Tuchel’s Boys To Bring It Home?

English summers are either wonderfully sunny, celebratory and full of hope and passion, or miserable, cold and full of anguish – there’s no middle ground.

I’m not talking about the weather, of course.  English summers can be both of these things within the space of a few days.  I am, as I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, talking about World-Cup summers and England’s seemingly never ending quest to emulate the boys of ’66 and bring that damn thing home!

As we headed into the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico, I detected a much lower level of expectation than in previous campaigns.  It seemed the English football public were less confident that this will be the year, and that scepticism only increased when Head Coach, Thomas Tuchel decided to leave three of our biggest technical talents at home in Trent Alexander Arnold, Phil Foden and Cole Palmer.

Tuchel also attracted the wrath of media pundits by leaving behind the vastly experienced Harry Maguire – the wrath didn’t stop there either.  Maguire’s mummy, no less, called Harry’s exclusion ‘disgusting’ in an embarrassing rant to any media outlet prepared to listen.

Shock, Horror! An England manager insisting on selecting the best ‘team’ for the tournament rather than simply the best players.  An England manager who insisted in picking only players he felt would fit into his system.  An England manager who insisted upon selecting players he felt would not cause problems around the squad if they were not in starting 11’s.

In short, an England manager who said “I’ll do it my way – judge me on that!”.

And so we set off for Kansas City (England’s training base for the tournament) with lower expectations than in previous tournaments….  then it happened!

England’s opening group game against Croatia (world ranked 11) was billed as a ‘tough opening’ but Thomas’s boys performance in the second half, where they blew Croatia away in a 4 – 2 victory set new levels of expectations again.

Suddenly flags are appearing, ‘footballs coming home’ is being sung and beer is flying around fan-park screenings.

For clarity, I write this the day before England’s second group game against Ghana, so when reading this you will know how we finished in the group stages, but it seems Tuchel doing it his way may just be the answer to getting England ‘over the line’, something previous coach Gareth Southgate failed so spectacularly to do.

Have faith fellow England fans – this might just be the year!

PS – I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks FIFA’s shocking decision to cave into American advertisers and change football to a game of 4 quarters for this World Cup by introducing the ridiculous ‘hydration breaks’ is an afront to the game?

Absolutely scandalous and media around the world should be holding their feet to the fire over it!