So much noise over Tuchel appointment

Mark Hearle discusses all the noise surrounding the appointment of Thomas Tuchel as England manager in his latest weekly column.I found all of the noise relating to Thomas Tuchel’s appointment as England’s head coach a few weeks ago strange.I’ve been trying to remember if something similar occurred when the late Sven-Goran Eriksson took on the job back in 2001 or Fabio Capello was handed the role in 2007, and I don’t think it did.While I do understand Gary Neville’s and others’ viewpoints that the national side should, in their view, be managed by an Englishman, surely any potential candidate should be appointed based on their achievements as opposed to nationality.The German is an outstanding tactical coach who has managed the likes of Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Bayern Munich in a managerial career spanning eight years after he was forced to retire from playing football at the age of 25 due to injury.As I’ve said before I’m sure the Football Association’s preferred choices to succeed Gareth Southgate were Pep Guardiola, who at present is keeping his plans at Manchester City a closely guarded secret or Jurgen Klopp who has recently taken a role within the Red Bull organisation overseeing the development of their club’s around the world. When it became clear that caretaker boss Lee Carsley was not the man for the job the association acted quickly to get their man with Tuchel being mentioned in dispatches for possibly becoming head coach at Manchester United and, for what it’s worth, I feel it’s a positive appointment. The romantic theory of an English manager raising a trophy above his head is all well and good but at present, you do have to ask what English-born manager who is available has the background to take on one of the most difficult jobs in football all over the world?The only one I feel who fits the bill is Eddie Howe at Newcastle who continually gives the impression that he is very happy to continue in his role at St James Park, where the aim is to bring the glory days back to the North East.Graham Potter is a name that has done the rounds for a good while now every time a role of note comes up but he has now been away from the game for a while since he was relieved of his duties at Chelsea in 2023 and hasn’t held a position since. Potter though remains someone who I feel needs more experience in domestic English management having only begun his coaching career at Swansea in 2018 having managed in Sweden for seven seasons before that.In the perfect world, Southgate would have won a major tournament during his tenure in the hot seat. Had he done so I strongly believe he would still be in situ now and there would have been no need to have replaced him.Tuchel, I feel, will get the best from the very talented squad of players he has at his disposal. Truthfully Southgate never really did that and his ‘ steady as we go’ attitude is probably the main reason the country is still looking for its first major trophy since 1966.Whilst on the subject of managers I noted that former Lynn boss Ian Culverhouse parted company with Boston United on Monday afternoon following a difficult start to life for the Pilgrims in the National League this season.Boston went up via the playoffs in May from the National League North and, despite some decent-looking signings and an increase in training, the club found themselves in 23rd position in the league table and five points from safety having played 16 games.The Lincolnshire club’s current predicament mirrors the Linnets when they tasted top-flight non-league football a few seasons ago which saw them gain a reprieve via Covid for one season and relegated the following under Tommy Widdrington after Culverhouse was relieved of his duties shortly after signing a new contract. There should be no doubt about the size of that step between the feeder and the main division of the National League system where more often than not the ‘ new boys’ face a huge challenge to survive the intensity of a league which is regarded as the stepping stone to the full football league.The Pilgrims have made the change with plenty of games to be played and many points to be won.I know that many Lynn fans will hope the Lincolnshire/Norfolk rivalry can be renewed next season, hopefully in the full National League.For that to happen both sets of supporters will have enjoyed remarkable seasons to do so.League struggles are far from Lynn’s supporters’ minds at present as they continue to put themselves right in the mix at the top of the National League North table. Just like last term, a hugely exciting scrap looks to be on the cards for both automatic and play-off places, the only difference this time around being Town’s involvement at the right end of the table.At present a mere handful of points separate eight or so sides with positions changing every week.As for the Linnets, they were disappointed that they were unable to take maximum points from Leamington’s Walks’ visit last weekend in a game where they did everything right apart from scoring in what turned out to be an entertaining, but frustrating, 0-0 draw.The club’s busy spell was due to continue on Tuesday night night with a near 400-mile round trip to the North East to face Spennymoor before heading this coming weekend to the North West to face high-flyers Chorley, who ironically beat Spennymoor on Saturday.