So Joe Hart and his dandruff-less hair have swapped the crowded smog of Manchester for the sunny promenades of Turin. England’s number one, who has always resembled a fan let onto the pitch for his sheer enthusiasm, has been sacrificed at the altar of Pep’s great Northern revolution. He now finds himself in new territory, keeping goal for a Torino side who linger around the middle of the Italian Serie A.

The initial reaction in the British press to Joe’s reverse-Brexit has been one of mild bemusement and intrigue. British footballers, we have been told, do not go abroad. Or at least, they only go abroad when things go wrong at home – think Joe Cole, Jermaine Pennant, Micah Richards, or Joey Barton. The iconic image of a modern British footballer abroad must surely be ‘lurking’ Ashley Cole, awkwardly perched not quite in the Roma squad, not quite out of it. He left after making only 11 appearances for the club.

Going back further, the annals of British football history seem to be littered with players who have not quite made it abroad. Ian Rush hit the nail on the head when, upon returning from a disastrous season with Juventus, he bemoaned the fact that living in Italy “felt like living in a foreign country”. Successes have been few and far between, and almost always short lived. Gary Lineker, in the days when he kept his trousers on, scored an infamous hat-trick for Barcelona in El Clásico. Kevin Keegan starred for Hamburg, and Glenn Hoddle shone on the Monaco coast. More recently, Steve McManaman and David Beckham were beloved by Real Madrid fans, although Jonathan Woodgate and Michael Owen somewhat less.

Yet despite the rare success story, the basic fact remains that not enough British footballers play abroad, and when they do they rarely succeed. When this issue is considered, we usually write it off as unimportant. “Why would an English player want to leave the best league in the world?” we ask ourselves. "Besides, who wants to live in Europe anyway?"

In one sense, this is true: the Premier League remains the world's top division, and will always be the main object for any British player. However, the fact remains that the reluctance of British footballers to move abroad has been bad for not only our footballing culture but the development of the British game itself.

It has meant that rather than immersing ourselves in the innovative and creative development of European football, we have remained isolated and underdeveloped. The ‘Barcajax’ tactical revolution of the 1990s – when gifted Ajax players were brought into the Barcelona squad – failed to trickle its way into the English game because no English players were learning it. Think what could have been if Paul Scholes had been playing alongside a young Xavi or Iniesta at Barcelona.

True, the influx of foreign managers to the Premier League has partially redressed the impasse between us and the rest of the footballing world. However, there is still a long way to go, and arguably the same logic can be applied to managers. If more English managers took opportunities abroad, surely we would see a better quality of English coaching. Whatever you might make of Roy Hodgson, his career was indelibly improved by going abroad... although the less said about the end the better.

Britain missing out on tactical and footballing innovation might be the main tragedy of our exporting deficit, but it is not the only one. On a far simpler – and perhaps even irrelevant –level, it has meant that British players have missed out on the gloriously random moments that a continent of footballing opportunities can offer. When Paul Lambert left Motherwell in 1996, he was tempted to join Aberdeen. A year later, he was instead lifting the Champions League with Borussia Dortmund. Look at every Premier League squad this season, and you will see British players who are getting restricted playing time. If only they took the plunge, they could return in a couple of seasons with medals, trophies and a career's worth of new experiences.

Part of the explanation must also go deeper. Young British children are not taught European languages at school, and in general, our culture retains elements of an almost aggressive anti-Europeanism. One could almost imagine David Davis trotting into a school playground and reminding young boys and girls playing football that ‘Brexit means Brexit’. Football alone might not be able to redress these problems, but it can help. In the last year, Welsh schools have reported an increase in pupils wanting to learn Spanish, inspired by Gareth Bale.

So good luck to Joe Hart as he embarks upon his Italian job. British football would do well to lose its parochial attachment to home and begin making up for lost time on the Continent. Europe might feel like a “foreign country” for most of our players, but it doesn’t need to be. Just try and stay off the spaghetti.