategic planning, of how ties can be negotiated while sparing premier performers and giving squad players time on the pitch.

It is a different challenge, but these are different days.

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