Sir Alf Ramsey would be apoplectic to see England managed by a German, but I have some sympathy with the FA
WE wanted roast beef and what did we get? Bratwurst, with Black Forest Gateau for dessert.
Call me old-fashioned but isn’t international football supposed to be about one nation taking on another, with the players enjoying the ultimate honour of performing for their country?
PA:Empics SportSir Alf Ramsey led England to World Cup glory two decades after the end of World War 2[/caption]
GettyThomas Tuchel has become England’s third foreign manager[/caption]
I know the lines have got blurred over the years — under Jack Charlton you were Irish if you liked a drop of Guinness.
But Thomas Tuchel’s appointment does really emphasise one glaring statistic… where have all the English managers gone?
And while every major nation in Europe has enjoyed some sort of tangible success and even some not-so-major ones such as Denmark and Greece, we continue to look back to 1966 when an English manager last led an English men’s team to a trophy.
That’s a bloody long time ago.
I know we have had foreign-born managers of the England team before — Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello — but they weren’t exactly a rip-roaring success.
And now we have a German in charge, who won the Champions League with Chelsea and by any measure is a fantastic manager.
We must compromise on romantic notions of an Englishman in charge of an English team.
As a result, we have a German bossing the men’s team and Dutch coach Sarina Wiegman holding court for the women’s squad.
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Whilst they are both fantastic managers, we really should be looking at ourselves and wondering how this has happened?
Why can’t we find good England coaches to manage our English teams — and what are we going to do about it?
Southgate vs Tuchel records compared
THOMAS TUCHEL
Augsburg II 2007-2008
P34 W 20 D8 L6 Win percentage: 58.82%
Mainz 05 2009-2014
P184 W72 D46 L66 Win percentage: 39.13%
Borussia Dortmund 2015-2017
P107 W67 D23 L17 Win percentage: 62.62%
Honours: DFB Pokal
Paris Saint Germain 2018-2020
P127 W95 D13 L16 Win percentage: 74.8%
Honours: Ligue 1 X2, Coupe de France, Coupe de la Ligue, Trophee des Champions x2
Chelsea 2021-2022
P100 W60 D24 L16 Win percentage: 60%
Honours: Champions League, Super Cup, Club World Cup
Bayern Munich 2023-2024
P61 W37 D8 L16 Win percentage: 60.66%
Honours: Bundesliga
GARETH SOUTHGATE
Middlesbrough 2006-2009
P151 W54 D43 Win percentage: 35.76%
England U21 2013-2016
P37 W27 D5 L5 Win percentage: 72.97%
Honours: Toulon tournament
England 2016-2024
P102 W61 D24 L17 Win percentage: 59.8%
Honours: Euros runners up, 2020, 2024
Answers please from the FA.
Can you imagine what the boys of ’66 would have made of the England side being run by a German?
Sir Alf would have been apoplectic. That glorious Wembley day was only two decades after Ramsey’s East End of London had been flattened by the Luftwaffe.
But as I said that’s a bloody long time ago, and these days managing England is the so-called ‘impossible job’.
Some will accuse the FA of having compromised in order to win by appointing a foreign manager.
But I have sympathy for them as the last English-born manager to win the top flight was Howard Wilkinson, back when it was just the plain old First Division.
We have five English-born managers currently operating in the Premier League although two of them, Russell Martin and Kieran McKenna, played at international levels for Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively.
It suggests the nursery is thin on the ground.
But club football is one thing, the national team is another.
And as I’m a romantic at heart, I would much prefer to see our Three Lions led by a lion.
But what are the FA meant to do when the pickings are slimmer than our goal tally in a penalty shootout.
Tuchel has won some great trophies at a variety of clubs but so had Sven and so had Capello.
The latter was a disaster who couldn’t even be bothered to learn English and enjoyed little or no connection with his players, while Sven did passably, reaching a succession of quarter-finals.
I suppose we can console ourselves with the fact that Gareth Southgate showed it can be done and although he didn’t lead us to any silverware, at least he got damned close.
I wish Tuchel the very best of luck, as every Englishman’s footballing hopes and dreams are on his shoulders, and at some point he will feel the weight of that pressure.
He has had four managerial jobs in the last seven years and an England contract which is only 18 months suggests this is not one for the long-term.
Inside FA’s thrilling chase for Tuchel
THE FA’s path to securing Thomas Tuchel’s signature was not a straightforward one.
They tried to lure Pep Guardiola from Manchester City over the summer.
They even made contact with Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti after deciding to target trophy-laden foreign gaffers.
The FA’s determination to go international was summed up by their decision NOT to interview Newcastle boss Eddie Howe.
Initial talks with Tuchel saw him express a slight interest in replacing Gareth Southgate.
But he was waiting to see what would happen at Manchester United, with Erik ten Hag’s future under the spotlight.
Man Utd owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe eventually decided to stick with Ten Hag – and that opened the door to the FA getting their man.
Read the full story on England’s thrilling pursuit of Thomas Tuchel.
