England have a foreign manager for the third time in the men's team's existence, and one former player has given their verdict on the FA employing someone from abroad.
Thomas Tuchel follows a path first tread by Sven-Goran Eriksson, who led England to the quarter-finals of three consecutive major tournaments, and then by Fabio Capello who mustered up just one last-16 appearance at the 2010 World Cup before his abrupt resignation following the row over the FA’s removal of John Terry’s captaincy.
Tuchel, who has signed an 18-month deal to lead the Three Lions, was given the nod ahead of the leading domestic candidates, which included former-interim boss Lee Carsley, Graham Potter, who is now in charge at West Ham and Eddie Howe, who last weekend became the first English manager to win a major trophy for 17 years after he led Newcastle United to victory in the Carabao Cup final.
The England foreign manager debate
While the appointment of a foreign boss does not excite and inflame the nation’s tabloid press like it did when Eriksson was hired almost 25 years ago, the fact that England will be led into the next World Cup by a German will make headlines.
But for former England and Manchester City winger Shaun Wright-Phillips, the FA’s decision to go back to an overseas coach - who ranked at no. 10 in FourFourTwo’s list of the best managers in the world - made total sense given the circumstances.
“If there was an English manager out there with the right credentials, who was available, then fair enough, but I don’t think there was,” Shaun Wright-Phillips tells FourFourTwo, in conjunction with casino.org.
“Tuchel was available and his CV speaks for itself. If he comes in and gets the job done, it doesn’t matter where he’s from.”
Wright-Phillips, who turned out 36 times for the Three Lions under Eriksson, Steve McClaren and Capello, believes that Tuchel’s first area to address needs to be at the back, in order to give him time to tinker with the rest of his side.
“If you can keep clean sheets, you’d expect England to go and get something from their games,” says the ex-winger.
“It takes the pressure off the attackers, giving them patience to keep playing. If Tuchel can help to tidy up that aspect of England’s play, it will allow the talented attacking players to relax much more.”
After England’s Wembley double header against Albania and Latvia, Tuchel’s first away game will come at the end of the season when his side visits Andorra, before a City Ground friendly against Senegal.
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