We are just over five months into Thomas Tuchel’s tenure as England manager, and all is not rosy in the garden.
Tuchel has guided the Three Lions to the top of their World Cup qualifying group, winning his first three games in charge without conceding a goal.
However, you would be hard-pressed to piece together a meaningful highlights package from the victories over Albania, Latvia and Andorra.
The disappointing 3-1 home defeat against Senegal in a friendly on Monday raised questions about Tuchel’s suitability to lead England into the World Cup next summer.
A notable feature of Tuchel’s short time in charge has been his tendency to make questionable squad selections and offer mindless observations to the media.
Jordan Henderson’s emergence as Tuchel’s golden-eyed boy is undoubtedly the key takeaway from his early months in charge.
The England manager’s assertion that he is ‘more convinced than ever that he is a very, very important addition to this group’ is hugely concerning.
At his ‘best’, Henderson was an average midfielder. As he hurtles towards his 35th birthday, Tuchel has somehow concluded that he is indispensable.
Quite what Adam Wharton, Morgan Gibbs-White and other hugely talented options make of that brainless conclusion is anyone’s guess.
Not content with insulting everyone’s intelligence about Henderson, the former Chelsea manager put some cherries on the cake with his observations about Jude Bellingham.
According to Tuchel, his mother finds the ‘fire’ and ‘rage’ within Bellingham ‘repulsive’ and warned him that his aggressive streak could intimidate his teammates.
Quite why Tuchel’s mummy has shared her thoughts on the Real Madrid midfielder is anyone’s guess, but this is where we have landed.
More importantly, questions need to be asked why Tuchel thinks anyone cares what his mother feels about Bellingham.
England has previously appointed highly-touted managers whose overbearing arrogance scuppered their hopes of success.
Tuchel bears plenty of similarities to Fabio Capello, and we all know how that ended. Based on his early months in charge, the German is heading for a massive fall.
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What to watch
England kick off the defence of their European U21 Championship title against Czechia tonight.
