After plenty of speculation over who the successor to Gareth Southgate would be, the nation has finally discovered that it will in fact be German manager Thomas Tuchel who leads the Three Lions into the 2026 World Cup. As you might expect, a German appointment has certainly faced mixed reviews, but have the FA appointed the right man?
Various news outlets, and even respected former players, have voiced their disapproval of a foreign coach leading the nation. Whilst the previous attempts with Fabio Capello and Swedish Sven-Göran Eriksson haven't gone swimmingly, it seems these views are missing some glaringly obvious pointers as to why Tuchel is a fantastic appointment. For a starter, the press’ interest and defiance of a non-English coach was the root of the very problem Eriksson had as England boss. Not to mention, some of the frankly woeful references to the tragically passed Swede in trying to turn the public against Tuchel’s appointment.
England fans do have reasons to be optimistic though and that's down to one factor - Thomas Tuchel wins trophies!
Whilst his league record can be debated, Tuchel is a master in knockout competitions, something English football fans should already be fully aware of. After all, he took a Chelsea team, with a below-par frontline of Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Mason Mount, to a FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup, both FA and EFL Cup Finals, oh, and they won the UEFA Champions League.
Tuchel’s CV is astonishing, with league titles in France and Germany to add to his major cup success, with a distinctly average Chelsea side. Tabloids have already started to attack his short tenures as gaffer, as well as his home life of course, but frankly this does not affect how successful he may be as England boss. Tuchel has no superiors to fight over transfers with, and no mega-money owners to sack him after narrow defeats and poor runs of form.
He can pick his squad, implement his clearly successful tactical setup, and try and bring football well and truly home again.
With this appointment, it's likely that previous squad outcasts and Tuchel favourites such as Eric Dier, Ben Chilwell and Jadon Sancho may be chomping at the bit to work with the German yet again. Whoever ‘Thommy T’ picks, it's hard not to see that he is probably the best man for the job, and let's maybe not sing THAT chant from now on.