The British media react with fervor to the appointment of Thomas Tuchel – The Irish Times

Uh oh When the identity of Gareth Southgate’s permanent successor was revealed on Tuesday, you worried that those who had spontaneously combusted over his interim replacement chose not to sing-a-long to God Save the King.

By its standards, however, the Daily Mail was quite subdued in its response to the appointment of Thomas Tuchel: “It’s a dark day for England as manager’s job goes to a GERMAN,” read the headline on your comment Admittedly, the capitalized “German” hinted that they weren’t entirely on the moon.

But the reaction most of us breathlessly anticipated was from the paper’s own Jeff Powell, the man who was so angry about anthem-gate that he called for Lee Carsley to be fired before his first game for “defer- se to his republican antecedents”. “.

Jeff, as always, did not disappoint.

He recalled his dismay when Swede Sven-Göran Eriksson got the England job, which meant “the birthright of the country that gave football to the world was being sold to someone from a nation of skiers after all, he spent half his life in the dark.

Italy’s Fabio Capello was, he wrote, “an even more disappointing mercenary”, but he expects “Herr Tuchel” to be worse again. “When sauerkraut goes the way of drink and pasta, the euro will eventually go down,” he asked. If I had used spaghetti instead of pasta, the alliteration would have been glorious, but it didn’t matter.

Jeff’s main argument, of course, was that the manager should be English, “a patriot for whom England is always first, second and third”. He even insisted that his team must be English, possibly because a pesky foreigner wouldn’t pack shirts, shorts and socks with the same patriotic fervor.

He knew that “woke traders” would call him “little Englishman”, but, he asked, “how can a foreigner urge Englishmen to do or die on the football battlefield? Could a Swede, an Italian or a German have roused the troops like King Henry V when he implored his men: “Back to the breach, dear friends, or let us close the wall with our English dead.” (James Corrigan, The Telegraph’s Golf Correspondent, he unhelpfully pointed out that Henry V was actually Welsh).

It wasn’t all negativity, though. In GB News, amid ads for retirement villages and a Winston Churchill gold coin (“limited to one per household”), Martin Daubney welcomed Tuchel’s appointment, even if he “looks a bit like this guy by Steptoe and Son”.

And there was also enthusiasm from most of the passers-by the station spoke to around Stamford Bridge, although one man wearing a Chelsea training shirt with a Chelsea collar cord around his neck, who looked having enjoyed a liquid lunch, he had gone blank in the period between January 2021 and September 2022. “I don’t actually recognize his name from any Premier League club,” he said.

The Redknapps, meanwhile, disagreed, “Arry having the ‘ump because Tuchel isn’t English and “it’s not like he’s been massively successful,” he said of the man who has won the Champions League with Chelsea and league titles in France and Germany. Jamie was pleased, however, noting that Tuchel is now “the second most important person in this country, behind the Prime Minister”, Buckingham Palace rescinded his invitation to its next garden party as we speak.

Back in the press, the Telegraph’s senior football writer Sam Wallace stood by Harry, also insisting the manager must be English, his piece topped off by a picture of Tuchel in trousers having dinner beer during Oktoberfest in Munich so we wouldn’t know he was German. . The Sun was more optimistic, however, “Fussball kommt nach hause” its headline, as was the Daily Mirror: “The New Kaiser Chief”. But in Germany, Bild was stunned: “The motherland of football has a German father!” Jeff should have needed smelling salts to read this.

But if England win the 2026 World Cup, perhaps beating Germany on penalties in the final, all could be forgiven. As Micky Quinn told GB News, “it could be the last puzzle”. If not, it will be torn to pieces.