ARSENE WENGER is the latest person to wade in on the England manager debate following the appointment of Thomas Tuchel.

Despite his stellar CV as a coach at club level – including a Champions League win with Chelsea – some have questioned whether the manager of a country should be someone who is not from there.

2

2

Advertisement

Legendary Arsenal boss Wenger, now FIFA‘s Chief of Global Football Development, gave his verdict while appearing on beIN Sports.

The 75-year-old said: “I always thought the national team is a part-time job with 10 games per year, and I prefer to play 60.”

Wenger revealed he had received offers to be the national team manager of both France and Germany, before adding: “To me on that front, I prefer that the manager is from the country.

“Why should the player have to be from a country and not the manager? There is a big inference.”

To that end, Wenger said he would have felt “uncomfortable” managing Germany.

He then doubled down on previous statements where he had said England should take an English manager.

He continued: “I haven’t changed my mind. Now they appoint Tuchel. I think Tuchel is a perfect coach and a perfect candidate, but he’s not English.

“But it’s allowed so there is nothing wrong with that.

BEST FREE BET SIGN UP OFFERS FOR UK BOOKMAKERS

“I just feel – to make it as simple as possible – If I’m the manager of England and I play against France I cannot sing the national anthem of France.”

Tuchel, 51, was appointed to the Three Lions role as the permanent successor to Gareth Southgate after he stepped down following Euro 2024, but will not take charge of his first games until next year.

The former Blues, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund boss signed an 18-month contract worth £5million-a-year to see him lead England into the World Cup in 2026.

At his first press conference, Tuchel sarcastically apologised for his German passport and received an apology from a reporter over a “flippant” comment about the chances of winning a trophy.

Tuchel then gave his opinion on singing the national anthem.

ANDY DILLON: Thomas Tuchel has all the ingredients to become a classic England manager – tactical nous, drive and a tangled love life

By Andy Dillon

THOMAS TUCHEL possesses all the ingredients to become a classic England manager.

Advertisement

Tactical nous, drive, energy, experience – a tangled love life.

English football should welcome back the most explosive, dynamic, charismatic and impossibly tall and gangly coach to have lit up the Premier League.

Chelsea’s colourful former boss has been leading a settled life in Munich of late.

Far enough away from ex-wife Sissi but close enough to see his two daughters.

Advertisement

Walking his dog in the streets in the east of Germany’s most fashionable city, residing in the posh Bogenhausen area. Living relatively quietly with his Brazilian girlfriend.

Tuchel is a vastly different personality to the man who led England quietly but assuredly to the brink of World Cups and European Championships.

An excitable nature can make him hard to handle for those seeking calm and who like to impose their way on a manager they view very much as an underling.

Read more on why Tuchel REALLY IS the best man for the England job

Advertisement

He said: “I understood from Mark [Bullingham] it is a personal decision if you sing it. Some managers did it and others did not.

“I have not made my decision. Your anthem is very moving, I experienced it several times at Wembley and in cup finals.

“Whatever decision I make, I will always show my respect to my new role, the country and a moving anthem.

“As it is a new subject, I will take a little bit of time.”

Interim boss Lee Carsley – who is a former Ireland international – has opted against singing it during his time in charge, with his final two games coming next month.

Forgotten England stars could benefit from Tuchel appointment

WITH Thomas Tuchel announced as the next England manager, a few forgotten stars might be hopeful of a return to the international set up.

The former Chelsea and Bayern Munich manager usually uses a 3-4-3 formation.

That could provide an opening for Mason Mount, who’s not been involved in the England set-up since the World Cup in 2022.

Advertisement

The now Manchester United star enjoyed his most successful spell under Tuchel while the pair were at Stamford Bridge.

Tuchel could also offer lifelines to other previously capped players such as Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Eric Dier.

RLC has excelled since his move to AC Milan and with England struggling to find a partner for Rice, he could be the surprise answer.

Meanwhile, Dier played for Tuchel at Bayern Munich as part of a back-three last season.

Advertisement

The defender did enough to convince the club to make his loan move permanent after he had fallen out of favour at Tottenham.

Click here to see the full England XI who could play under Tuchel.

Kevin Durant scored 25 points and Bradley Beal 24 as the Phoenix Suns opened their NBA season with a 116-113 overtime win against the Los Angeles Clippers.

Durant scored inside the final 30 seconds of regulation time to tie the game at 103-103, although James Harden’s buzzer beater for the Clippers bounced off the rim.

Beal put the Suns – playing a competitive match at their Intuit Dome stadium for the first time – 114-110 ahead with one minute 20 seconds left in overtime thanks to a pair of free throws.

Harden had the chance to level the scores when he missed the second of two free throws with five seconds remaining, before Jusuf Nurkic scored two free throws at the other end.

Euro 2025 will feature 16 nations and, as hosts, Switzerland qualified automatically for the competition.

Reigning champions England were among eight teams who booked their place during the group phase.

The remaining seven spots are being contested by 28 nations.

They consist of the League A nations that failed to qualify automatically, the League B countries who did not finish bottom of their group, the League C group winners, and the three best sides from League C that finished second in their group.

Azerbaijan, who finished bottom of their League B group, were also entered into the play-offs as the next best placed side because group winners Switzerland were already assured of their spot.

For the first round of play-offs, the eight sides from League A were drawn against the eight nations from League C. The 12 teams from League B were drawn alongside other League B nations.

The 14 losers in the first round of play-off qualifying will be eliminated.

The 14 winners will advance into the second play-off round. The draw for the second round play-offs has already been made.

Euro 2025 second play-off round qualifying draw:

Ties to be played between 27 November and 3 December.

PREMIER LEAGUE chiefs fear “unprecedented and untested powers” given to the new independent regulator could wreck English football.

The government’s Football Governance Bill will be introduced in the House of Lords today.

1

A clause requiring the regulator to consider government “foreign and trade policy” when approving club takeovers — which threatened to see Uefa boot England out of the Euros over political interference — has been withdrawn.

Prem bigwigs still fear “rigid, banking-style regulation could have a negative impact on the league’s competitiveness and the aspiration that drives our global appeal and growth.”

But the regulator has been backed by EFL chief Rick Parry.

He said: “The bill has been framed in a way that will enable the new regulator to protect and achieve the sustainability of clubs across the entire football pyramid.”

New regulator powers in the bill include parachute payments for relegated clubs, consulting fans on ticket pricing and home stadium relocations, plus ­supporter representation at clubs.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy declared: “English football is one of our greatest exports and a source of ­national pride.

“But for too long financial instability meant loyal fans risked losing their cherished clubs as a result of mismanagement and reckless spending.

“This bill seeks to redress the balance, putting fans back at the heart of the game, taking on rogue owners and crucially helping put clubs up and down the country on a sound financial footing.”

FOOTBALL FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS

Sports Minister Stephanie Peacock added: “This strengthened bill puts fans firmly back at the centre of the game.”

More than 200 fan groups signed an open letter from the Football Supporters’ Association earlier this year, calling on all parties to back  the new bill.

Uefa general secretary Theodore Theodoridis had said the “foreign policy” clause would amount to government interference — risking the “ultimate sanction” of excluding teams from their competitions.

England are due to co-host the Euro 2028 with the other home nations and Ireland.

Thankfully they didn’t. The clouds lifted, enough at least to begin a new path with the help of current partner Danielle in her hometown of Chester.

Just not in football, Harrison still – as he puts it – “poisoned” by his experiences, not even watching games on TV and instead spending days on projects renovating and selling properties.

But then he turned 30 and serendipity took over, starting with a surprise birthday party.

With Danielle organising the celebration, the band she booked had let her down and, by chance, former Wrexham midfielder and keen amateur guitarist Gareth Owen was in the duo who answered an SOS to provide the background music.

Over a few beers, talk naturally turned to football. Owen, then player-manager at Welsh side Airbus, needed an assistant.

“I wasn’t interested,” Harrison recalls. “It still took a couple of weeks before he rang again, we met for a coffee, and he talked me around into saying ‘Let’s give it a go’ and I was helping out with training a couple of times a week.”

The chain reaction that led to that Fiorentina touchline had begun.

Within the year, Owen left. Harrison, with the poison gone, was moved up to manager, hurriedly booking himself on to a Football Association of Wales coaching course to try and complete the required badges.

It started with him being “a typical, arrogant ex-footballer” not interested in listening to classroom coaches, but he soon became fully invested.

Within three years Harrison was managing the Welsh champions TNS, conscious players such as Wales’ Steve Evans were little more than a year his junior, but embracing the new path he had not looked for.

With attractive football, silverware and a world record 27-match winning run, that road soon took him to Hartlepool, recently relegated from the Football League, but – in keeping – it didn’t go to plan. “Horrendous” is how Harrison puts it after being sacked within seven months.

“I was always going to take my family there with me and Danielle was fully supportive, as she always has been,” he says.

“But they had the gall to demand that commitment to bring my family 200 miles with me – and yet within seven months I was being told by the same owner nothing was going to be paid. The telephone bills. The heating. The players. Me. One game at Dagenham we had to play in our away kit and didn’t have any training gear because of a laundry bill.”

Rishabh Pant has “no injury concerns” and is set to keep wickets for India while the team will decide on Jasprit Bumrah’s workload after the second Test against New Zealand starting here on Thursday, said head coach Gautam Gambhir.

Pant copped a blow on the second day of the opening Test in Bengaluru and was replaced by Dhruv Jurel behind the wickets. Pant returned to score a fluent 99 in the second innings but did not keep wickets.

Pant had a hit at the nets and also had a wicket-keeping drill with Gambhir on Tuesday.

“Absolutely,” Gambhir said on Wednesday when asked if everything was fine with the wicketkeeper-batter.

“I think he’s going to keep wickets tomorrow. (There are) no other fitness concerns,” he added.

Bumrah has played each of the three Tests at home this season and with the Australia tour less than a month away, India will decide on resting the ace fast bowler after the second Test.

“Once the series is over, we still have around 10 or 12 days before the (first) Test starts in Australia. That is enough break for our fast bowlers as well. But we will still monitor after this Test match where Jasprit Bumrah is,” Gambhir said.

“But it’s not only about Jasprit Bumrah. It’s about with all the fast bowlers as well. We want to keep them fresh. We know that obviously we’ve got a long tour and an important tour of Australia.

“Workload management will definitely depend on what the outcome of this Test match is and how much have they bowled in this match,” he added.

Gambhir said that Shubman Gill, who missed the Bengaluru Test due to stiffness in his neck, will play the match as the No. 3 batter has attained full match fitness.

“Shubman Gill isn’t coming into the side, he was already there. He was injured in the last match. It’s not the case that he’s new to the team. Because of the injury, he didn’t play the last match. He had an issue with his neck.

“Given how he performed against Bangladesh, he will come back into the playing XI. The rest of the team will be decided tomorrow (Thursday morning before toss),” he said.

Gambhir underlined his coaching philosophy of putting more emphasis on wins even against all odds, as India staged a remarkable fightback in Bengaluru.

“This is why we call cricket and sports as big levellers. If you enjoyed such days as we did in Kanpur, then you will have to accept such days as we did in Bangalore,” he said.

“But the good thing was that despite being all out for 46, we were still looking to win the Test that was important. This is the way we want to play cricket. I have said before (also) that our first option will always be to win and the second option will be to draw.”

“There was no such intention in the second innings that we were looking to play out the next two-and-a-half days. We were thinking about how to make the match out of it and if you ask me, we were probably 100 runs away,” he added.

Gambhir said India showed the intent with which they want to play Test cricket in the opening match.

“I don’t think there will be many teams who will be thinking like this even after being shot out for 46, when you have to bat more than two-and-a-half days but this is the quality (we have) and this is the kind of cricket we want to play in the future,” he said.

Gambhir said batting to save a Test is not likely anymore since T20 cricket has made batters more aggressive.

“To a certain extent, it’s good because when I batted in Napier, the T20 format was just introduced,” said India’s 2007 T20 World Cup winner.

“Now, with so much of T20 cricket around, you expect players to be more aggressive. The game has changed and we have to accept that as well. We will need a lot of temperament and a lot of mental toughness to bat for two or two-and-a-half days.

“But again, if the decision of the leadership group or the team management is to just go there and still try to win the game, that is very important.”

“Had we decided to bat two-and-a-half days, the guys would have batted much differently. But the intention was always to make the game out of it, irrespective of where we are (and) how much behind we are in the game,” he added.