Alan Shearer

Alan Shearer Exclusive: Winning the 2026 World Cup is Tuchel's simple England remit

Betfair ambassador Alan Shearer
Alan Shearer offers his exclusive thoughts on Thomas Tuchel becoming the next England manager

Betfair Ambassador Alan Shearer offers his exclusive thoughts as former Bayern Munich, PSG and Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel agrees to become next England manager.

  • Thomas Tuchel agrees to become to the next England manager

  • Eddie Howe was not spoken to, says Shearer

  • Contract length suggests Tuchel is in to win the 2026 World cup

  • Foreign manager doesn't guarantee success


FA may have acted quickly to make sure they get their man before a struggling club did

Thomas Tuchel's appointment as England manager happened really quickly, and this is only a guess, but maybe the FA had to move quickly in fear of losing what they thought was the outstanding candidate available.

A club that isn't doing well might have come in and got him, like Man United, who are really struggling, and their manager is under pressure.

If the FA have exhausted their best options available, such as Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp or Eddie Howe then I have no problem with getting him in.

I'm reliably told they didn't even sound Eddie Howe out, which I find really surprising, young English coaches that are up and coming may think what's the pathway? But if he is the outstanding candidate available then I have no problem with it, as long as they tried other options.

Thomas Tuchel looks up 1280.jpg

Tuchel has been hired to win England the World Cup, but there are no guarantees

Obviously, his remit is one thing, it's an 18-month contract, he's here to win the World Cup. That's it, and the length of contract suggests that.

It's something they haven't done for almost 60 years and England need a trophy, that's what he's been brought in to do.

I would also guess it's going to be a different role to the one that Gareth Southgate had, he oversaw all of the England teams and was responsible for so many other things too. I would guess Tuchel's role is to win England the world cup and that's it.

With this group of players, it looks as though that's what the FA will be saying to him, 'the reason you've been brought in is to win us that trophy'.

I hope he can go one step further, but there's no guarantee, we thought that when they brought in Fabio Capello who had a fabulous CV, we thought that when they brought in Sven-Goran Eriksson who also had a fabulous CV.

Thomas Tuchel has an incredible CV, he's won trophies wherever he has been, he's even won the biggest trophies. He's hugely successful and I really hope he can do that for England, but only time will tell.

The one difference to the other foreign managers England have had is that he's had that experience here, he has managed in England before. He'll be aware of things, and it will be a different pressure to what he's had before, but he's managed superstar players at PSG, at Bayern and at Chelsea and has been successful with them, but the England job is a different pressure.

He's got a great squad to pick from, it's a good conundrum to have in terms of the number of quality players he's got, and some are going to have to be left out but as an individual if you believe you're good enough, then you'll be in th


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