Thomas Tuchel is reportedly in advanced talks with the FA about becoming England’s next manager – but some fans are angry that the next boss of the Three Lions could be a German.
The 51-year-old has been out of the game since leaving Bayern Munich at the end of last season when they failed to win the Bundesliga – but is reportedly keen to take over at Wembley.
The German is understood to be open to becoming Gareth Southgate’s long term successor and appears to be the frontrunner. Talks between Tuchel and the FA are ongoing and could be wrapped up quickly amid interest from Manchester United, as they consider Erik ten Hag’s position.
He previously managed the likes of Borussia Dortmund, PSG and Chelsea, famously lifting the Champions League with the Blues in 2021 – the year he also won the award for the world’s best club coach.
But England fans are split on whether the man to replace Gareth Southgate should be English.
One said: ‘No thanks. Give the job to someone ENGLISH’, another wrote: ‘Begging a German to manage us, embarrassing!’ Another said simply: ‘A German managing England? Nein!’ A fourth said: ‘A German manager for England is just wrong’.
But with Eddie Howe the top English candidate, but happy at Newcastle, another England supporter tweeted: ‘Some ambition from the FA if true. He would be ideal I think. Certainly a huge step up from Southgate and Carsley’. A second said: ‘This is the only way England will win anything’. Many said the FA must wait for Pep Guardiola.
Thomas Tuchel is reportedly in talks with the FA about becoming England’s next manager
Former head coach of the England men’s football team Gareth Southgate speaks at Labour’s International Investment Summit in London yesterday
Some England fans are unhappy with the idea of a German head coach for the national team
Some of England’s supporters have welcomed the news, and urged the FA to go for the best manager available, whether that be Thomas Tuchel or Pep Guardiola, who has also reportedly been approached.
There are also questions about combustible Tuchel’s history of leaving teams under a cloud as well the more philosophical debate over whether choosing a foreign manager is an admission of failure about the standard of English coaches.
There are fans who have said that England should always have an Englishman in charge after failed experiments with Sven-Göran Eriksson and Fabio Capello, also arguing that Germany would never have a Briton running their team.
Lee Carsley is currently in interim charge of the Three Lions, winning three of his four games so far, although the former Republic of Ireland midfielder is increasingly expected to go back to his role as England Under 21 manager after the November international break.
Indeed, Carsley said this week they England needed ‘a world-class coach who has won trophies’.
The fact Tuchel knows English football from his time with Chelsea, and worked with captain Harry Kane at Bayern Munich is an obvious bonus.
If the FA move forward with Tuchel, the fact he is effectively on gardening leave after leaving his previous job with Bayern Munich could cause financial complications.
Tuchel wants to return to work and views the England job as an attractive proposition.
Carsley is expected to remain in interim charge, as has always been the plan, for the November fixtures versus Greece and Republic of Ireland.
Several candidates – both English and foreign – have been touted to be the permanent successor to Gareth Southgate, who left his role after England’s Euro 2024 final defeat by Spain in July.
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Mail Sport previously reported in September that the FA had started making private enquiries with regards to appointing external candidates, with Pep Guardiola among those approached ahead of the start of the season.
And now, according to Sky Sports News, Tuchel is in talks with the FA about becoming the next England boss.
The German coach would be viewed as a sensible choice for an England side looking to win their first trophy in almost 60 years, giving his trophy-winning pedigree as a coach.
While at PSG, he won six honours, while he also led Bayern to the Bundesliga title and lifted the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup when in charge of Chelsea.
However, he may also be viewed as controversial, given he is a non-English coach, with England having not had a foreign manager in charge since Fabio Capello exited the role in 2012.
Since leaving Bayern in the summer, Tuchel has been linked to several major jobs across Europe, including Manchester United, with the 51-year-old having held talks with Sir Jim Ratcliffe in Monaco in the summer, before withdrawing his interest.
Eddie Howe and Graham Potter are considered the top English candidates
Manchester City’s Spanish boss Pep Guardiola has reportedly been contacted about being appointed as the next Three Lions boss. Many fans would love him in charge
The likelihood of interim Lee Carsley remaining in the job appears vanishingly small after a poor week in charge
The talks with Tuchel also come after the FA contacted Man City boss Guardiola in regards to the role.
Guardiola has long been viewed by many at the FA as the ‘dream’ candidate to replace Gareth Southgate.
But Pep’s future at the Etihad remains unclear.
The likelihood of interim boss Carsley remaining in the job is waning by the day following a humiliating defeat to Greece last week and increasingly confusing comments made by the coach about his suitability for the role.
Not even Carsley himself seems to want the job, with the boss saying he would ‘hopefully…be going back to the [under]-21s’.
He then created further confusion following another win over lowly Finland, claiming the Three Lions role was for ‘a world class coach who’s won trophies’ before later stressing that this did not rule him out.
The FA have kept an open mind regarding their next appointment and viewed Carsley as a genuine candidate. But there has been a feeling recently, given his public soundings, that he may not be ready for the top job.
Guardiola’s contract with City expires in the summer and it appears unlikely that the Spaniard would leave before then, which could pose difficulties for the FA given there are likely to be six England fixtures in that period, though Carsley is already committed to November’s games versus Greece and Ireland.
Nevertheless, there is a sense among leading members of the FA hierarchy that Guardiola would be worth waiting for.
England would not match Guardiola’s current £20million wage at City, which could provide an obvious stumbling block.
But the job as England head coach is one of the best-paying international coaching positions in the world. Southgate, for instance, earned around £6million a year.
If the FA can afford him, Tuchel continues to be regarded as one of the elite managers in world football, a top tier coach that has won the biggest honours in Europe.
He is untested at international level – and in Spain or Italy – but has enjoyed success in Germany, France and England.
He delivered Borussia Dortmund’s first trophy in five years with the DFB Pokal back in 2017, while he won the Ligue 1 title in his first season at PSG before following that up with a domestic Treble and a Champions League final appearance in his second season.
The German had won the Champions League with Chelsea four months after taking over from Frank Lampard in a sign of his ability to take a dysfunctional set-up and quickly turn it into a winning machine.
In his first 50 matches in charge at Chelsea, Tuchel oversaw 24 clean sheets and they conceded just 24 goals as they become a model of consistency defensively. No team across Europe’s top five leagues had a better record in that span.
Even Man City boss Pep Guardiola who gushed over Tuchel’s style of play back in 2022, saying: ‘He’s so creative, One of the few managers I learn constantly from to develop as a better manager.’
But Chelsea also did score fewer goals than the season before.
But off the pitch is where some of Tuchel’s baggage begins to pile up – and he rarely stays in a job longer than two years.
Thomas Tuchel’s private life was a dressing room hot topic in his final days at Chelsea – with players discussing his failed marriage and his new girlfriend, according to reports.
The German manager was said to have lost the confidence of the Chelsea squad due to his difficult characteristics and erratic behaviour – while his private life was also a topic of dressing room gossip – according to The Independent.
Thomas Tuchel, pictured with new younger girlfriend Natalie Max this summer, is said to have had his private life gossiped about by Chelsea players in his downfall at the club
In April 2022 Tuchel and his now ex-wife Sissi (pictured together) announced they would be getting a divorce.
Tuchel and his wife – pictured after the Champions League final win in 2021 – had been married for 13 years and have two children but decided to part ways
Tuchel’s private life was said to be contributing factor to his dismissal as it changed the players perception of him.
In April 2022 Tuchel and his wife Sissi announced they would be getting a divorce after 13 years of marriage. Friends of the couple said that they had ‘exhausted all avenues’ and that there was no hope of a reconciliation.
As a result, the couple filed for divorce and parted ways officially in May after a judge at London’s High Court accepted their request.
It didn’t take Tuchel long to get over his marriage as he was pictured with his new Brazilian girlfriend, Natalie Max, on July 28. The pair were seen relaxing on boat in Sardinia before heading back to their £20,000-a-night private villa.
Having earned his stripes as an up-and-coming manager at Mainz, he headed for Dortmund but that would eventually sour.
At Dortmund there was a total breakdown in relations, reports at the time stated, to the point where ESPN described it as: ‘A toxic mix of mistrust and communication failure has led to a point of no return. Tuchel has burnt too many bridges at the club, where leadership, players and employees have turned against him.’
Intensity has a shelf life and that has always felt appropriate when it comes to Tuchel.
At PSG he routinely butted heads with sporting director Leonardo, who at one point appeared to publicly go to war against his manager: ‘I didn’t like Tuchel’s statements, neither did the club.’
The two of them clashed over transfer policy, whereas at Chelsea Tuchel was irked by the amount of work he was tasked with when it came to recruitment. At Bayern Munich he was given limited influence on building the squad, which is also said to have upset him.
Todd Boehly, freshly arrived at Chelsea, afforded Tuchel more influence on recruitment than any of his predecessors, who had worked under Roman Abramovich.
Tuchel left Chelsea under a cloud with talkSPORT presenter and Mail Sport columnist Simon Jordan claiming that the reasons ‘would make people’s eyes water’
While many Chelsea fans were dismayed at the decision to get rid of him, talkSPORT voice and Mail Sport columnist Simon Jordan let on that more was to it than met the eye. Cryptic but a word of warning to those doubting the decision.
‘There’s a lot more behind the scenes of Tuchel that would make most people’s eyes water as to the reasons why Todd Boehly made that decision and it wasn’t just a case of losing to Dinamo Zagreb, it was case of a whole raft of other things – that’s Todd Boehly’s gift to tell people what that is,’ Jordan said on talkSPORT at the time.
‘But it opened my eyes and I would’ve done exactly the same thing as Todd Boehly did which is “you can go mate”.’