As the new England manager, Thomas Tuchel has taken on the most intensely discussed job in all of football. The various comments both for the appointment and against suggest that he should expect much more of the same. Despite his credentials for the job, including the Champions League with Chelsea in 2021, when he was named the best club manager in the world, he has also collected ten other trophies in a fifteen year career. On top of that his record in knockout competitions is excellent, which is essentially what the England job is all about.

The nonsense spoken about the FA appointing a “foreign manager” doesn’t wash at all. It’s because he’s German, pure and simple. The national team has had two managers from different countries previously and there was nothing like the uproar there has been about Tuchel.

It may be that this clamour for Gareth Southgate to be replaced is the perfect example of “be careful what you wish for” in managerial terms. Whatever you thought of Southgate, his record compared to previous England managers was phenomenal. Two European finals and the latter stages of two world cups is the best record of any manager since 1966 by some distance, but in national football, as Vince Lombardi once said, “winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing”.

The rubbish spoken by various news outlets about the appointment is understandable, given they have to appeal to their blinkered audience to keep the clicks coming, but the reaction of some ex international players has been laughable. The cry went up of “England should be managed by an Englishman” despite the fact that the national team has already had two previous foreign incumbents. The fact is that nothing less than a win in the European Championship or the World Cup itself will keep the criticism at bay. Anything else will be compared unfavourably to what Southgate achieved,

On a purely tactical front, the appointment of Tuchel looks like good business, given his record in knockout competitions. The different approach needed to successfully manage a national team might well suit Tuchel and he’ll be looking forward to the knockout stages of the major competitions with relish and the chance to pit his wits against the best in the business. One thing is for sure, nothing less than a win in one of the big ones will do. Let’s hope it happens.