POV: England’s Smile Has Long Gone (Alex Crook)

In our DAILY column POV – Star Sports ambassador ALEX CROOK on Thomas Tuchel’s ominously poor start to life as England manager…

It is exactly a year today until the World Cup kicks off, with England still regarded as one of the favourites to end a trophy drought stretching back to 1966.

That is despite an insipid performance in Saturday’s World Cup qualifying ‘win’ over Andorr,a followed up by a first ever defeat at the hands of African opposition in Senegal.

When Thomas Tuchel was appointed to succeed Sir Gareth Southgate he promised to bring a smile back to England’s players’ faces.

But those in white shirts bore scowls and grimaces as the full-time whistle at the City Ground on a Tuesday was met by a petulant Jude Bellingham kicking a water box in frustration.

Tuchel seems to have taken England backwards and not forwards in his four games in charge, with some baffling team selections including recalling a Kyle Walker discarded by AC Milan after a disastrous loan spell and picking Ivan Toney blind and leaving him visibly fuming on the bench until the final few minutes of the Senegal debacle.

Recalling Jordan Henderson and ignoring the claims of Adam Wharton is also baffling in my mind.

No wonder Tuchel was subjected to boos and chants for his predecessor from a furious Three Lions faithful.

For me, the rot set in long before Tuchel’s appointment, and there is an argument to be made that England, despite limping to the final of the Euros last year, have been in decline since their World Cup quarter-final exit at the hands of France back in 2022.

The sense of self-entitlement and egos that Gareth Southgate had done so well to stamp out of the dressing room has slowly crept back in and was in evidence during my travels in Germany last summer.

England’s players have regressed to looking like they have the weight of the world on their shoulders when they pull on the white jersey, and there is once again a disconnect between fans and players.

A year is a long time in football, but the chances of glory in North America next summer look a long way off the horizon.

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