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ATHENS, Greece — Lee Carsley last week laughed at the suggestion he could leave any sort of legacy as England‘s interim boss but he is now one game away from getting Thomas Tuchel out of a real mess.
Thursday’s impressive 3-0 win over Greece began with the focus firmly on those who didn’t feel willing or able to make the journey here to Athens, starting with Tuchel — England’s new permanent head coach — who begins work as Gareth Southgate’s permanent successor on Jan. 1.
Perhaps informed partly by Tuchel’s absence, only those concerned will ever know the real truth, no fewer than nine players pulled out of the squad for these two UEFA Nations League games despite the immediate task of defeating Greece by a minimum two-goal margin to put promotion to the competition’s top tier back in their own hands.
The knock-on effect for Tuchel would have been profound. He explained the decision — taken in conjunction with the Football Association — not to start a job he agreed to take in October for another three months on the basis it was cleaner to begin with the sole focus of qualification for, and then the winning of, the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
But a failure to win in Greece would have almost certainly resigned England to a March play-off, pushing back the start of their World Cup qualifying campaign to June and leaving Tuchel with complications in working towards his ultimate aim.
The margin of victory was comfortable but the evening was not until the final 10 minutes or so. Ollie Watkins, selected ahead of captain Harry Kane, opened the scoring after seven minutes but England needed Jordan Pickford to make two fine saves to retain that lead, one in each half.
Jude Bellingham‘s 77th-minute drive hit the post and deflected in off Greece goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos to double England’s lead and a sublime third goal saw substitutes Jarrod Bowen and Morgan Gibbs-White combine for Curtis Jones to mark his debut with a fine flick into the corner. England now need to beat Republic of Ireland at Wembley on Sunday to top Group B2 and sign off a turbulent 2024 with an uptick that puts Tuchel in a positive place to hit the ground running. But why did England have to do it without him?
Why is Tuchel not managing England now?
This question threatened to overshadow both Carsley’s final squad announcement as interim boss last week and Thursday’s game against Greece. The FA made a point in their announcement of Tuchel that he signed his contract on Oct. 8, an unusual detail to make public but done so in part to correct what the organisation felt were erroneous reports about the state of play in their search for Southgate’s successor.
The flip side of that, however, is it only strengthened the argument that he had even more time — and reason — to start work in November, with no time to waste in attempting to secure England’s first major trophy in what will be 60 years at the 2026 World Cup. He was unemployed, England needed to move on from the Southgate era so why wait?
Privately, the FA are keen to point out that Tuchel preferred the January start date. There were a number of reasons for this, not least what he said on record at the time.
“The point was in this particular case that it was important for me to have a little bit of a frame around it because it is a little bit of a step into the unknown for me,” he explained at his unveiling last month.
“I am used to work on a daily basis with staff, with the team, to have the influence on 60 to 80 people in a training camp every single day, to be three days a week away in hotel rooms and prepare matches. This will be very different.
“The last piece of it for me to understand that this is something that can really excite me to the fullest was the timeframe of 18 months and to also demand from myself to not lose the focus, for all of us. So I think it is a good timeframe for all of us because it will help us to focus.
“We are focused on the qualification and on the World Cup. It will help us in the nomination process. It will help us in the communication towards the players within the staff.
“So I think this is now very streamlined and very easy to explain. We are here to work on the best possible outcome for the World Cup ’26. And then let’s see.”
Tuchel opted not to start sooner for other reasons, not least that his key assistant Anthony Barry will continue working with Portugal this month, during their final international fixtures of the year.
A source at the FA dismissed any notion Tuchel was not appointed in November so as to avoid a potential row over whether he would wear a poppy — a symbol of support for the service and sacrifice of Britain’s Armed Forces — especially given he has done so when managing Chelsea.
However, the issue is more emotive where the national team is concerned — not least because of his German ancestry — and it is at the very least beneficial for Tuchel to avoid any controversy in what would have been his first set of fixtures.
From the FA’s perspective, they moved when they did for Tuchel and accepted a delay in his start date, due to an acknowledgment that Manchester United were considering replacing Erik ten Hag.
United ended up appointing Rúben Amorim from Sporting CP but Tuchel could have been an option for the job at Old Trafford and, therefore, there was a potential risk for the FA in waiting to get their man. Sources have also told ESPN that Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola had not given the FA sufficient positive noises to wait any longer having spoken to the City boss about the role in August.
FA chief executive Mark Bullingham claimed publicly that they spoke to “approximately 10” people, but sources have told ESPN that number was less than 10.
Guardiola was one of very few options to fit the preferred bill of a trophy-winning manager with experience of English football and there is conflicting information as to whether he was offered the job in the first place. Either way, Guardiola did not give the FA the encouragement they needed and instead they pursued a swift agreement with Tuchel. What were the consequences of Tuchel’s absence?
Neither the FA nor Carsley confirmed who knew what and when. But, sources have told ESPN that Carsley was aware of Tuchel’s imminent appointment during last month’s international break and did his best to talk around the issue as not to betray any confidences.
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It must be said that although he was in a difficult position, Carsley didn’t handle it particularly well — not possessing Southgate’s verbal dexterity — and only ended up muddying the waters further by claiming that “hopefully” he would be able to return to the Under-21s while oddly continuing to avoid ruling himself out of the running for the top job.
There was however a clear sense that England were treading water until January. Arsenal duo Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice, Manchester City‘s Jack Grealish and Phil Foden, Chelsea teammates Cole Palmer and Levi Colwill, Trent Alexander-Arnold of Liverpool and Southampton‘s Aaron Ramsdale were the initial eight to pull out of Carsley’s squad before one replacement, Jarrad Branthwaite, became the ninth on Wednesday.
Saka and Rice were unable to finish their final game with Arsenal — a 1-1 draw at Chelsea — before the break while Grealish has not played for City since Oct. 20 and only just returned to full training. Alexander-Arnold played just 25 minutes of Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Aston Villa due to a hamstring problem. Branthwaite was always a doubt with a pelvic problem. Carsley denied he felt personally disrespected or that certain clubs had put pressure on individuals to pull out but it is difficult not to believe that the incentive to join up would have been far greater had Tuchel been in post.
Captain Kane intimated something similar in an interview with ITV when he declared that “it’s a tough period of the season and maybe there’s been a taking advantage of that a little bit”, adding: “I don’t really like it if I’m totally honest, England comes before anything, any club situation.”
The potential damage to team morale and the culture around the England team is obvious.
One source told ESPN that Kane’s comments have not gone down well with everyone at Bayern Munich while it remains to be seen if there is any lasting damage done to a squad which — for the first time under Southgate at a tournament — was beset by rumours of internal issues.
One of Southgate’s biggest successes as England manager was to rebuild the connection between the players and what it means to play for England and, in turn, the team with supporters.
Southgate has been described by sources as “ruthless” by sources in this regard whenever he sensed total commitment to the cause was waning. It raised eyebrows, then, when Kane was omitted from the starting line-up by Carsley here in Athens.
England were short on experience and, frankly goals, with Kane totalling 68 in his international career and the rest just 11 between them.
But it did not show. Youth came to the fore as three debutants — Jones, Morgan Rogers and Lewis Hall — all impressed. Noni Madueke and Anthony Gordon were threats off the flank while Bellingham thrived in the spade afforded to him as England’s No. 10.
It was a performance where youthful exuberance triumphed over any disquiet at the build-up and therefore serves as a triumph for Under-21 boss Carsley, who is now one step from his aim of securing qualification back to Nations League A. What is Tuchel currently doing?
The short answer, in an England context, is not much. Sources have told ESPN that Tuchel currently has no plans to attend multiple engagements that would otherwise be in the manager’s diary before Jan. 1.
The FA have may have caught something of a break in that the World Cup qualification draw is reportedly now expected to be a virtual event in a departure from the usual in-person, glitzy affair.
Head coaches routinely attend the event but sources say Tuchel was not going to do so prior to the proposed switch in FIFA’s planning.
When contacted by ESPN, FIFA insisted that while both the OFC and Concacaf draws were held in Zurich without any media activity, no final decision had been taken on Europe’s version as conversations remain ongoing with UEFA.
Southgate often — but not always — also attended an informal media engagement closer to Christmas but, again, Tuchel is not expected to be there, nor will he likely be seen at any Premier League games watching players and developing relationships with clubs prior to his start date.
A source has confirmed to ESPN that the FA will discuss appointing a minority candidate to his backroom staff as part of the organisation’s commitment to the Elite Coaching Placement Programme (ECCP), launched in 2018. Former Chelsea defender Ashley Cole had been working with the senior group but will return to the Under-21s when Tuchel arrives.
Sources at the FA insist he will be “fully working” from January, although it is unclear at this stage what his first formal public appearance in the role will be.
The arrival of an elite coach like Tuchel will sharpen minds, as will the prospect of a World Cup where England have a genuine chance of winning emerging into view on the horizon.
And if anything, the manner of England’s victory in Greece only highlighted the strength in depth they possess. For if they can play like this without their manager and a host of key players, how good might they be when Tuchel gets going?