Thomas Tuchel has called for a “fair chance” for those unhappy with his appointment as England’s new manager, replacing Gareth Southgate on an 18-month contract.
An agreement between Tuchel and the FA was reported on Tuesday evening. It caused a negative reaction from some, with the Daily Mail running a back-page headline that read ‘A dark day for England’, with a heavy focus on the fact that the former Chelsea boss is “german‘.
An Then came the official FA announcement on Wednesday morning.
The clamor for the appointment of a manager who won the Champions League in 2021 with an unimagined team but is also England’s first foreign manager in 12 years and Germany’s first has seemed particularly xenophobic.
Tuchel was awkwardly asked at his first press conference in his new role whether he would sing the English national anthem before matches, at one point uttering: “Sorry, I have a German passport” when told they asked about the reaction to his arrival in the role.
“I think we deserve a fair chance, the credit for having a good record in the country and how much we’ve enjoyed living in the country and working in the Premier League. We’ll try to convince them with our results and how we play.” Tuchel said, referring to himself and assistant Anthony Barry.
Tuchel’s contract officially starts in January and runs until the summer of 2026, until the end of the North American World Cup. It’s not a long-term deal, which has already been one more stick to get over the new manager before a ball has even been kicked.
“It’s 18 months and then we agreed to sit together and we’ll see. I have good experience with 18 months, unfortunately sometimes. I’m working on my long-term game!” he said, making light of his relatively recent sackings at both Chelsea and Bayern Munich.
“The last part of my part to understand that this is something that I can really be excited about to the fullest was the 18-month deadline, but demanding that I not lose focus. It’s a good period of time because it will help us to focus. It’s very streamlined.”
